Baby the Rain Must Fall

Baby the Rain Must Fall
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Mulligan
Produced by	Robert Mulligan Alan J. Pakula
Written by	Horton Foote
Starring	Lee Remick Steve McQueen
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	Ernest Laszlo
Editing by	Aaron Stell
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	January 15, 1965 (1965-01-15) (United States)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Baby the Rain Must Fall is a 1965 American drama film starring Lee Remick and Steve McQueen, directed by Robert Mulligan. Dramatist Horton Foote, who wrote the screenplay, based it on his play The Travelling Lady.^[1]

Plot

Georgette Thomas and her six-year-old daughter Margaret Rose travel to a small southern Texas town to meet her irresponsible rockabilly singer/guitarist husband, Henry Thomas, when he is released from prison after serving time for stabbing a man during a drunken brawl.

He tries to make a home for his family, but Kate Dawson, the aging spinster who raised him after his parents died, remains a formidable presence in his life and tries to sabotage his efforts, threatening to have him returned to prison if he fails to acquiesce to her demands. When the woman finally dies, Henry drunkenly destroys her possessions and desecrates her gravesite. He is returned to prison, and Georgette and Margaret Rose leave town with local sheriff Slim.

Cast

• Lee Remick as Georgette Thomas
• Steve McQueen as Henry Thomas
• Don Murray as Deputy Sheriff Slim
• Georgia Simmons as Kate Dawson
• Paul Fix as Judge Ewing
• Josephine Hutchinson as Mrs. Ewing
• Ruth White as Miss Clara
• Charles Watts as Mr. Tillman
• Carol Veazie as Mrs. Tillman
• Estelle Hemsley as Catherine, Miss Kate Dawson's Housekeeper
• Kimberly Block as Margaret Rose Thomas
• Zamah Cunningham as Mrs. T.V. Smith, Old Lady on Bus
• George Dunn as Counterman at Restaurant

Production

The film was shot on location in the Texas cities of Bay City, Columbus, Lockhart, and Wharton.

The title song, with music composed by Elmer Bernstein and lyrics written by Ernie Sheldon, was performed by Glenn Yarbrough during the opening credits. Yarborough's recording reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Critical reception

Bosley Crowther, film critic for the New York Times, observed, "As honest and humble as is the effort to make the viewer sense a woman's baffled love for a shifty and mixed-up fellow in Baby, the Rain Must Fall, there is a major and totally neglected weakness in this film from a Horton Foote play that troubles one's mind throughout the picture and leaves one sadly let-down at the end. It is the failure of the screenwriter--Mr. Foote himself--to clarify why the object of the woman's deep affection is as badly mixed-up as he is and why the woman, who seems a sensible person, doesn't make a single move to straighten him out...Granting that the wife is astonished and distressingly mystified at the neurotic behavior of her husband, this doesn't mean that the viewer is satisfied to be kept in the dark as to the reasons for the stark and macabre goings-on...As it is, we only see that these two people are frustrated and heart-broken by something that's bigger than the both of them. But we don't know what it is." ^[2]

The staff at Variety said the film's chief assets were "outstanding performances by its stars and an emotional punch that lingers...Other cast members are adequate, but roles suffer from editorial cuts (confirmed by director) that leave sub-plots dangling." ^[3]

References

As a side note, in one scene where McQueen sings at a bar with his rockabilly band, one of his bandmates is singer-song writer Glen Campbell, who is uncredited in the film.

External links

• Baby the Rain Must Fall at the Internet Movie Database
• Baby the Rain Must Fall at the TCM Movie Database
• Baby the Rain Must Fall film trailer at YouTube