CMBA Movies of 1939 Blogathon: The Rains Came

One would assume that “The Wizard of Oz” or “Gone with the Wind” took the 1939 Academy Award for Best Special Effects. But no, the winner was “The Rains Came”, a stirring drama from 20th Century Fox that mixes disaster, romance and colonialism in a most entertaining and exotic blend.

Though it stars Fox’s top male attraction, Tyrone Power, it hardly seems like a Fox production. Leading lady is Myrna Loy, on loan from M-G-M. Also on loan from M-G-M is director Clarence Brown. And George Brent too, shows up on loan from Warner Bros. More on him later.

This is one movie that really lives up to the title. The rains come. Boy, do they come. They even show up in the background of the opening credits to wonderful effect, with the credits disintegrating as if from a massive rainstorm.

Author Louis Bromfield’s “The Rains Came” topped the 1937 best seller lists for weeks and screen rights were grabbed by Fox. The rains refer to the monsoons that torment India every year.

The movie takes place in 1938 in the fictional Indian province of Ranchipur, when India was still under control of The Raj.

Tom Ransome (George Brent) is the film’s most interesting character, a somewhat dissolute painter who came to Ranchipur years ago and stayed, finding an uneasy peace with himself in Ranchipur. While he doesn’t like them, he does associate with Ranchipur’s (English) society. Ransome is invited to attend a dinner honoring the visiting Lord Esketh (Nigel Bruce) and his wife Lady Edwina Esketh (Myrna Loy). Edwina and Tom are former lovers. Edwina has had many lovers, so many that Lord Esketh keeps a running tally of them in a notebook.

For those who think Nigel Bruce parlayed his Dr. Watson character in every film regardless of genre, they are in for a revelation here. His Lord Esketh is an angry, bigoted man with a mean streak a mile wide. He’s excellent and one regrets he didn’t play more roles like this in his career.

Loy is also exceptionally good here in one of her best roles. Beautifully photographed by Arthur Miller (I think Loy rarely looked so beautiful as she does here), Edwina is, I think, a basically good person who can’t resist succumbing to her base instincts in an effort to stave off boredom and a stifling marriage to a man she despises.

She begins an affair with Major Rama Safti (Tyrone Power), the local doctor and a great favorite of the ruling Maharani (Maria Ouspenskaya) and the Maharajah (H.B. Warner), Major Safti is being groomed to take over the ruling of Ranchipur when the childless couple dies. Edwina is immediately attracted to this “pale Copper Apollo” and begins a scandalous affair with him. The romance threatens Rama’s position in Ranchipur.

Their affair is contrasted with that of Tom Ransome, who finds unexpected romance with young, hero-worshipping Fern Simon (18-year-old Brenda Joyce, in her film debut, channeling Lana Turner, who had tested for the part).

Amidst all this romance is criticism of The Raj, which was unusual for a film made during this period. Films like “Lives of a Bengal Lancer” (1935) and “Gunga Din” (1939) extolled the virtues of British rule, so its interesting to see the critical portrayal of the English here.

In a telling exchange of dialogue, one English woman says with the monsoon season coming, everyone leaves Ranchipur.

Ransome wryly counters, “Five million people stay behind.”

The woman, barely bats and eye and says, “The right kind of people I mean.”

It’s no wonder Ransome prefers the company of local missionaries Phoebe and Homer Smiley (Jane Darwell and Henry Travers).

Politics and romance is interrupted, alas, by natural calamities, and its here that “The Rains Came” earned its well-deserved Oscar. Not only is Ranchipur inundated by the monsoons, but a massive earthquake also hits the province. The waters have risen so much that the dam, damaged in the earthquake, breaks apart from the pressure and floods the province, killing thousands and rendering the area almost uninhabitable.

An outbreak of cholera leaves Major Safti and his loyal and love struck nurse Miss MacDaid (Mary Nash) desperately trying to quell the disease before any more deaths occur. Even former lady of leisure Edwina takes a job at the hospital scrubbing floors.

All the performances are good, but I think George Brent really shines as Tom Ransome. It may be his best performance. Not only is he playing an interesting character, but it’s almost as if he’s gleefully saying, “Let me show Warner Bros. what I’ve really got.”

The New York Times was not complimentary to Tyrone Power, saying, “Tyrone Power’s Major Safti suggests none of the intellectual austerity, the strength of character and wisdom of Mr. Bromfield’s ‘Copper Apollo.’ He is still Mr. Power – young, impetuous and charming, with all the depth of a coat of skin-dye.” Ouch.

As I noted earlier, the film won Best Special Effects Oscar and was the first official winner of that award. The year before, “Spawn of the North” won a special award for “outstanding achievement in creating special photographic and sound effects.”

For the record, the other nominees in the Best Special Effects category that year were: “Gone with the Wind”; “Only Angels Have Wings”; “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex”; “Topper Takes a Trip”; “Union Pacific” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

The films Special Effects Oscar was the film’s only Academy Award, though it was also nominated in the Best Art Direction; Best Cinematography (Black and White); Best Film Editing: Best Original Score; and Best Sound Recording categories.

Fox would remake “The Rains Came” in 1955 in Cinemascope and DeLuxe Color as “The Rains of Ranchipur.” Filling in for Tyrone Power, Myrna Loy, George Brent and Brenda Joyce, were, respectively, Richard Burton, Lana Turner, Fred MacMurray and Joan Caulfield. It is not as well remembered, or well regarded, as the original, though the Hugo Friedhofer score for the remake is superb.

I’m proud to be a part of the Classic Movie Bloggers Association-sponsored blogathon looking at the miracle movie year of 1939. I urge readers to investigate these other blogs. There’s lots of insightful reading ahead. My sincere thanks to Rebecca of ClassicBecky’s Brain Food and Page at My Love of Old Hollywood for hosting the three-day event.

Sunday, May 15
It’s A Wonderful World
http://www.doriantb.blogspot.com/
The Women
http://www.myloveofoldhollywood.blogspot.com/
The Wizard of Oz
http://www.vivandlarry.com/
Another Thin Man
http://www.reelrevival.blogspot.com/
The Cat and the Canary
http://www.twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island
http://www.thrillingdaysofyesteryear.blogspot.com/
Dark Victory
http://www.amateurfilmstudies.blogspot.com/
Destry Rides Again
http://1001moviesblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/destry-rides-again-1939-12.html
Dodge City
http://www.poohtiger-allgoodthings.blogspot.com/
Five Came Back
http://www.caftanwoman.blogspot.com/
Gone With the Wind
http://www.silverscreenmodiste.com/
The Return of Dr. X
http://www.grandoldmovies.wordpress.com/

Monday, May 16, 2011

On Your Toes
http://www.classicbeckybrainfood.blogspot.com/ The Gorilla
http://www.myloveofoldhollywood.blogspot.com/
Q Planes
http://www.vivandlarry.com/
Stagecoach
http://www.themovieprojector.blogspot.com/
Gulliver’s Travels
http://www.distant-voicesandflickering-shadows.blogspot.com/
Hunchback of Notre Dame
http://www.via-51.blogspot.com/
Idiot’s Delight
http://www.dearmrgable.com/
Golden Boy
http://trueclassics.wordpress.com/
Intermezzo
http://www.distant-voicesandflickering-shadows.blogspot.com/
The Light That Failed
http://www.classic-film-tv.blogspot.com/
Love Affair
http://www.flickchick1953.blogspot.com/
Made for Each Other
http://www.carole-and-co.livejournal.com/
The Starmaker
http://www.bingfan03.blogspot.com/
Only Angels Have Wings
http://www.anotheroldmovieblog.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt
http://www.warren-william.com/ Magalordhttp://www.forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/ Ice Follies of 1939 http://www.myloveofoldhollywood.blogspot.com/Midnight http://www.dawnschickflicks.blogspot.com/
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
http://www.classicfilmboy.blogspot.com/
Never Say Die
http://www.javabeanrush.blogspot.com/
Of Mice and Men
http://www.greatentertainersarchives.blogspot.com/
The Old Maid
http://www.macguffinmovies.wordpress.com/
Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
http://www.eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/
The Rules of the Game
http://www.garbolaughs.wordpress.com/
We are Not Alone
http://www.moirasthread.blogspot.com/
The Whole Family Workshttp://www.forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/ Wuthering Heights http://www.bettesmovieblog.blogspot.com/
Watching A Year – All the Films Of 1939
http://www.jnpickens.wordpress.com/

Baby Face

Pre-code movies are lots of fun to watch and one of the most audacious is “Baby Face.” (1933), a splendid movie for people who think old movies are all sweetness and light.

“Baby Face” was recently released in DVD in the Forbidden Hollywood series, and the DVD includes both the pre-release version (about 75 minutes) and the general release version (about 70 minutes). The first version of the film was so blatant in its sexuality that the censors would not release it unless cuts were made. It went out later that year in the 70-minute version, which was still steamy enough to help bring about the Production Code the following year.

The complete 75-minute version sat unseen for almost 70 years until a complete print was discovered at, if memory serves, the Library of Congress.

I watched the 75 minute version last night and enjoyed every minute of it. The first 45 minutes are the best. After that it becomes more of a conventional melodrama, but those 45 minutes (which just fly by) make up for the rest of it.

After a short credit sequence with an orchestra playing a lively version of the song “Baby Face” (played like we were about to watch a musical or a comedy rather than the sordid melodrama that follows), we are shown the belching smokestacks of Erie, PA. We are introduced to a bunch of low-life characters in the grimiest speakeasy imaginable ever, run by Robert Barratt. Since she was 14, Barratt has been pimping out his daughter Lily (Barbara Stanwyck) to his buddies. After turning down the lecherous advances of a local politician (pre-paid to her father) with a swift hit to the head with a blunt object, she tells her father off. Her father is killed that night in an accident.

She despises all the men at the speakeasy save one, a professor who introduces her to Nietzchian philosophy and tells her to go to the big city and turn the tables on the male sex. He tells her to take advantage of them and use men to get ahead in the world.

Lily takes this advice and is accompanied by her best friend Chico, an African-American servant girl at the speakeasy. (It’s rare to see a deep friendship like this between the races in a 1930s movie).

They hitch a ride in a railroad car where they are discovered by a trainman. He’s going to turn them in until Lily says she can make it worth her while for him. Chico walks away singing to herself. I’ve only half described the scene, but it’s a shockingly brazen one, and one of the scenes that was cut before the picture went into general release.

Upon entering the big city, Lily takes one look at a massive bank building and decides she wants to work there. She goes to personnel to inquire about a job. Starting with the guy in the personnel department she sleeps her way to the top, bringing scandal and ruin to every man she meets, including accountant John Wayne, his boss Douglas Dumbrille and executive Donald Cook. Eventually she becomes mistress of the bank’s elderly president.

It’s all very entertaining, and Stanwyck makes her character vulnerable. Not exactly sympathetic, but vulnerable. Since we know her background, we can understand why she is the way she is.

She later falls in love with the new owner of the bank, Courtland Trenholm (George Brent). Brent is often characterized as bland and colorless. He doesn’t have the forceful personality of a Gable or Cooper, but leading ladies of the 1930s enjoyed acting with him. (Bette Davis was a fan, and frequent co-star). These actresses, dynamic personalities in their own way, knew that Brent would not overshadow them but would provide capable enough support. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with his line readings, and he’s fine in the role.

I really enjoyed “Baby Face” and am looking forward to seeing the other films in the Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 1 set, Jean Harlow (one of my favorites) in “Red Headed Woman” (1932) and director James Whale’s version of “Waterloo Bridge” (1931) with Mae Clarke.

It was recently announced that Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 2 would be released in March, 2008. One of the titles will be another Stanwyck starrer called “Night Nurse.” (1931). Stanwyck and fellow nurse Joan Blondell spend a great portion of the movie in their underwear, until Stanwyck gets a job in a mansion to nurse the sick kids of a mother who would rather drink, take drugs and host wild parties at her home than think of the kids (do you think Britney Spears ever saw “Night Nurse”?). There’s a kidnap plot hatched by the family’s chauffeur (Clark Gable), one of the meanest, most depraved characters in a pre-Code movie. I can’t wait to see it again.

Rating for “Baby Face”: Three stars.