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...

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Plot Keywords:

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

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Taglines:

In The Great Tradition Of Civil War Romance

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War | Western

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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)

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

The first preview for this film was held January 24, 1957 at the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, the film ran 3 hours and 6 minutes. On March 19, 1957 the New York Times reported that retakes would begin later that month so "that certain dramatic points will be emphasized by re-shooting in close-up and that extra footage will be added to achieve smoother transitions in the sprawling drama." When the film was ready for release two options were offered to exhibitors, either the 168 minute version as a two screenings a day feature or a continuous performance version that ran 151 minutes.

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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.

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Quotes

T.D. Shawnessy: [to Flash, who is drinking beer in public] Flash Perkins, don't you know that your body is the temple of the spirit, and you defile and pollute it with that Devil's brew you have there?
Orville 'Flash' Perkins: [Nonchalantly] Why, if you say so, pappy...
T.D. Shawnessy: Why don't you come 'round to our next temperance rally. Come 'round and take the Total Abstinence Pledge.
Orville 'Flash' Perkins: Why, pappy, I'll take that pledge right now.
T.D. Shawnessy: Orville, we want men to take that pledge only when they're sober.
Orville 'Flash' Perkins: But if they're sober, what's the point in havin' them ...
[...]

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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.

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Connections

Edited from Gone with the Wind (1939)

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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

Susanna Drake is among Taylor's most colorful and intelligent characterizations…

Liz is a disturbed New Orleans belle with a vision that she's part black… She's the beautiful femme fatale to Eva Marie Saint's inevitable cowardly heroine… As in "A Place in the Sun," Liz is used as the symbol of a particular social class and a particular kind of woman… She sets her mark on an idealistic young man John Wickliff Shawnessy (Montgomery Clift) who's looking for the mythical rain tree that contains the secret of the meaning of life…

Trapping him into marriage with the lie that she's pregnant, and then proceeding to lose her hold on her sanity, Susanna detains the good and helpless John for eight years… He is released, able to return to his magnificent dream and to his pure childhood sweetheart, only after tragic events…

Retaining the essence of Ross Lockridge, Jr. best-seller, the movie states the equality of the unhappy romance with the Civil War: the personal drama is therefore a reflection of the nation's wounds… According to the top-heavy symbolism, Susanna Drake represents the South, corrupting and dragging down the North; she's the Body contaminating the poet's Soul…

Taylor plays Susanna Drake's character with an intensity that exceeds all her earlier work… Montgomery Clift as the unlucky poet and Eva Marie Saint as his high school sweetheart and true love are on the remote side, but the scenes with Liz strike fire in a wonderfully brilliant way…

With its battles and its formal balls, its magnificent riverboats and decayed mansions, its bordellos and madhouses, its childbirth and deathbed scenes, and its evacuation of Atlanta, Edward Dmytryk's "Raintree County," like its source, has undeniable epic dimension…