Main Cast: Sammi Davis, Paul McGann, Amanda Donohoe, Christopher Gable, David Hemmings
Release Year: 1989
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Director Ken Russell returns to the D.H. Lawrence territory that had earlier served him well in Women in Love. Sammi Davis plays Lawrence's Welsh heroine Ursula Brangwen, daughter of a wealthy mine owner, who is first seen as a child given to literally chasing rainbows. Disappointed that she can never have the real thing, the older Davis seeks out figurative rainbows in the form of sexual fulfillment. Neither heterosexual nor homosexual affairs fully satisfy Davis, because no one lover can match the "ideal" the girl has created in her imagination. Davis' disappointment in the world is paralleled with the sorry lot of the wives of the local coal miners, who have adapted to their lives--something Davis can never do, will never do. Stately despite its raw subject matter, The Rainbow was filmed just before Russell's outrageous sword-and-sorcery fantasy Lair of the White Worm; since both films utilize many of the same cast members, the two pictures might make an astonishing double feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Glenda Jackson - Anna Brangwen; Dudley Sutton - MacAllister; Jim Carter - Mr. Harby; Judith Paris - Miss Harby; Kenneth Colley - Mr. Brunt; Glenda McKay - Gudrun Brangwen; Molly Russell - Molly Brangwen; Rupert Russell - Rupert Brangwen; Tom Bell; Jon Finch; Jane Gurnett; Ralph Nossek - Vicar; Mark Owen - Jim Richards; Imogen Stubbs; Martin Wenner; Amy Evans - Baby Gudrun; Kate Buffery; Bernard Latham - Uncle Alfred; John Tams - Uncle Frank
Credit
Ian Whittaker - Art Director, Doreen Jones - Casting, Imogen Claire - Choreography, Luciana Arrighi - Costume Designer, Ken Russell - Director, Peter Davies - Editor, Dan Ireland - Executive Producer, William J. Quigley - Executive Producer, Carl Davis - Composer (Music Score), Tangerine Dream - Composer (Music Score), Luciana Arrighi - Production Designer, Billy Williams - Cinematographer, Ken Russell - Producer, Ronaldo Vasconcellos - Producer, Ken Russell - Screenwriter, Vivian Russell - Screenwriter, D.H. Lawrence - Book Author
Sammi Davis stars as "Ursula", a sheltered young schoolteacher who's taken under the wing (sexually and otherwise) by the more sophisticated "Winifred" (Amanda Donohoe). Glenda Jackson appears as the mother of the character she played in Women in Love.
Leonard Maltin commented that "Many beautiful and striking moments don't quite gel, but still worth watching."
Elgar (1962, TV) ·French Dressing (1963) ·The Debussy Film (1965, TV) ·Always On Sunday (1965, TV) ·Isadora Duncan, The Biggest Dancer In The World (1966, TV) ·Dante's Inferno (1967, TV) ·Billion Dollar Brain (1967) ·Song of Summer (1968, TV) ·Women in Love (1969)
