The Rainmaker

1956 "It's about the magic that makes a woman beautiful when she's wanted by a man!"
6.9| 2h1m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 13 December 1956 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Lizzie Curry is on the verge of becoming a hopeless old maid. Her wit and intelligence and skills as a homemaker can't make up for the fact that she's just plain plain! Even the town sheriff, File, for whom she harbors a secrect yen, won't take a chance --- until the town suffers a drought and into the lives of Lizzie and her brothers and father comes one Bill Starbuck ... profession: Rainmaker!

Genre

Western, Romance

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Director

Joseph Anthony

Production Companies

Paramount

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The Rainmaker Audience Reviews

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment
Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
gkeith_1 Spoilers. Observations. Opinions.Great Kate. Katharine Hepburn is the greatest. Here she is, just a few years after portraying the passenger of that African Queen, opposite that gritty, grimy Humphrey Bogart.Kate is wearing dresses here. This goes against her real life stereotype-shattering slacks, pants, man-clothes or whatever you want to call her personal wardrobe.Kate is Lizzie. Lizzie is a worn out spinster, wishing to be a Cinderella who is swept off her feet by a handsome prince from la-la land. She has romantic yearnings for a local snooze-fest, but he looks pretty boring to me.Voila! Along comes Burt Lancaster, portraying Starbuck. I immediately think, nowadays, of Starbuck's, the coffee purveyor. Anyway, this film's Starbuck is a dashing, swashbuckling snake oil salesman who says things like the stars shine for old maid Lizzie. Who else but Lancaster can play Starbuck? Starbuck is a loudmouth, wonderful, screaming and yelling dream come true, or so he thinks in his own mind.Awesome Burt. Burt Lancaster ain't no (bad English on purpose here) hard-boiled Spencer Tracy or dashing Cary Grant, but he is hubba-hubba in a very exciting way. Baby, the rain must fall, and neither Tracy nor Grant could ever have pulled it off.Lizzie is swept off her feet. The boring local guy is left covered by all of the dust in Starbuck's road. Katharine Hepburn, you have done it again. You have played many types of characters, and of course opposite several well known male lead actors. Starbuck, however, is one I remember very well. He is that sexy, risk-taking dreamer whom a woman really wants, deep down. A woman doesn't want to spend the rest of her life with a wrung-out old dishrag.Yes, the rainmaker makes the rain fall, in buckets as a matter of fact. Buckets the size of a house. This rainfall is huuuuuuuge. Starbuck (Lancaster) has made his prediction come true. He proceeds to sing, scream and yell that the rainfall has finally occurred. This is such a memorable scene.
Spikeopath The Rainmaker is directed by Joseph Anthony and written by N. Richard Nash. It stars Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges, Cameron Prud'Homme and Earl Holliman. Music is by Alex North and VistaVision/Technicolor cinematography is by Charles Lang.Starbuck (Lancaster) is a conman who arrives in the little town of Threepoint and promises to deliver the rain to end the town's crippling drought problem. More telling, perhaps, will be his impact on the Curry family...N. Richard Nash wrote it as a television play and would then see it hit the Broadway stage, so he was the logical choice for screenplay duties here. The film very much feels like a play, with very pronounced acting and sharp dialogue, it's also - at just over two hours in length - far too long for a talky based production. Thirty minutes could quite easily have been shaved off here. There's also the contentious casting of the Oscar Nominated Hepburn, who in many people's eyes - myself included - is miscast and just doesn't sit right in the role, leaving it to Lancaster to bring the flight and breeze to light up the piece.However, to enjoy the art of acting brings some rewards, it's also a pic of crafty humour and features a story of considerable humane substance. That one man, a scallywag, can have such a positive impact on a sterile backwater family, builds nicely to an ending that is a complete joy, a real smile raiser. It's also handsomely photographed by Lang, the colour lensing so smooth, and the production design, backed up by North's most appealing musical score, ensures you know that the makers cared about what they were doing. Relationships on set were initially rocky, but the principal stars would come to be friends and speak fondly of their time on the film. 6/10Footnote: The material would also be turned into a musical titled 110 in the Shade.
Gideon24 The Rainmaker is the 1956 film version of the N Richard Nash play about a slick-talking con man who breezes into a sleepy little town, suffering from a serious drought, who promises he can bring rain while bringing some magic into the life of a lonely spinster.Burt Lancaster turns in one of his most charismatic performances as Bill Starbuck, the fast-talking con man whose ego definitely outweighs his actual abilities. Katherine Hepburn received a Best Actress nomination for her performance as Lizzie Curry, a buttoned-up spinster who bristles at the phrase, "Old Maid", no matter how many times her father and her brother Noah sling it her way. It is the brief encounter of these two people from completely different worlds, who have no business being together, who make a special connection, which may or may not be genuine, that makes this story so special.Lloyd Bridges and Earl Holliman provide solid support as Lizzie's brothers, Noah and Jimmy, who have completely different feelings about Starbuck and Wendell Corey is wonderful as File, the local deputy who has been fighting feelings for Lizzie and realizes that with Starbuck around, he has to put up or shut up.Nash adapted his own play for the screen with care and though Joseph Anthony's direction is a little static, giving the film the look of a photographed stage play, the performances by the stars more than compensate. The story was later turned into a Broadway musical called 110 IN THE SHADE.
nevw1 Such simple relationship advice you would not find anywhere else. Father and daughter, father and sons, strangers and lovers. Lizzy is magnificent as the woman before her time, the yokels around her have no idea she is such a catch, though independent yet true to her family, she only wants the right man in the end. But she has to teach deputy File, and the dreamer Starbuck what relationships is all about. While at the same time put up with the oldest brother(Noah) being a negative nay-bob(you are an old maid). Young Jim Curry also has to put up with being put in his place by his older brother "why do I always feel stupid when you talk to me Noah?". The play has been made into a musical (110 in the shade) with cowboys and yippees. But this movie script(1956) being more modern would make a blockbuster musical with it's romance genre. I only hope somebody does it in the future.