The Rains Came

Incredible special effects, a solid story, beautiful directing, and marvelous acting are the highlights of "The Rains Came," another movie from that famous year in film-making, 1939. Its stars are Tyrone Power, Myrna Loy, George Brent, Brenda Joyce, and Maria Ouspenskaya. A bored Loy and her disagreeable wealthy older husband, portrayed by Nigel Bruce, are in Ranchipur, India when the rains and an earthquake hit. Loy, whose husband keeps a list of her lovers, once had a fling with Brent. Then she gets a gander at Power who plays Major Rama Safti, a doctor highly regarded by the rulers of Ranchipur. One look at him, and there's no sense in treading over old territory. Despite Power's apparent lack of interest, Loy falls madly in love with him, even volunteering at the hospital after the disaster.

I was completely captivated by this film, particularly in light of the recent Katrina horror. The flooding, the destroyed homes, demonstrated by brilliant special effects, the orphaned children, the need for volunteers, were all too familiar.

Two love stories go on during the rains - one between Brent and the lovely Fern, portrayed by Brenda Joyce, and the other between Power and Loy. Both romances are unbelievably tender - with very little actual physical contact shown.

Loy gives a compelling performance as a haughty, spoiled woman who is suddenly consumed by love. When I read the book, one thing I remember is that the character just screamed Lana Turner and sure enough, she did the role in the remake. But Loy makes it her own. The studios didn't like their leading men to do accents, so Power, in dark makeup as the "Copper Apollo" so described by Loy, has none. He is handsome as ever until one sees him without his turban. Then, in closeup, he describes to Loy how he came to love her, and his face is beyond breathtaking. His monologue is beautifully done, as is his essaying of the character's conflict of love versus responsibility. This is one of his finest performances, and no camera ever loved an actor like it did Tyrone Power. George Brent, usually not commanding enough, does fine under Brown's direction in his role as a man with no purpose in life who finally finds one. Tiny Maria Ouspenskaya gives a strong performance.

The only thing I didn't like was that Loy had to pay for her sins (i.e., slutty behavior) and of course, Brent did not.

Like the rains of Ranchipur, India, "The Rains Came" will sweep the viewer away. Highly recommended.

I was eight years old when I saw this movie. It was the first movie I remember seeing. My mother says that initially I refused to go into the movie theater because it was a dark, and to me, forbidding place. Once inside, however, I didn't want to leave. I have never seen the movie since, but the images of flooding and sick people under mosquito nets are as vivid to me as if I had seen it yesterday. I also have memories of being put through an emotional wringer by the film, thinking it was "real" and crying at the death and destruction it portrayed. The total effect was to hook me on movies for good and I could hardly wait to get back into that dark, engrossing place.

High gloss drama with first class special effects. In fact the film was the winner of the first Oscar given for special effects. Myrna somewhat surprisingly plays at least in the beginning a selfish slut, a high class slut but a slut nonetheless, redeemed by love and hardship. Tyrone Power although not at all believable as an Indian is capable and sincere and almost supernaturally beautiful. Even the customarily stolid George Brent after some initial stiffness is better and more relaxed than usual. Excellent production values and a first rate supporting cast make this an entertaining winner. Another classy enterprise from that golden year of 1939.

Remade in color, but with a lot of the guts cut out, as the Rains of Ranchipur with Lana Turner and Richard Burton. That version is an okay time filler but this one is superior in every way.

Think of the year - 1939. It was 'THE' year for Hollywood with all the great movies that came out.

But the utmost highest quality of the special effects in this movie had me spellbound. You must watch it and try to absorb the enormity of the effects required while still being pulled into the story line. The actual story showcases the messy relationships and personalities experienced in real life. You see, the really great movies do not need showings of sex, cursing, or intentional violence from man against man. The really great movies are eloquently written and offered without defilement - so different from most of the movies of today.

Enjoy every minute! Myrna Loy - in a dramatic role so different from the Thin Man jovial series!

With aloha ~ KonaRose

The Rains Came (1939)

At first I thought this was a post-war movie, which would make it a post-Independence movie for India from the British. And since the story starts in 1938, the events would seem to lead to that huge turnover, told Hollywood style. That was fine with me.

But no, and even better. Instead we have a pure drama that happens to be set in troubled India. World War II isn't even a fact for the film or the filmmakers, so the colonial feeling is quite sincere, and easy to poke a little fun at. In fact, the movie begins by making clear the snobbery of the British ruling elite, the women who want only the finest friends and the men who want only their frivolous jobs. The natives, the Indians themselves, have only a small presence, and the two Indian leaders are played by non-Indians, as was unfortunately usual for Hollywood at the time.

The drama starts slowly, and even when Myrna Loy finally appears (and she is terrific enough to make an instant difference) the actual story still winds its slow way along. George Brent as the leading man always colors a film because he's easy going and likable to the point of calmness, which can easily become dullness. Still, he's rock steady and I like him. And Tyrone Power, who as the devastating good looks to upend things, is kept in a reserved and steady role, too, playing an Indian doctor with clearly British training. There is a fourth main character, more of a cliché of sorts but important to the story, an overly young blonde and naive girl just over eighteen who wants Brent in every way. And seems by the middle flood scenes to get him where he is best got.

Yes, this is a love melodrama set in steamy, rainy, exotic India. As a drama it's good, though lacking some kind of drive to make it chilling or weepy or whatever might send it over the top. But there are aspects here that are really exceptional. One of them is the stunning job on the earthquake and flood scenes. Special effects being completely physical back then, it's astonishing how realistic it all is. There is some back projection, but no retouching or double exposure that I could see, and no computer graphics of course, just elaborate models and slow motion to fool you about the scale of everything. But beyond the feat of pulling it off is just the aesthetic handling of movement and space as the world crumbles, literally.

The scenes that follow the devastation are in flood stage with continuing rain, and it's pretty good stuff. And of course there's something of a metaphor to it all, the outsiders (mostly British, but some Americans, who of course don't have quite the same classist attitudes) feel just how outside they are. There is always, for them, the possibility to just leave, and a few no doubt do, but mostly people knuckle down and help with the disaster relief. Loy has been bored and spoiled until now, and she helps at the hospital, partly to be with the searing doctor. And Brent ends up helping, too (which we expect--he's a good guy) and his young hanger-on sticks to his side, maturing quickly.

"The English are an odd people," the Indian maharani says, and nothing is more true. There they are, these colonialists, sticking it out through really awful times, helping and and suffering equally. Yes, they have pampered lives compared to the common person there, but it's no picnic, the heat and disease and hardship. Toward the end Brent persuades Power to rise up from his sadness. You were "...born in the darkness and filth that was India. You are India. A new India!" This is a movie about rising up in general, being better, forgetting differences and also forgetting selfishness.

The director Clarence Brown has a handful of really terrific films in his career, and this one shows why--it's subtle and beautiful and also a bit epic in its own way. It's also gorgeously filmed, from the devastation to the smallest intimacies, all under the eye of Arthur Miller, a legend in cinematography already, and with some classics to come as well. Although meant to be filmed without flashy distraction, it's handled with enormous grace and depth. It's classy and classic stuff. And the music is typically dramatic and scored to follow the action by another great, Alfred Newman.

The chilling and beautiful opening titles that melt off each page in a dripping wash give a clue of what is to follow, with an ominousness latent throughout. Then, toward the end, after surviving catastrophe, a simple mistake, and a realization that time is short, and the drama becomes a weepy tragedy. It doesn't get any better than that!