Raintree County (1957)

A student falls in love with a Southern belle, but their relationship is complicated by her troubled past and the onset of the Civil War.

Director:

Edward Dmytryk

Writers:

Millard Kaufman (screenplay), Ross Lockridge Jr. (novel)

Stars:

Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Montgomery Clift	...	John Wickliff Shawnessy
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Susanna Drake Shawnessy
Eva Marie Saint	...	Nell Gaither
Nigel Patrick	...	Professor Jerusalem Webster Stiles
Lee Marvin	...	Orville 'Flash' Perkins
Rod Taylor	...	Garwood B. Jones
Agnes Moorehead	...	Ellen Shawnessy
Walter Abel	...	T.D. Shawnessy
Jarma Lewis	...	Barbara Drake
Tom Drake	...	Bobby Drake
Rhys Williams	...	Ezra Gray
Russell Collins	...	Niles Foster
DeForest Kelley	...	Southern Officer

Storyline

It's the mid-nineteenth century in Freehaven, Raintree County, Indiana. John Shawnessy has just graduated from high school at the top of his class, with a promising career as a writer. He is a romantic, principled, and an idealist, believing the story of the golden raintree - after which the county is named - growing somewhere, most likely in the county's swamp area, searching for and locating it which would provide all the answers to one's life questions. An idea passed down from his father, John also has a strong sense of place as belonging, and as such there is much anticipation in the probable marriage between John and his sweetheart Nell Gaither, a born and bred Raintree girl. However, there is an undeniable mutual attraction on first sight between John and Susanna Drake, a visiting southern belle. Despite Susanna's temporary stay in Raintree County which means that she and John may not have a future, they eventually do marry out of circumstance, leaving behind a heartbroken Nell...

---

Plot Keywords:

southern belle | american civil war | melodrama | based on novel | two word title | 

---

Taglines:

M-G-M's Mighty Motion Picture Spectacle!

---

Genres:

Drama | Romance | War | Western

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 December 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

El árbol de la vida

Filming Locations:

Danville, Kentucky, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$5,830,000, 31 December 1957

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$9,080,000, 31 December 1957

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

168 min (original) 188 min (Turner Library Print)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) Mono (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This has never been available to purchase on DVD, Blu-Ray, or digital, despite its frequent availability on VHS in the past. It was the first of just 2 movies, Ben-Hur (1959) is the other, filmed in the wide-screen process, MGM Camera 65, and the restoration of the remaining elements has always been considered to be prohibitively expensive.

---

Goofs

After Lincoln's 1860 election, the crowd sings "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". However, Julia Ward Howe wrote the poem, on which the song was based, for the Atlantic Monthly in 1861.

---

Quotes

Susanna Drake: Cousin Sam, John doesn't like slavery.
Cousin Sam: Does John like the "wage slavery" of the North?

---

Alternate Versions

The longer Roadshow version was released on VHS by Warner, where it was labeled as Reconstructed Original Version. It has also been shown on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. This version contains nearly 15 minutes of additional material not found on the General Release Version.

---

Connections

Featured in Hollywood Remembers Lee Marvin (2000)

---

Soundtracks

The Battle Hymn of The Republic
(uncredited)
Music by William Steffe and lyrics by Julia Ward Howe
(written on 18-11-1861)

User Reviews

Hated it!

This is one bad movie and a waste of some great talent. The characters are totally unsympathetic. The story is dreary and plodding and plays like a soap opera whose characters we don't care about. After two hours of hoping it would get better I gave up. Life is too short to sit through junk. If you like Elizabeth Taylor or Montgomery Clift or Lee Marvin see anything else that they've done-it's bound to be better! Many `B' movies are more interesting and engrossing than this. There's only one reason to see this and that's to see what Liz would have looked like if she could have played Scarlett in Gone With the Wind. But that's still no excuse to waste three hours.