classicsoncall Steve McQueen draws on the experience of his own unhappy youth in his portrayal of Henry Thomas, a would be singer who's recently paroled, as he tries to make it as the front man of a local string band in Columbus, Texas. His dysfunction as a husband, father and indeed, as a human being is poignantly demonstrated in his first appearance on screen with wife Georgette (Lee Remick), he merely shakes her hand. If you didn't know this was going to be a sad and depressing film, this would have been the first hint.As the viewer, one painfully relates to Lee Remick's character, desperately looking for a way to reconnect with her husband, but finally realizing that she must come to terms with her disillusionment and head for something better for herself and her young daughter (Kimberly Block). One's appreciation of the movie will have to come from the performances of the principal players and not the story itself as it's not a film that will leave you hopeful.What adds to the already somber tone of the movie was a pall that was cast during filming with the announcement of John F. Kennedy's assassination. For McQueen, who had met Kennedy earlier in his career, the event was as traumatic as for the rest of the cast and crew. Filming was interrupted for a number of days before shooting could resume, and it wouldn't be out of the question that the President's death had a subliminal impact on the tone of the story.

ferbs54 In 1962, producer Alan J. Pakula, director Robert Mulligan, composer Elmer Bernstein and screenwriter Horton Foote combined their considerable talents to create a film that has been a favorite of generations ever since: "To Kill a Mockingbird." Three years later, this quartet joined forces again to make another picture set in the Deep South, this one based on Foote's play "The Traveling Lady," and the result was 1965's "Baby the Rain Must Fall" (the lack of a comma after "Baby" is annoying). In this one, Lee Remick plays a pretty mother named Georgette Thomas, who travels with her young, shy, cute and fairly odd little girl, Margaret Rose, by bus from Tyler, TX to Columbus, TX, to meet her recently paroled ex-con husband, Henry (played by Steve McQueen, perennially cool even when his character, as here, is a neurotic mess). Henry's one ambition, now that he's on the outside, is to play in a rocking "string band" (called Henry Thomas and his Rockabillies!), write songs and become a big star, but the ancient old crone (one Miss Kate) who had adopted him as a boy, and who still dominates him psychologically by dint of long-ago beatings, insists that he give up his dreams, go to night school and just learn a trade. The advent of Henry's wife and daughter, as it turns out, does little to help him resolve this conflict...."Baby the Rain Must Fall" is a sweet, quiet, small, gentle and slow-moving film; more a slice-of-life character study of four lonely people: the three members of the Thomas clan AND Slim, a good-hearted widower deputy (played by Don Murray) who helps the family out. McQueen is just fine in the lead (he had just appeared two years earlier in another film directed by Mulligan, "Love With the Proper Stranger"), although his singing numbers have been terribly dubbed; still, these performances serve to show quite clearly that Henry DOES have talent and promise. Remick, whose motel scene in 1962's "Days of Wine and Roses" might be the saddest that this viewer has ever witnessed, is excellent, as usual, although the sad scenes in this film are nowhere near as devastating as the one I just referred to in "Days." Kudos also to little Kimberly Block, who gives a memorable performance in this, her only screen role; she is touching and adorable. "Baby" has been well shot in B&W by renowned cinematographer Ernest Laszlo, and although not a heckuva lot transpires during the film, it remains a pleasing glimpse at these four unhappy people. The picture concludes most strangely, however, and for the life of me, I cannot quite figure out what was going through Henry's mind when he despoiled Miss Kate's grave site toward the film's end. Was he trying to dig up her body or merely desecrate her resting place due to anger, frustration and resentment? Or maybe he misses her, now that she is gone? It's really impossible to say; a possible failure of the picture. And is Slim going off with Georgette and Margaret Rose in the last scene to start their own family, or is he merely giving the two gals a ride "to the Valley"? Another imponderable. Despite these ambiguities, however, "Baby the Rain Must Fall" is certainly a worthwhile film. Just don't expect speed....

bkoganbing The team that brought you To Kill A Mockingbird has also given us Baby The Rain Must Fall another southern based drama though the protagonist is hardly as admirable as Atticus Finch. Steve McQueen and Lee Remick star in this film as a married couple trying to make a new start in life after McQueen is released on parole from prison.McQueen is a musician/singer of sorts and while I doubt he could have a career in big time country music, he doesn't have the talent to make the really big time. You won't see McQueen at the Grand Ole Opry, but he could make a respectable living doing the honky-tonks if it weren't for an ungovernable temper. In the few instances we see it displayed we never do see exactly what sets him off, the film might have been better if we had, we might understand McQueen more.But the temper is a given and he's on parole. A wife and a daughter who the people of his Texas home town have never met and don't know the existence of, have come to join him. Lee Remick is the patient and loving wife, but she's coming slowly to the realization that this just isn't going to work.Don Murray plays the local sheriff and a childhood friend who does what he can for McQueen. It's interesting to speculate whether Remick and Murray will get together afterward. Paul Fix has the same kind of part he did in To Kill A Mockingbird as a kindly judge. If James Dean had lived this would have been a perfect role for him. But McQueen who had a background of foster care, who was a product of the social welfare system raising him, had a lot to draw on for his performance.Steve McQueen did his own vocals though country singer Glenn Yarborough had a hit from the title song. Better that way then to have a real singer doing it lest the viewer think this guy has the talent to make it big. Although this is not as good as To Kill A Mockingbird, writer Horton Foote and director Robert Mulligan did a bang up job in Baby The Rain Must Fall.

TRRkey I totally agree with the writer who said this and "Sand Pebbles" are McQueen's finest, my favorites anyway. I can't think of anything that would have made this film better from the casting, realistic dialogue and locations, and especially the hopeless nature of the characters, their relationships, which are driven home, I think, all the more by the deliberately laconic pacing. Windblown people on a windblown landscape! I am sure that McQueen didn't have to dig very deeply to conjure up his approach to this part given his background. I first saw this movie over 40 yrs. ago and it touched me then and still does. I particularly like the scene in which he confronts the loud bar patron, for I have worked as a club musician and singer for many yrs. and it very profoundly projects the angst a performer feels when they are attempting to communicate a feeling and are ignored {or in this case beaten up}. Don't let the slowness of the action fool you, that's how things move in a small prairie town. Watch and listen closely because there are a whole lot of things going on in this great story, maybe not always on the surface all the time.