The Rains Came (1939)

Director:

Clarence Brown

Writers:

Philip Dunne (screenplay) and
Julien Josephson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 September 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Plot:

An Indian aristocrat Rama Safti returns from medical training in the U.S. to give his life to the poor folk of Ranchipur...

Plot Keywords:

India | Plague | Rain | Disaster | Earthquake

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 nominations

Cast

Myrna Loy	...	Lady Edwina Esketh
Tyrone Power	...	Maj. Rama Safti
George Brent	...	Tom Ransome
Brenda Joyce	...	Fern Simon
Nigel Bruce	...	Lord Albert Esketh
Maria Ouspenskaya	...	Maharani
Joseph Schildkraut	...	Mr. Bannerjee
Mary Nash	...	Miss MacDaid
Jane Darwell	...	Aunt Phoebe (Mrs. Smiley)
Marjorie Rambeau	...	Mrs. Simon
Henry Travers	...	Rev. Homer Smiley
H.B. Warner	...	Maharajah
Laura Hope Crews	...	Lily Hoggett-Egburry
William Royle	...	Raschid Ali Khan
C. Montague Shaw	...	Gen. Keith (as Montague Shaw)

Runtime:

103 min | 105 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #5320)

Filming Locations:

Balboa Park, San Diego, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

To create the flood effects, a 50,000-gallon tank of water was built on a studio soundstage.

Goofs:

Continuity: Even though Rama and Lady Edwima are caught in the same thundershower on the same street, when they arrive at Mr. Das' music school, his clothes are wet while hers are amazingly dry. Also's the wet spots on Rama's clothes migrate to different areas from scene to scene as they move from room to room in the school.

Quotes:

Lady Edwina Esketh: I've been hearing dreadful things about you. It seems you've become a shockingly useful citizen.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Boom! Hollywood's Greatest Disaster Movies (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

Hindoo Song of Love

Old-Fashioned Exotic Melodrama with a Smoldering Loy and Special Effects That Still Impress

In the same high-watermark year that saw the burning of Atlanta in "Gone With the Wind" and Dorothy's house spinning perilously in a tornado in "The Wizard of Oz", this little-seen 1939 romantic melodrama won the first Oscar ever awarded to a film for Best Special Effects. Seventy years later, the earthquake-to-flood sequence still holds up impressively, even in the age of CGI programming with a surprisingly seamless combination of models, mattes and huge dump tanks. The artistry of Fox effects whiz Fred Sersen's work is worth slogging through the first fifty minutes of archaic set-up. Directed by MGM veteran Clarence Brown ("The Yearling"), the story would appear to have the makings of a romantic triangle given the three leads, but it actually consists of two contrasting love stories.

Set in colonial India at its most exotic (although filmed entirely on the studio back lot), one thread centers on Tom Ransome, an aging, alcoholic British playboy pursued by Fern Simon, the love-struck daughter of local missionaries. The other is the forbidden romance that develops between Lady Edwina Esketh, the adulterous British wife of a pompous horse breeder and Major Rama Safti, a Hindu doctor devoted to his homeland. The calamitous disaster obviously veers all four off course as they find themselves re-evaluating their feelings for one another until fate steps in and decides for them. The second love story is obviously a metaphor for the diminishing hold Britain had on India in the years prior to Mahatma Gandhi's rise as the leader of the burgeoning republic. However, the May-December romance between Ransome and Fern initially follows a "Lolita"-esque course that offsets the balance of the film. Course correction comes with the unusually well-cast principals.

Usually playing warm-hearted wives both scrappy ("The Thin Man") and noble ("The Best Years of Our Lives"), Myrna Loy surprises with a sexy, assured performance as Lady Edwina. She cuts a diaphanous figure as a voracious temptress and transitions convincingly to a woman desperate for moral redemption. It's a shame Loy had so few opportunities to show this uncensored side of her talent. Ridiculously handsome, Tyrone Power doesn't look remotely Indian even with a turban and constant tan. During the matinée idol phase of his career, he lacked depth and nuance, for example, take note of his embarrassing bad breakdown scene late in the film. However, he is obviously here for eye candy, and Loy's lustful glances are well justified in this regard.

Perhaps because he is not playing opposite the vivid fieriness of constant co-star Bette Davis ("Dark Victory"), the usually bland George Brent is terrifically engaging as Ransome. I have to admit his witty banter with Loy held my interest far more than the concealed passion between her and Power. For better or worse, Brenda Joyce brings a strangely off-kilter dimension to Fran. Several great recognizable character actors fill the supporting parts, a few playing purely Hollywood versions of exotics - Jane Darwell, Henry Travers, H.B. Warner, Marjorie Rambeau, Joseph Schildkraut – though none makes a more vivid impression than Maria Ouspenskaya ("Dodsworth", "Love Affair") as the worldly wise Maharani with her dangling cigarette holder. The print transfer on the 2005 Fox Studios Classic DVD is impressively pristine. There is a chatty commentary track from film aficionados Anthony Slide and Robert S. Birchard, a gallery of stills, and the original theatrical trailer.