Rains Came, The (1939)
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Director: Clarence Brown
Honors:
Take a trip to Ranchipur, India where a love story flowers in
the wake of monsoon season striking the town created by Academy Award winning
special effects. The Rains Came is a
mix of all the usual styles of Hollywood during the days of late 1930s era
cinema, filling the picture with a notable cast, taking audiences to an exotic
land, punctuated with romance. The most distinguished footnote of the film
would be its accomplishment of being the inaugural winner of the Oscar for
special effects, a surprise achievement considering the competition it was up
against.
The Rains Came is
a drama of a materialistic lady that redeems herself into charitable lady how
cares for the sick and impoverished people of an Indian city struck by
tremendous storm and earthquake while falling in love with a future ruler of
the kingdom. The story opens with a Tom Ransome (George Brent), an artist who
moved to India and had made his home in Ranchipur in relative desolation when
his former lover Edwina (Myrna Loy) arrives with her wealthy and elderly
husband on a visit to meet the local royalty. Somewhat a vamp, Edwina attempts
to seduce her former lover, but she discovers an attraction to Major Rama Safti
(Tyrone Power), a local leader and future ruler of the land. Her and Safti fall
in love while Tom begins a romance with young missionary’s daughter named Fern
(Brenda Joyce) when a devastating storm hits the town. Many villagers fall ill
and die, including Edwina’s husband. Through the tragedy Edwina gains a new
sense in purpose with inspiration from Safti to nurse the many sick natives.
Her new found charity finds her to be infected by the deadly illness as well,
dying as Safti is pronounced the new ruler of the kingdom, entering a new age
for the land.
The picture feels a bit disjointed and all over the place,
lacking a true center to the tale, providing many moments that mislead an
audience to believe what the point of the movie really is. As the picture opens
we follow the tale of George Brent’s character of Tom, who seems to gain the
attention of many young ladies around him, including Fern as well the
troublemaking ex-lover of his Edwina. However as the tale moves on it is Edwina
that becomes the center of the true redemption story , but we, the audience,
still poke into the relationship Tom and Fern from time to time. Tyrone Power’s
Safti seems rather focused on his work, which lends one to believe he is not
interested in Edwina when she makes a pursuit after him, but somehow they
become a couple. It is Edwina’s transformation into a caring nurse after the
loss of her husband, whom she clearly did not love, and the devastation of the
storm that makes her the focus of the tale. The tragedy is that she passes away
before she really makes a difference in the community.
Despite all this happening it feels as if dots are not quite
connected in my humble opinion. Things just seem all over the place as the
triangle of Tom to Edwina to Saftijust do not flow and never really cause any
plot or make a true connection. The character of Tom feels the most personable
of all the characters. George Brent is stiff, like most movie stars of the late
1930s wielding a hard drink and talking suavely to all ladies, but his story
seems to fade off as Myrna Loy’s character takes more screen time in the latter
half of the picture. Loy plays against her type in this picture, having
established herself as a romantic comedy leading lady primarily from the Thin Man picture. Here she portrays more
of a vamp, or seductress, which with her slightly exotic features does pull
off, although she was not known for those roles. Tyrone Power, on the other
hand, is a major name for the picture, but his character of the Major Safti is
very two-dimensional, one that comes off very flat and goes through very little
change if any at all, with the sudden ending as he is anointed the new ruler.
Knowing that this is the style of picture during this period of Hollywood that
many audiences might have enjoyed, it still is difficult for some contemporaries
to understand the draw to the story. However the big name actors, good directing,
and far off locales were common draws in major motion pictures.
The film becomes clearer to be a story of about the female
character when realizing that the film was directed by Clarence Brown, the
veteran filmmaker popular for his pictures featuring major female roles,
including Anna Christie, Anna Karenina, and Conquest. Brown’s directing results in one of the finest special
effects sequences seen in cinema with the overwhelming storm and earthquake
that literally destroys Ranchipur. Models, thousands of gallons of water, and
clever cinematography create a lasting image of a storm that plows through the
town, devastating all in its path. The sequence resulted in the films only Academy
Award, for Special Effects. To add to the majesty of the feature the ending of
the picture with Safti’s appointment to as ruler adds color to this black and
white film.
In its inaugural year as an award, special effects would
surprisingly be presented to The Rains
Came when looking at its most noteworthy competition in the MGM Technicolor
spectacle in The Wizard of Oz. The
Victor Flemming directed fantasy movie perhaps received less credibility being
that it was not considered a serious drama such as The Rains Came was. Not to be considered disrespect for The Rains Came, but in retrospect The Wizard of Oz is considered more a
wall-to-wall special effects picture hailed as a triumph in cinema. However the
storm/earthquake sequence from The Rains
Came is still a marvelous spectacle in itself setting a new high in special
effects depicting natural disasters.
In a noteworthy supporting role is the Russian actress Maria
Ouspenkaya who plays the Maharani. Known mostly for her roles as supporting
European characters, Ouspenkaya prepared for her role as a member of Indian royalty
by studying the Grand Duchess of Russia. She provides her usual unique flair to
her role that makes one remember her, even though her role is on the minor
side.
The Rains Came was
heavily represented at the Academy Awards in categories such as Best Editing
and Best Sound Recording, which is deserved for technical merit, but the film
overall is a bit forgettable in the inclusive aspect of the year’s best
features. As the first winner of Best Special Effects the feature has become an
answer to an interesting trivia question in the history of Hollywood cinema.
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