Raintree County (1957)

Raintree County
Directed by Edward Dmytryck
Written by Millard Kaufman from a novel by Ross Lockridge Jr.
1957/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Susanna Drake: Johnny, I had to come back. I’m going to have a baby.[/box]

Epic-length melodramas aren’t my thing. This one is just tedious despite Liz Taylor’s Oscar-nominated performance as a crazy lady.

It is the 1850’s in Raintree County, Indiana.  As the film begins, a high school class is graduating.  The professor makes a speech about a magical rain tree that has the answers to all the questions of life. Idealistic John Shawnessy (Montgomery Clift) decides he will go off and find it.  His sweetheart Nell (Eva Marie Saint) is a kindred spirit.  But John meets Southern belle Susanna Drake (Taylor) by chance and is overcome by her beauty.  They have a tryst by the river.  She goes back home and John takes up with Nell once again.  Susannah returns to announce she is pregnant and John marries her.

The twists and turns of this plot are too many to relate.  Suffice it to say that Susannah proves to be not a little insane, with a deep dark secret.  She doesn’t mesh well with John’s abolitionist views either.  Her initial pregnancy turns out to be a lie but John sticks with her and they eventually have a son he dotes on.  Meanwhile, Nell remains a spinster and becomes a journalist.  When Susannah returns South several years into the Civil War, John joins the Union army.  With Lee Marvin as John’s friend and rival.

Taylor is at her most lovely and her performance isn’t bad.  For me, though, Lee Marvin was by far the best thing about this movie.  The plot, while full of incident, got old before it ever really took off and the big reveal of the secret was an anti-climax.

Montgomery Clift suffered his disfiguring automobile accident early in the shooting of this movie.  His appearance varies throughout.  While he was still presentable his lost beauty in his only Technicolor outing is sad to see.

Raintree County was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of: Best Actress; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; and Best Music, Scoring.

Trailer