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Baby the Rain Must Fall
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Baby the Rain Must Fall is a 1965 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on his play The Travelling Lady.
gette Thomas and her six-year-old daughter Margaret Rose travel to a small southern Texas town to meet her irresponsible rockabilly singer/guitarist husband Henry when he is released from prison after serving time for stabbing a man during a drunken brawl.
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Encyclopedia
Baby the Rain Must Fall is a 1965 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on his play The Travelling Lady.
Plot
Georgette Thomas and her six-year-old daughter Margaret Rose travel to a small southern Texas town to meet her irresponsible rockabilly singer/guitarist husband Henry when he is released from prison after serving time for stabbing a man during a drunken brawl. He tries to make a home for his family, but Kate Dawson, the aging spinster who raised him after his parents died, remains a formidable presence in his life and tries to sabotage his efforts, threatening to have him returned to prison if he doesn't acquiesce to her demands. When the woman finally dies, Henry drunkenly destroys her possessions and desecrates her gravesite. He is returned to prison, and Georgette and Margaret Rose leave town with local sheriff Slim.
Production
The film was shot on location in Bay City, Columbus, and Wharton, Texas.
The title song, with music by Elmer Bernstein and lyrics by Ernie Sheldon, was performed by Glenn Yarbrough during the opening credits. Yarborough's recording reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Cast
- Lee Remick ..... Georgette Thomas
- Steve McQueen ..... Henry Thomas
- Georgia Simmons ..... Kate Dawson
- Don Murray ..... Slim
- Kimberly Block ..... Margaret Rose Thomas
Critical reception
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times observed, "As honest and humble as is the effort to make the viewer sense a woman's baffled love for a shifty and mixed-up fellow in Baby, the Rain Must Fall, there is a major and totally neglected weakness in this film from a Horton Foote play that troubles one's mind throughout the picture and leaves one sadly let-down at the end. It is the failure of the screenwriter — Mr. Foote himself — to clarify why the object of the woman's deep affection is as badly mixed-up as he is and why the woman, who seems a sensible person, doesn't make a single move to straighten him out . . . Granting that the wife is astonished and distressingly mystified at the neurotic behavior of her husband, this doesn't mean that the viewer is satisfied to be kept in the dark as to the reasons for the stark and macabre goings-on . . . As it is, we only see that these two people are frustrated and heart-broken by something that's bigger than the both of them. But we don't know what it is."
Variety said the film's chief assets were "outstanding performances by its stars and an emotional punch that lingers . . . Other cast members are adequate, but roles suffer from editorial cuts (confirmed by director) that leave sub-plots dangling."
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