It Looks Like Rain (1945)

A survey of the tools and methods used to forecast the weather. The importance of correct forcasts to farmers is emphasized.

Director:

Paul Burnford

Writers:

Dorothy Baldwin (story), Robert Russell (story),

Stars:

John Nesbitt

Cast

Cast overview:
John Nesbitt	...	Narrator / Radio Announcer

Storyline

While most urbanites lament whenever it rains, precipitation can be a vital aspect of the livelihood of many a person - such as farmers and skiers - and as such it is important to be able to forecast the weather. Man has created many instruments to measure what is happening, what has happened and what is forecast to happen in terms of the weather. The data collected from the several regional weather outposts are sent to a central location for tabulation and forecasting. Dissemination of these forecasts is vital, especially in the prediction of extreme weather situations.

---

Plot Keywords:

weather forecasting | john nesbitt's passing parade | narration

---

Genres:

Short

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 March 1945 (USA)

Also Known As:

It Always Stops Raining

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

10 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Follows Storm (1943)

User Reviews

Decent Short

It Looks Like Rain (1945)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Interesting (51st) entry in John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series takes a look at how the weather is predicted and what impact this has on farmers. The history side of this short talks about the early days when the only thing people had to warn against bad weather was prayer. It then flashes forward to present times where we see how meteorologist are able to track storms and where they're going to hit. We then see how farmers must listen for this warnings in order to protect their harvest. This entry has a few good moments but in the end I felt we really didn't learn too much even though the film takes a lot of time to try and teach us things. The only interesting aspect of the film was seeing how the weather reports were written out back in the day before computers like we have today. Seeing the old method was at least interesting but I wish the film would have focused more on this aspect instead of the second half drama. The second part of the film shows the farmers sticking together to lay down sand bags. Nothing too original or interesting there. As usual, Nesbitt's narration is top-notch but in the end there's just not enough here to make it one of the better entries from the series.