Themes: Crumbling Marriages, Home From the War, Women During Wartime
Main Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick, Lee Marvin
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 175 minutes
Plot
Conceived as a Gone With the Wind for the CinemaScope generation, Raintree County wasn't quite as successful as its role model, but it still proved a moneyspinner for MGM. Elizabeth Taylor stars as a spoiled Southern belle who falls in love with pacifistic Indiana youth Montgomery Clift. Though Clift is engaged to Eva Marie Saint, what Taylor wants, Taylor gets, and she isn't above using the dirtiest of deceptions to win Clift's affections. When the Civil War break out, Clift, a staunch abolitionist, joins the Union, much to the dismay of true-to-Dixie Taylor. While Clift is off fighting the war, Taylor descends into a depression that deepens into insanity. At war's end, Clift tries to come to terms with Taylor's lunacy for the sake of their child. But the strain proves too much for both of them, leading to an operatic climax which curiously segues into a happy ending (happy for some of the characters, anyway). If Montgomery Clift's performance--and appearance--seems to fluctuate wildly throughout the film, it is because he was involved in a serious auto accident during shooting, one that left both physical and emotional scars from which he never completely recovered. The 187-minute Raintree Country (reduced to 168 minutes after its initial roadshow engagements) was adapted by Millard Kaufman from the best-selling novel by Ross Lockridge, Jr. (whose own life story was infinitely more tragic than anything in his book). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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; Ruth Attaway - Parthenia; Oliver Blake - Jake the Bartender; Nesdon Booth; William Challee; Isabelle Cooley - Soona; Jack Daly - Photographer; Michael Dante - Jesse Gardner; John Eldredge - Cousin Sam; Robert Forrest - Spectator; Robert Foulk - Pantomimist in Blackface; Dorothy Granger - Mme. Gaubert; James Griffith - Man with Gun; Myrna Hansen - Lydia Gray; Stacy Harris - Union Lieutenant; Rosalind Hayes - Bessie; Frank Kreig; Luana Lee; Donald Losby - Jim Shawnessy at Age 2 1/2; Mickey Maga - Jim Shawnessy at Age 4; Owen McGiveney - Blind Man; Gardner McKay - Bearded Soldier; Burt Mustin - Granpa Peters; Bill Walker - Old Negro Man; Charles Watts - Party Guest; Phil Chambers - Starter; Michael Dugan - Nat Franklin; Don Burnett - Tom Conway; Phyllis Douglas; Sue George - Girls; Janet Lake; Millicent Patrick; Eileen Stevens - Miss Roman
It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Ross Lockridge, Jr. In the credits for the film, the author's name is misspelled as Ross Rockridge Jr.
Raintree County was shot at various locations, including Dunleith, an antebellum mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, and two locations in Kentucky, one of which was at the Liberty Hall Historic Site on Wilkinson Street in Frankfort and the other in and around Danville.
During filming, Montgomery Clift had an automobile accident which almost killed him. After several weeks of recovery, he returned to finish the film, but the left side of his face had been partially paralysed.
