kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** It was the amazing special effects, the first to win the Academy Award, that made "The Rains Came" worth watching far more then the schmaltzy and unconvincing romance in it that just about put the audience asleep trying to watch and absorb it. That between the straight as a arrow Major Rama Safti played by Tyrone Powers wearing a turban most of his time on the screen and an old flame of his the unhappily married Lady Edwina Esketh, Myrna Loy, who's bore of a husband Lord Albert,Nigel Bruce, is more interested in playing the horses then spending any time with her.For the first 20 or so minutes were tortured with the problems of the rich and well connected in 1938 British controlled India until the rains come and things start to get really wet and soggy for the entire cast. It's later when an earthquake hits the city of Ranchipur that what seems like the whole world is about to come to an end with the dam breaking and the water gushing out engulfing the entire city. With cholera breaking out it's only a matter of time when the entire population is to become extinct unless Major Rama, who's trained in medicine, can save the day as well as the people infected by it. With his now reunited girlfriend Lady Edina, who's husband Lord Albert was killed in building collapse, by his side first a scrub lady in the make shift hospital and then his assistant how could things go wrong! That's until Lady Edwina takes a drink of water from a glass that's been contaminated with Cholera and it's curtains for her.****SPOILERS**** With Major Rama doing everything possible to save his love Lady Edwina's life all he can do is just watch her go into a coma and slowly and peacefully expire along with all the other patients in the hospital that he's in charge of. With that out of his way in Major Dr. Rama planning to leave India with Lady Edwina for parts unknown like the Florida Everglades and the Grand Caynon all he can do now is take control of the battered and almost ghost town of Ranchipur and try to bring it back to life. Which the chain-smoking and soon to die, due to her excessive smoking habit, Maharani, Maria Ouspenskaya, appointed him mayor of so It would be his problem not hers!

GManfred Gosh, I'm soaked. That was some storm scene in "The Rains Came". Not only was there a rainstorm, it was compounded by an earthquake and subsequent flooding all over the place. Luckily it was only a movie and lucky for this movie, which was moving at a snail's pace until the storm. Beforehand, some of Hollywood's most dependable actors had been trying to move things along. There was Tyrone Power, George Brent, Myrna Loy, Henry Travers, Jane Darwell and the great Maria Ouspenskaya, just to name a few. I guess director Clarence Brown was trying to duplicate the pace of life in hot, stifling India, which necessarily must be slow.Then came the deluge. After some terrific flood footage, which earned the picture an Academy Award,the film becomes a soap opera, which normally turns me off. But this was different, it was absorbing and interesting, especially the dialogue between Power and Myrna Loy. The picture eventually becomes the property of Miss Loy, who gives one of her best performances while avoiding hysterics and descending into bathos.I thought this pulled the film out of the ordinary and eluded becoming another study in tedium and triviality. It was a good picture and I am glad I saw it. I never took a movie course, but I really appreciate watching professional actors acting their guts out.

blanche-2 Incredible special effects, a solid story, beautiful directing, and marvelous acting are the highlights of "The Rains Came," another movie from that famous year in film-making, 1939. Its stars are Tyrone Power, Myrna Loy, George Brent, Brenda Joyce, and Maria Ouspenskaya. A bored Loy and her disagreeable wealthy older husband, portrayed by Nigel Bruce, are in Ranchipur, India when the rains and an earthquake hit. Loy, whose husband keeps a list of her lovers, once had a fling with Brent. Then she gets a gander at Power who plays Major Rama Safti, a doctor highly regarded by the rulers of Ranchipur. One look at him, and there's no sense in treading over old territory. Despite Power's apparent lack of interest, Loy falls madly in love with him, even volunteering at the hospital after the disaster.I was completely captivated by this film, particularly in light of the recent Katrina horror. The flooding, the destroyed homes, demonstrated by brilliant special effects, the orphaned children, the need for volunteers, were all too familiar.Two love stories go on during the rains - one between Brent and the lovely Fern, portrayed by Brenda Joyce, and the other between Power and Loy. Both romances are unbelievably tender - with very little actual physical contact shown.Loy gives a compelling performance as a haughty, spoiled woman who is suddenly consumed by love. When I read the book, one thing I remember is that the character just screamed Lana Turner and sure enough, she did the role in the remake. But Loy makes it her own. The studios didn't like their leading men to do accents, so Power, in dark makeup as the "Copper Apollo" so described by Loy, has none. He is handsome as ever until one sees him without his turban. Then, in closeup, he describes to Loy how he came to love her, and his face is beyond breathtaking. His monologue is beautifully done, as is his essaying of the character's conflict of love versus responsibility. This is one of his finest performances, and no camera ever loved an actor like it did Tyrone Power. George Brent, usually not commanding enough, does fine under Brown's direction in his role as a man with no purpose in life who finally finds one. Tiny Maria Ouspenskaya gives a strong performance.The only thing I didn't like was that Loy had to pay for her sins (i.e., slutty behavior) and of course, Brent did not.Like the rains of Ranchipur, India, "The Rains Came" will sweep the viewer away. Highly recommended.

Poseidon-3 Nothing redeems the reputation of a "fallen" woman like natural disaster or illness. Just ask Greta Garbo in "The Painted Veil", Elizabeth Taylor in "Elephant Walk" or Eleanor Parker in "The Naked Jungle" and "The Seventh Sin". Audiences love to see a woman who has slid slightly off the moral track win back approval by pitching in during the aftermath of a plague or an earthquake, even if, in some cases, she doesn't make it herself! Here Loy is the unfulfilled wife of a stodgy British lord who comes to India to buy horses and runs into a former lover (Brent.) Though she dallies briefly with him, it isn't long before a handsome Indian doctor (Power) catches her eye and so she sets her sights on that prize. This doesn't sit well with the Maharani (Ouspenskaya) who has high hopes for Power as a future leader of her country. Meanwhile, an antsy, curvy, teen (Joyce) has her eye on Brent, to the quasi-dismay of her missionary parents. As the social and romantic entanglements play out, the rains of the monsoon season begin to fall. Then an earthquake rips apart an ominously placed dam and the entire area is flooded. What the water doesn't kill, a plague threatens to. The formerly selfish and self-involved survivors volunteer their aid in the hopes of redemption. This works out better for some than for others. Loy isn't always lit as beautifully here as she was at her home studio of MGM, but manages to look quite lovely during most of her scenes. She gives a knowing and well thought out portrayal. One of her evening gowns (a chiffon number with a jewel-encrusted scarf) is a real knockout. It's a bit raunchier role than she was doing during the height of her fame and she handles it nicely. She has one striking scene as she relieves a collapsing hospital attendant and her final scene is memorable, too. Power has a surprisingly small role for most of the film. Covered in "brownface", he has a puzzling Clark Gable mustache and makes no attempt at an Indian accent, though that may be a good thing. He gives a solid, but unremarkable performance, though he does look handsome, especially near the end when his hair is revealed. Brent is enjoyable in his ne'er do well role with one particularly amusing line as he's about to escort Loy to a stuffy party. Never an earth-shattering actor, he does better than usual in this film. He does become rather unintentionally funny as he swims through the storm-tossed water, though. Joyce is attractive and alluring in her film debut, though obviously a bit unseasoned. The ever-impish Ouspenskaya effortlessly steals most of the scenes she appears in. A nice dose of fine character actors including Bruce, Schildkraut, Darwell, Rambeau, Warner and especially Hope Crews help to enliven the earlier part of the film. Sadly, most of these folks are scarcely or never seen after the big event. The credits for this film are inventive and striking, even now more than half a century later. The direction is sure-handed. The music, as is nearly always the case with Alfred Newman, is solid. The real attraction, though, is the chance to see some early special effects which still hold up reasonably well. Three or four decades later, the disaster would BE the point of the movie, but in this age, the story of the characters was still the attraction and the catastrophes were either a story point or a climactic event (see "San Francisco", "Green Dolphin Street", "In Old Chicago") causing changes in the characters' lives. This was remade rather glossily and in color with Lana Turner, Richard Burton and Fred MacMurray, but the original remains the one with the edge.