{"id":6101,"date":"2013-02-01T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6101"},"modified":"2013-02-01T13:00:53","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T18:00:53","slug":"dvd-rains-came-the-1939","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6101","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Rains Came, The (1939)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>P to R<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Excellent\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: Twentieth Century-Fox\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: November 1, 2005<\/p>\n

Genre: Drama \/ Romance \/ Disaster<\/p>\n

Synopsis: The arrival of a wealthy trollop upsets the social balance of an Indian province prior to a devastating series of natural disasters.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Audio commentary by film historians Anthony Slide and Robert S. Birchard \/ Stills Galler \/ Theatrical Trailer<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

The first film translation of The Rains Came – <\/strong>Louis Bromfield\u2019s 1937 best-selling romance \/ disaster novel where the arrival of an old flame and her cuckolded husband stirs up trouble in the fictitious Indian province of Ranchipur – remains the best version, primarily due to the perfect assembly of talent which Fox gathered from its own quarters, and loan-outs from MGM – director Clarence Brown (Anna Karenina<\/strong>), and star Myrna Loy (The Thin Man<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

From Fox\u2019 end, the decision to use screenwriters Philip Dunne (How Green Was My Valley<\/a><\/strong>, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir<\/a><\/strong>, The Egyptian<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>]) and Julien Josephson gave the production a rock-solid screenplay, bristling with witty and occasionally politically charged dialogue, and a dramatic structure vastly superior to the distilled 1955<\/a> [M] version which Fox produced in CinemaScope and colour.<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT<\/p>\n

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According to the DVD\u2019s excellent commentators, Bromfield\u2019s story was originally bought by David O. Selznick, but censors objected to the proposed script. Fox\u2019 subsequent attempt seemed tailor made for the Production Code\u2019s allowances, even having the story\u2019s most sexually aggressive character \u2013 Lady Edwina Esketh (Loy) – die in the end, since adultery had to receive some kind of punishment; and the unusual romance between drunkard Tom Ransome (George Brent) and \u2018barely legal\u2019 Fern Simon (Brenda Joyce) is permitted to endure because the couple are set for a proper marriage.<\/p>\n

The script\u2019s arc of illicit affairs and hot & bothered longings being punished or interrupted by Bromfield\u2019s triple-threat of monsoon, earthquake, and flooding allowed the writers to work in some frank behaviour more typical of the pre-Code films made up to 1934, and Brown also snuck in sly visual gestures to insinuate who had just boffed who. (Major highlights are the unexpected seduction scene between Tom and Edwina during a thunderstorm, and Edwina\u2019s first gaze upon \u201cpale copper Apollo\u201d Rama Safti (Tyrone Power) which simply and cleanly outlines her determination to bag the boy, post-haste.<\/p>\n

The Oscar-winning disaster sequences \u2013 pretty much replicated in the \u201955 version \u2013 are outstanding, but they\u2019re on equal footing with several memorable dramatic scenes, and a wealth of small character roles (several of which were excised in the remake). Maria Ouspenskaya is surprisingly strong as the Maharani, as is Jane Darwell and a collage of veteran actors who play the mix of American and British members of a do-good mission.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest surprise \u2013 certainly when compared to the remake \u2013 is how well Power fit into the role of stoic, idealistic Safti. Not even bothering with an affected accent (the inference is that Safti was schooled in America), Power manages to avoid critical ethnic stereotyping and hold his own with pros Loy and underrated co-star Brent, and he has only one genuinely awful scene: a spastic breakdown where he crumples, recovers, and resumes his role as a community leader when Edwina\u2019s life is almost gone.<\/p>\n

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END OF SPOILERS<\/p>\n

Loy underplays her role which ensures she\u2019s not loathed as a black & white harlot, and Brent plays Tom as a perpetually inebriated former painter who only gains control of his moral fortitude when a plague strikes the ruined province. His relationship with Fern is also legitimized when she too matures into a responsible young adult, working as his administrative assistant in coordinating aide during the outbreak.<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s drinking is somewhat played for laughs (his quick consumption of tumblers before driving is quite Wrong in today\u2019s light), but the screenplay is filled with exceptional repartee from all parties, especially between Tom and Edwina; in her most piquant moods, Edwina brands Tom\u2019s attraction to Fern as \u201ccalf love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most striking political commentary isn\u2019t in Tom\u2019s bizarre fixation on a stature of virtuous Queen Victoria and his love for her seeding the success of the colonial empire \u2013 displayed in the opening scene, and sounding like a speech designed to instill anti-fascist fervor against armed Germany, circa 1938, but at least according to the commentators is typical of Dunne\u2019s own leanings – but little jabs at the colonization of India (and other \u2018exotic\u2019 countries) by snotty Europeans. As much as Tom seems to celebrate the virtues of the East India Company, there\u2019s the clear display of arrogance by the so-called missionaries (bored Americans and Brits who detest any association with the natives), and the uniquely coarse characterization of Edwina\u2019s cuckolded husband Albert (Nigel Bruce) as \u2018the ugly Britisher\u2019: intolerant, abrasive, and living in a Victorian mindset that\u2019s wholly out of touch with 1938. Even if the political critiques are pure coincidence and \/ or misreads, they make The Rains Came<\/strong> a much more dynamic and engrossing film than the politically flat \u201955 remake.<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019 DVD features the aforementioned commentary track, plus a trailer and stills gallery, and while a good transfer, it\u2019s taken from a print that\u2019s not in the best of shape. A few splices are pretty nasty, and there are two incidences where the image suffers from what may be shrinkage or water damage, making frames ripple and severely diffused. The cinematography by Arthur C. Miller (The Mark of Zorro<\/a><\/strong>, How Green Was My Valley<\/strong>) plus uncredited work by Bert Glennon (Stagecoach<\/strong>, Dive Bomber<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>]) is quite beautiful, especially the high contrast lighting which paints patterns and textures across sets.<\/p>\n

Like other Fox Studio Classics entries, the transfer sports the original mono mix, and a bullshit stereo mix which adds heavy reverb and should be avoided, especially since Alfred Newman\u2019s Oscar nominated score is one of his best and doesn\u2019t deserve to sound like it\u2019s emanating from a drainpipe.<\/p>\n

As Fox is slowly re-issuing some of their best-selling classics on Blu-ray, Rains Came <\/strong>is a worthy contender for a proper restoration, with new extras \u2013 especially an isolated score track.<\/p>\n

An underrated and forgotten classic where virtually every talent shines.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2013 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>—\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0P to R<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ P to R . Film: Excellent\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Very Good Label: Twentieth Century-Fox\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: November 1, 2005 Genre: Drama \/ Romance \/ Disaster Synopsis: The arrival of a wealthy trollop upsets the social balance of an Indian province prior to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[355,538,1830,1831,1829,1832,1828],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1Ap","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6104,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101\/revisions\/6104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}