The Rains Came

There was quite a lot to want to see 'The Rains Came'. Beautiful source material, with Louis Bromfield's source material being a great read. Clarence Brown as director, while he was not a consistent director and not all his films were great or even good at his best he was great. The cast is a very talented one, George Brent has always been one of those take or leave actors for me but Tyrone Power did prove more than once that with the right material he could act and Myrna Loy is always watchable.

While not a great film, and one of those films that may be easy to criticise for some, 'The Rains Came' to me was actually not bad at all and has a lot to recommend. Quite the opposite of bad really in my view, it is easy to see why some may not and do not like 'The Rains Came' but it is just as easy to see why others may like and do like it. It is easy perhaps to see why it is overlooked, considering that it was released in such an iconic year in film history.

It is by no means a perfect film. The story is not always involving, with the Brenda Joyce subplot and role being underdeveloped, at times tedious and at times silly and there are scenes that veer on the overwrought.

A lot of the dialogue is very soapy and talk-heavy and could have gone into a lot more depth and had more nuance. Personally found Power miscast, have made it clear many times about having nothing against him but he looks out of place, is rather bland and a few of his later scenes are overacted.

However, Brent to me was just great and gives one of his best performances. Was not expecting him to be this noble or commanding, things he not always was and he is a good deal more relaxed than usual. Loy is class and sensuality personified, nothing melodramatic or sickly sweet here which were things considering the role she could have been. Her chemistry with Power fares a lot better and is the far more interesting of the subplots. Nigel Bruce has a ball as an unusually repellent character, never did he have a character this loathsome and he relishes it. Maria Ouspenskaya has a brave character worth identifying with and she brings scene stealing dignity to it. Most of the cast are very good actually, only Power to me didn't work.

Clarence Brown's direction didn't bowl me over but enough of it is sensitive and forceful. Alfred Newman's score is beautiful and stirring. 'The Rains Came' is a great looking film, with exotic scenery and quite stunning photography at its best. The best thing about the film is the special effects, which are still astonishing today and unlike anything seen in any film at this point in film history. Flood special effects have possibly never been equalled.

Overall, worth the look but didn't quite come together for me. 6/10

Made the year of the really great movies of the Golden Years of Hollywood, "The Rains Came" was a quite remarkable achievement in 1939 - the photography and Special Effects (Flood and Earthquake) were extremely well done, and stand up quite well today. It was made in an era where Stars were the keys to a movie's success, and Fox brought together some big names for this Blockbuster. Heading the Cast is Tyrone Power as Major Safti, and he is perfect for the role, while Myrna Loy as Lady Esketh is well cast. George Brent had his best role ever, and the supporting cast included such gems as Maria Ouspenskaya, Nigel Bruce, Jane Darwell, Henry Travers and Joseph Shildkraut and believe me , these people do so much in adding to the quality of this film. The difference between Indian and Western cultures during the period of the Raj was well captured, and altogether moves along at a good pace, and makes for excellent entertainment.

This movie has, for its time, amazing special effects for the flood scene. To let you know HOW amazing the effects were, in this category, THE RAINS CAME beat out GONE WITH THE WIND and its amazing burning of Atlanta! It was THAT good and worth seeing just for this segment. As for the rest of the story, it's okay--not great. It reminds me a lot of the movie JEZEBEL--completed just a year earlier. Both feature a female lead who is spoiled but who eventually prove themselves and both end up with similar fates. George Brent is excellent though it's odd to see Tyrone Power in the role of an Indian--with no trace of an Indian accent! Mr. Power does NOT do a whole lot to impress the audience with his acting range, but he looks nice in a suit. All in all, the story seems a tad familiar and pretty ordinary, but certainly not bad.

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!

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.