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:

The first movie to win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. The category was called Best Effects, Special Effects and included both sound and photographic winners for Edmund H. Hansen and Fred Sersen respectively.

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:

Major Rama Safti: [translating Hindu song] "Would my lyre were of jade, its strings of pure-spun gold, that I might sing with merit of your beauty... in your heart my love has found a home, and it can never die..."

Movie Connections:

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

Soundtrack:

Hindoo Song of Love

Soggy story gets a lift from the special effects...

It's rather ironic that GEORGE BRENT manages to be the liveliest actor in the cast of THE RAINS CAME, as a dissolute man who changes his ways thanks to an earthquake and flood that destroys the fictional Ranchipur in Louis Bromfield's tale of India in 1938. Not much can be said for TYRONE POWER, who has a smaller role as a turbaned Indian doctor and MYRNA LOY as a bored socialite whose husband (NIGEL BRUCE) keeps a list of her infidelities. Loy takes one look at Power and decides he's going to be the love of her life.

BRENDA JOYCE, in her film debut, is featured in a sub-plot involving a romance with Brent. It's a poorly developed role and she was probably fortunate that she later found more pleasant roles in several Tarzan films as a replacement for Maureen O'Sullivan in the role of Jane. She's clearly an ingénue here. Brent gets most of the footage and he's good, more relaxed and likable than usual under Clarence Brown's direction.

The supporting players have little to do before the rains arrive but help set up the plot which is then bogged down in two separate romances. As the socialite, Loy is not the glamorous creature that Lana Turner played in the remake and has to contend with some unflattering photography away from her home studio, MGM.

What really makes the film memorable are the astonishing special effects which rightfully earned an Oscar for the strikingly realistic floods, heavy rains and quakes.

Summing up: Worth watching for the special effects alone, but don't expect too much from the sappy story.