SYNOPSIS: English socialite falls for young, handsome Indian doctor. Setting: Ranchipur. Time: 1936.
NOTES: Winner of the inaugural Academy Award for Best Special Effects (defeating a solid line-up including Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Only Angels Have Wings and Union Pacific). Also nominated for: Art Direction (won by GWTW); Sound (When Tomorrow Comes), Film Editing (GWTW); and Original Music Score (Wizard of Oz).
One of the top money-making films of 1939-40. Remade in 1955 as The Rains of Ranchipur.
COMMENT: Clarence Brown was borrowed from MGM to direct "The Rains Came". Considering the emasculation Bromfield's novel had suffered in its transfer to scenario form, Brown was an excellent choice. At his best (as here), Brown directs with both pace and polish, drawing winning performances from his players and highlighting the artistry of sets, costumes and photographic effects. Brown's professionalism is so skilled that it is only on a third or fourth viewing one can fully appreciate the smooth dexterity of his style. True, Brown has occasionally used a floridly flowing camera to good effect (The Eagle, Anna Karenina), but here his dollying and tracking work is less obtrusive. The essence of his approach is to highlight the characters against the magnificent decors and backgrounds created by the art directors and to allow the spectacle of earthquake, flood, fire and plague to fully engage our sympathy.
Brown is first and foremost a superior craftsman to whom the cinema is primarily an outlet for mass entertainment. As such, he is not highly regarded by auteur theorists who spend their lives searching movies for "significant themes". Often these theorists, having little or no practical knowledge of movie-making, ascribe ideas and recurrent themes to directors who simply found these qualities in the scripts they were assigned. Certainly Brown did not want to be "lent" to 20th Century- Fox for "The Rains Came". He had no interest in the book, the themes or the picture. But once the deal was concluded, he bent every effort to ensure the film was as stylish and visually appealing as possible. In this aim, he has succeeded so admirably it doesn't really matter that Bromfield's civilized, complex narrative has been reduced to a simplistic inter-racial romance.
With the actors too, Brown has excelled. Brent is much less wooden than usual. In fact, he's so pleasantly amenable, it's difficult to believe he's the dissolute character painted by the script. Myrna Loy is equally proficient (and more believably cast) as the world- weary, cynically amorous socialite who wants to get away from it all. This is a most unusual characterization for her in that the part is almost that of an anti-heroine — but she brings it off superbly — making a wonderful contrast with a fresh- faced innocent who wants to get into it all, so zestfully played by Brenda Joyce (her film debut. Regrettably, although she went on to fame as Tarzan's Jane, she never had another role half so captivating). Tyrone Power plays the major with dignity and seemingly effortless ease, although in point of fact he has really nothing much to do. The writers have given the doctor little in the way of color or character shadings. He's probably the most one-dimensional character in the film. We are even spared most of the usual romantic agonizing because his problems are solved by careless chance. Aside from Maria Ouspenskaya (not an actress with whom I am always happy), and Nigel Bruce (chillingly vicious in a rare, unsympathetic part), the character players have mostly only one or two scenes. Among the most memorable are William Edmunds' riotously funny caricature of the music school principal, Laura Hope Crews' true- blue dowager and Jane Darwell's restful Aunt Phoebe. Most of the others also have strong parts and lusty lines which provide constant entertainment.
"The Rains Came" is so lavishly pleasurable that even without its spectacular effects it would be well worth any movie-lover's money. But some of these effects are absolutely mind-boggling. True, the expert will detect a few obvious super-impositions, but the miniature work is most convincing and the sequence in which the walls collapse on Nigel Bruce and his servant (who is reported to have been actually injured in this shot) is overwhelming.
Arthur Miller's cinematography as always makes the film most attractive to view. The players look magnetic and the sets positively dazzle. There are even a couple of inventive effects that masterfully enhance mood and atmosphere like the flashes of lightning outlining trellis-work on a wind-blown curtain. The film editing is as smooth as a well-worn rupee, the music inspired, the sets and costumes . . .
All in all, "The Rains Came" has been so lovingly produced and directed with such crisp authority as to disguise most — if not all — the script's shortcomings. Rabid Bromfield readers will be disappointed but the general movie fan will rightly hail the picture as one of the most elegant entertainments of the year.
OTHER VIEWS: A stunning achievement. Right from the opening credits (which are ingeniously washed away), we have a film so cunningly and immaculately produced, so dynamically played and persuasively directed as to instantly rivet our attention. Purists may cavil at the violence done to Bromfield's novel but few will disagree that the 1939 film is infinitely superior in every aspect of writing, acting, photography and production to the ploddingly garish 1955 remake. You can't replace players like Power, Loy, Brent and Bruce even with the likes of Richard Burton, Lana Turner, Fred MacMurray and Michael Rennie. And as for Joan Caulfield substituting for Brenda Joyce and the incredibly third- rate line-up of 1955 character players, the less said the better. — G.A.
NOTES: Winner of the inaugural Academy Award for Best Special Effects (defeating a solid line-up including Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Only Angels Have Wings and Union Pacific). Also nominated for: Art Direction (won by GWTW); Sound (When Tomorrow Comes), Film Editing (GWTW); and Original Music Score (Wizard of Oz).
One of the top money-making films of 1939-40. Remade in 1955 as The Rains of Ranchipur.
COMMENT: Clarence Brown was borrowed from MGM to direct "The Rains Came". Considering the emasculation Bromfield's novel had suffered in its transfer to scenario form, Brown was an excellent choice. At his best (as here), Brown directs with both pace and polish, drawing winning performances from his players and highlighting the artistry of sets, costumes and photographic effects. Brown's professionalism is so skilled that it is only on a third or fourth viewing one can fully appreciate the smooth dexterity of his style. True, Brown has occasionally used a floridly flowing camera to good effect (The Eagle, Anna Karenina), but here his dollying and tracking work is less obtrusive. The essence of his approach is to highlight the characters against the magnificent decors and backgrounds created by the art directors and to allow the spectacle of earthquake, flood, fire and plague to fully engage our sympathy.
Brown is first and foremost a superior craftsman to whom the cinema is primarily an outlet for mass entertainment. As such, he is not highly regarded by auteur theorists who spend their lives searching movies for "significant themes". Often these theorists, having little or no practical knowledge of movie-making, ascribe ideas and recurrent themes to directors who simply found these qualities in the scripts they were assigned. Certainly Brown did not want to be "lent" to 20th Century- Fox for "The Rains Came". He had no interest in the book, the themes or the picture. But once the deal was concluded, he bent every effort to ensure the film was as stylish and visually appealing as possible. In this aim, he has succeeded so admirably it doesn't really matter that Bromfield's civilized, complex narrative has been reduced to a simplistic inter-racial romance.
With the actors too, Brown has excelled. Brent is much less wooden than usual. In fact, he's so pleasantly amenable, it's difficult to believe he's the dissolute character painted by the script. Myrna Loy is equally proficient (and more believably cast) as the world- weary, cynically amorous socialite who wants to get away from it all. This is a most unusual characterization for her in that the part is almost that of an anti-heroine — but she brings it off superbly — making a wonderful contrast with a fresh- faced innocent who wants to get into it all, so zestfully played by Brenda Joyce (her film debut. Regrettably, although she went on to fame as Tarzan's Jane, she never had another role half so captivating). Tyrone Power plays the major with dignity and seemingly effortless ease, although in point of fact he has really nothing much to do. The writers have given the doctor little in the way of color or character shadings. He's probably the most one-dimensional character in the film. We are even spared most of the usual romantic agonizing because his problems are solved by careless chance. Aside from Maria Ouspenskaya (not an actress with whom I am always happy), and Nigel Bruce (chillingly vicious in a rare, unsympathetic part), the character players have mostly only one or two scenes. Among the most memorable are William Edmunds' riotously funny caricature of the music school principal, Laura Hope Crews' true- blue dowager and Jane Darwell's restful Aunt Phoebe. Most of the others also have strong parts and lusty lines which provide constant entertainment.
"The Rains Came" is so lavishly pleasurable that even without its spectacular effects it would be well worth any movie-lover's money. But some of these effects are absolutely mind-boggling. True, the expert will detect a few obvious super-impositions, but the miniature work is most convincing and the sequence in which the walls collapse on Nigel Bruce and his servant (who is reported to have been actually injured in this shot) is overwhelming.
Arthur Miller's cinematography as always makes the film most attractive to view. The players look magnetic and the sets positively dazzle. There are even a couple of inventive effects that masterfully enhance mood and atmosphere like the flashes of lightning outlining trellis-work on a wind-blown curtain. The film editing is as smooth as a well-worn rupee, the music inspired, the sets and costumes . . .
All in all, "The Rains Came" has been so lovingly produced and directed with such crisp authority as to disguise most — if not all — the script's shortcomings. Rabid Bromfield readers will be disappointed but the general movie fan will rightly hail the picture as one of the most elegant entertainments of the year.
OTHER VIEWS: A stunning achievement. Right from the opening credits (which are ingeniously washed away), we have a film so cunningly and immaculately produced, so dynamically played and persuasively directed as to instantly rivet our attention. Purists may cavil at the violence done to Bromfield's novel but few will disagree that the 1939 film is infinitely superior in every aspect of writing, acting, photography and production to the ploddingly garish 1955 remake. You can't replace players like Power, Loy, Brent and Bruce even with the likes of Richard Burton, Lana Turner, Fred MacMurray and Michael Rennie. And as for Joan Caulfield substituting for Brenda Joyce and the incredibly third- rate line-up of 1955 character players, the less said the better. — G.A.