Customer Reviews

The Rains Came

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Grandiose, lavish, entertaining, beautifully filmed, blockbuster, exotic-adventure movie, set in Ranchipur, India, based upon Louis Bromfield's novel, directed by MGM's first class director, Clarence Brown, on loan out to 20th Century Fox, with a great cast: dashing, young, heartthrob Tyrone Power (Major Rama Safti), in the role of an Indian doctor, who falls for aristocratic Englishwoman-with-a-tempestuous-past, Myrna Loy (Lady Edwina Esketh), who's married to an arrogant, unpleasant and unbearable Nigel Bruce (Lord Esketh). On the other hand, in Ranchipur lives a man with whom Loy, when very young, had an affair: aristocratic English man-of-the-world (with a very bad reputation), George Brent (Tom Ransome), who at the same time is being pursued by pretty, willful, 18 year old Brenda Joyce (Fern Simon), an American girl who lives in a Mission and wants to get out of her parents' home, whose social climbing and very snob mother, Marjorie Rambeau (Mrs. Simon) encourages the affair, because she longs to "rub shoulders" with the upper classes.

Others in this noteworthy long cast: Maria Ouspensakaya, who is stunningly great as the Maharani, H.B. Warner, as his husband the Maharajah, Ranchipur's Ruler, Joseph Schildkraut, as an "occidentalized" Indian, Mr. Bannerjee, Jane Darwell (who the same year acted in GWTW), as "Aunt" Phoebe Smiley, a down-to-earth American woman who lives in the Mission, Henry Travers (the future "angel" of Capra's 1946 "It's a Wonderful Life") as her husband Mr. Smiley, Mary Nash (famous for her nasty roles opposite Shirley Temple in both, "Heidi" (1937) and "The Little Princess" (1939)), as the rather jealous Miss Mc Daid, Power's nurse assistant, who I perceived as helplessly in love with him, and Laura Hope Crews (who the same year was the very funny Aunt Pittypat in GWTW), in a small role, as an aristocratic English Lady.

In all a very good picture with great special effects, featuring lots of rain, a big earthquake and a flood, in the same vein of other famous disaster films of the era, like: "San Francisco" (1936), "The Hurricane" (1937), "The Good Earth" (1937), and "In Old Chicago" (1938).

Remade in 1955, by Jean Negulesco, as "The Rains of Ranchipur", with Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Fred Mac Murray and Michael Rennie.

I don't know why this movie got the bad reviews. It wasn't all that bad. The remake was better but the story line was changed some to make it better. It should be watched at least once.

It should not have gotten a one star review

This was a BORING movie. I can't really say anything else, except it was putting me to sleep. The main characters were never developed. None of them were really interesting to me anyway. If a movie doesn't make me care about the characters and their lives, then the movie is just a waste of time for me. I didn't care about these people or why they were in India. It would have been much nicer if the flood had just swept all these boring people away and swept the soundstage clean to set up for making a more interesting movie. If you like Myrna Loy, who was in this, I recommend you skip this and see her in "The Best Years of Our Lives".

Alfred Hitchcock once said, "Drama is life with all the dull bits taken out." I believe that is true, and because I think that, I have to say that there is no way this could ever truly be classified as "drama". Somebody opted to do just the opposite and leave all the dull bits IN. I wonder what you would call that.

I give this three stars only because Tyrone Power did look pretty groovy in the Indian outfits, and the "cute little moustache and the big dark eyes" added to the effect. Otherwise I would have taken off two stars and given it one because I couldn't give it less.

One thing that was interesting was how George Brent really reminded me of Rhett Butler, meaning that he could have taken Clark Gable's role and been equally effective. Something about him in this movie. Don't know what exactly... because I've seen him in other movies and he never struck me as a Rhett possibility.

Myrna Loy did so many better roles... in The Best Years of Our Lives, The Bachelor and the Bobby-soxer, and even Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House was made tolerable because her role was the best one. Here she wasn't anything much.

None of the characters were very well-developed and I would have liked to have seen more Henry Travers. Oh well. All I can say is... maybe you'll like this movie more than I did. I just can't recommend it very highly somehow...

"The Rains Came" really is a stupendous effort by Twentieth Century Fox and is a film to be proud of as far as sets, design, writing, effects,, and costumning are concerned. It has always been one of my favourite Tyrone Power films and it contains the one and only screen collaboration of Tyrone Power and Myrna Loy.

I think in every department the film is stunning. The entire Indian city built on the Fox back lot (no [bad] computer generated special effects here!!!) is amazing and the stunning effects of the earthquake and flood quite rightly won the 1939 Academy Award for best special effects (no mean effort that year considering the number of classic turned out that year!!)
The performances are also of great interest. Unlike past reviewers I think they are excellent. Myrna Loy putting aside her perfect wife persona gives a great performance as the spoilt socialite bored with life in general who falls head over heels for tyrone Power's Indian doctor. Nigel Bruce as Myrna's husband is the real surprise of the film performing totally against type as a character who is arrogant, selfish and down right vicious who in the end gets his just desserts. George Brent normally so stiff on screen also delivers a strong heart felt performance which shows what he was capable of given good direction and a good story to work with. Finally there has been much talk of Tyrone Power playing an Indian doctor in the story. Frankly I think he is perfect in the role and not only looks stunning but is spot on in his characterisation of the young dedicated doctor torn between his duty and his growing love for Loy.
A grand time is assured watching this great classic and I find I get something new from it with each screening. It's a great example of what Hollwood was capable of at its peek, enjoy!!

Tyrone Power is an Indian noble--we know this because he wears a turban. Of course, he is also a doctor, appropriately enough a noble profession. Myrna Loy is a bored American socialite trapped in a loveless marriage, who first was after equally jaded old flame George Brent, but now is trading up to the idealisticTyrone. What sets it all in motion? Rain, and plenty of it. It's the rainy season in Ranchipur, but this kind of goes beyond that into catastrophic flood. The special effects are just stupendous as the whole soundstage washes away over and over again. Then the survivors have to deal with an outbreak of typhus--or is it cholera? Well, something that comes from unsanitary conditions affecting the drinking water. Let the rains wash all over you tonight--check out "The Rains Came."

The Rains Came is a romance set in Ranchipur during monsoon season. Myrna Loy is the former lover of George Brent. She falls in love with Tyrone Power who plays an Indian doctor. Myrna Loy is superb. Her performance as a vamp trying to mend her ways is one of her best. George Brent is not the stiff board he is in other movies. He's quite good. Tyrone Power is simply breathtaking. The man is beautiful to look at. The special effects are marevlous. The story is interesting, and it maintains your interest. It's a triumph!

The Rains Came is an early example of the disaster films popular in the 70s, and unfortunately, like those films, this movie is long on special effects and short on story. Myrna Loy plays a woman with a "bad" past who falls in love with an Indian doctor played by Tyrone Power. George Brent stars as one of Loy's former boyfriends, who has romantic problems with a young girl (Brenda Joyce) who basically wants to get out of her parents' home. In the midst of all this, an earthquake hits Ranchipur and causes a spectacular flood, perhaps the only really interesting thing that happens in the film. Loy and Brent look bored and give bland performances. Power manages to deliver a performance that has more life in it. The special effects are good during the flood, although it appears that they simply shook the camera to get the earthquake effect! The story is trite and the movie is poorly paced. This was a real disappointment to me.

The Rains Came is an early disaster film, and I watched it to see how the disaster scenes would be filmed. The movie was made in 1939, and the special effects are quite good, especially as the earthquake and subsequent flood tear through Ranchipur. Unfortunately, the story built around the disaster is pretty shaky itself. Myrna Loy plays a "bad" woman who falls in love with a Hindu surgeon (Tyrone Power!). George Brent is along for the swim as Loy's former boyfriend, a charming (?) man that is having romantic difficulties himself with an eighteen year old (Brenda Joyce) who wants to get away from her parents. In the middle of these entanglements comes an earthquake that triggers a huge flood, all of which leads to death and disease. Neither Loy or Brent is able to inject much life into their characters, although Power actually pulls off a pretty good performance in a most unlikely role. The supporting cast has a lot of the old character actors in it, including Jane Darwell, Nigel Bruce, Henry Travers, and the always dramatic Maria Ouspenskaya. It's an interesting look at the culture, but better writing and casting would have made a more memorable film.

A complex love story periled against the wrath of Mother Nature makes this one of the better films I've seen. The earthquake and dam-busting scenes are superb and frighteningly realistic, echoing images of disaster from another film of similar ideas, "The Hurricane" (1937) (read my review of that as well). The cast is great but some of the dialogue sounds totally devoid of any creativity or could even be humanly natural. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards and winning the Oscar for Best Special Effects. A must for disaster, love story, Myrna Loy, and Tyrone Power fans.