The Rainmaker

source: The Rainmaker

Trailer—The Rainmaker

The Rainmaker

What can I say, it was a great movie. Katharine Hepburn is excellent as Lizzy Curry and Burt Lancaster in one of his best performances ever. Hepburn deserved her Oscar nomination but Lancaster should have been nominated as well. You have to admit he was not playing his ordinary tough character. He brought some laughs to the movie as Starbuck. The supporting cast including Lloyd Bridges and Wendell Corey was great and Alex North's music is great as it usually is. This is an underrated movie and is definately worth your time watching. You should see this movie if you haven't already. It's pretty hard to find of Video and it is not yet available on DVD and it should and if you do get this movie, don't get it confused with John Grisham's version.

I generally LIKE watching Burt Lancaster's films--especially when he is needed to go nuts with his imposing screen presence like in Elmer Gantry. However, his greatest strength, his magnetism, was occasionally also his greatest weakness as he rarely, if ever, underplayed ANYTHING. And it is this lack of subtlety that really hinders The Rainmaker. Now I understand that his character was meant to be a sort of showman but how Katherine Hepburn could fall under his spell is completely inexplicable. She is supposed to be smart but doesn't seem so when Lancaster's blarney is being thrown about the screen! In addition to this, the story is perhaps one of the most stagy looking films I have ever seen and it is way too obvious that this is a movie based on a play. It just looks like it was mostly filmed in a sound stage instead of in the great wide open West like it was supposed to be. Overall, a very overrated film.

The Rainmaker is dated and at times the dialogue's woeful, but is both amusing and enchanting as well. Hepburn, Lancaster and Bridges excellent, possibly Lancaster's greatest role. Earl Holliman as Jim is just awful though. Pop played by Cameron Prud'Homme ranges from awful in moments like Jim, to memorably stellar. I particularly like his response to Liz questioning his sanity in going along with it. He says if he's going to believe, he's not gonna go half way, he's not gonna be afraid to make a fool of himself. Which in turn fills Starbuck with glee.

I'll say it like it is. This is a classic. Nash's play comes to live on the silver screen with veteran actors Cameron Prud'homme, Wallace Ford, Katie Hepburn and Earl Holliman. Wendell Corey, who few of us remember beyond his breaking a Ming Vase in Mildred Pierce, is great as the stiff deputy. Sweet little Yvonne Lime is on but for a few moments but the cast is great and the story comes together just wonderfully. The commenter who was bothered by Katie's New England English and the implausibility of the storyline needed to let go of such a rigid standard. Nothing is ever perfect. Lancaster is great as the fast-talking Starbuck and one can see flashes of his former role as the Italian buffoon in The Rose Tattoo and what will come in the later Elmer Gantry. This is a wonderful story and sensitively done by a fine cast. Check it out. It is a classic.

Lizzie Curry (Katharine Hepburn) is a spinster taking care of her father HC and her two brothers (Lloyd Bridges, Earl Holliman). Deputy Sheriff File is a widower and holds a secret crush for Lizzie. The town is suffering from a drought, and everybody is desperate for water including the Currys. Then comes Bill Starbuck (Burt Lancaster) who claims to be a Rainmaker. Is he a huckster or is he real? More importantly, he could bring Lizzie out of her rut. Katharine is acting too big, but I guess it's the style of the era. Burt is masterful as the big showman. He has the big personality to pull it off. However his motivations are too unclear for the audience to root for fully. When you add Lloyd Bridges, there are truly big star power at work. And they can paper over any minor imperfections.

The skeptical reviewers miss the point. In fact, they take the position of Lizzie herself before she begins to believe in herself. That some of this movie appears hokey, over-the-top and unbelievable is perfect. It requires the same leap of faith for the movie viewer as the characters must take in the story. The script for this movie is brilliantly written and as timely today as it ever was. The casting and acting are wonderful. This movie makes a very valuable point: It's not a con when you help someone believe in herself. You do something wonderful when you help another find hope, faith and love.

Sturdy film adaptation of a well-received stage drama. Burt Lancaster is perfectly suited to theatrical role of a con-man out West who befriends a folksy family and convinces them he can make it rain on their drought-ridden land. N. Richard Nash's play becomes hearty vehicle for a hand-picked cast, with Lancaster mercurial as ever and Katharine Hepburn appealing as a sweet spinster who could use the rain--and then some! A bit encumbered and awkward at the beginning, though this is compensated for by the handsome production and sterling players (including Wallace Ford, Wendell Corey and Lloyd Bridges). Material later transformed into the 1963 Broadway musical, "110 in the Shade". **1/2 from ****