Raintree County (1957) User Reviews (73)

Montgomery Clift and the making of "Raintree County"

[ecjones1951 · 6/10 · 20 July 2006]

"Raintree County" is one of those movies like "Ishtar" or "Waterworld;" troubled productions remembered as much -- if not more so -- for what went on behind the scenes as in the finished picture. Patricia Bosworth's definitive biography "Montgomery Clift" (1978) is the source of the facts that follow.

While "Raintree County" was in rehearsals, Montgomery Clift's drinking was out of hand, and threatened to hamper production. Elizabeth Taylor had no real influence on him, despite being his dearest friend and soulmate. Many in the cast and crew expressed their concerns to MGM higher-ups. This led to a series of meetings between Clift and MGM Production Chief Dore Schary. "Raintree" had a $5 million budget, the highest of any American film up to that time, so it was up to Schary to solve problems on the set or behind the scenes before they happened.

Schary left the meetings believing Clift was sincere in his desire to straighten up and behave himself. But he was not convinced that Monty would be able to do it. His demons were too powerful; every picture he made was held hostage to Clift's self-destructiveness. Schary decided to take out a $500,000 insurance policy on "Raintree County" just in case there was a halt in production for whatever reason.

Schary had never done this before, but his "funny premonition" tragically came to pass.

On May 12, 1956, half of "Raintree County" had been filmed. Elizabeth and other of Monty's friends had prevailed upon him to stay sober during shooting, and he was trying to live up to his side of the bargain. At a party at Elizabeth's and husband Michael Wilding's that night, Monty was sober and quiet. He had one glass of wine, and made his excuses and left. He was uncertain about driving down the steep hill to Sunset Blvd., and asked his close friend, Kevin McCarthy ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers") to lead him to the road.

McCarthy described many times in later years seeing Monty's headlights move wildly from one side of the road to the other in his rearview mirror. Then he watched in horror as Monty's car slammed into a telephone pole.

Montgomery Clift's impossibly beautiful profile and the planes of a face the camera adored were destroyed. He was crumpled on the floor of the car, his face and jaws crushed. Elizabeth Taylor resisted all attempts to keep her from going to his side. When she got to him, she straightened him up and pulled his two front teeth out of his throat before he strangled on them.

Recovery was long, slow; unbearably painful. Monty had friends sneak liquor into the hospital. Three weeks after rebuilding his jaws, Monty's doctors realized they had done the job incorrectly. They re-broke his jaws and wired them again.

Production was shut down for weeks. With over $2 million already invested in it, MGM was not about to abandon "Raintree," nor replace its star. Resumption of the project was primarily a question of money for the studio, but to Monty and those who loved him it was a question of pride.

Weeks after the accident, Monty was allowed to see himself in a mirror for the first time. He was not elated with the results, but relieved to see he looked enough like himself that he could continue acting in front of cameras. Greater than his pain had been the fear that his career was over.

Montgomery Clift returned to work on "Raintree County" knowing that the picture was no better than when he left. He returned knowing that audiences would come to see it to play a ghoulish game: they would try to spot him "before" and "after." He returned to the production numbed and dulled by painkillers and alcohol.

Despite his horrific ordeal, despite the liquor and the pills that eased his pain and enabled him to complete the picture, I still believe Montgomery Clift's performance of Johnny Shawnessy to be one of his best.

Clift had an unusual voice and unorthodox phrasing. On screen he was intuitive and sensitive, his portrayals always highly intelligent. However much he rehearsed (and he was notorious for doing things to death) Clift's readings always seemed quite natural. The accident changed none of these things. And equally fine performances were to come, in "Lonelyhearts" (1958), "The Misfits" and "Wild River" (both 1960); and "Judgment at Nuremburg" (1961).

Montgomery Clift died 40 years ago this week, on July 22, 1966. He was 45 years old. But part of him had died ten years earlier on a twisting road in the Hollywood hills. The accident that nearly killed him left him prey to his weaknesses but also to the enormous strength and passion that informs his later performances. "Raintree County" divided Monty Clift's life into "before" and "after."

Speak of Angels and Hear Their Wings

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 21 February 2009]

Idealistic Montgomery Clift (as John Shawnessy) is distracted by buxom Southern belle Elizabeth Taylor (as Susanna Drake), and marries her instead of pretty sweetheart Eva Marie Saint (as Nell Gaither). Life with Ms. Taylor proves to be a cursed existence, so Mr. Clift takes refuge as a Union soldier, after the United States Civil War breaks out. Of course, Clift is on the winning side of the war - but, his personal search for happiness, in an Eden called "Raintree County", is a more difficult path to manage...

Clearly, MGM was hoping for something approaching "Gone with the Wind" - and, they failed. However, "Raintree County" is not so bad, when viewed without the comparative eye. The big budget production values are beautiful; the obvious expense, and the cast, helps maintain interest in the relatively weak storyline. And, it does get better, as the starring triad (Clift, Taylor, and Saint) slowly draw you into their lives. Viewing will require some degree of commitment, though; it's a long movie.

Early in the filming, Clift left a visit with friends at Taylor's home, and drove his car into a telephone pole. He nearly died, and his facial "reconstruction" is obvious throughout most of "Raintree County". Clift's performance is uneven, also - but, he was too good an actor to be completely derailed. And, Clift is better than you might have heard. Also, he, does not look as bad as many have claimed. The eventual toll on his "looks" was mainly taken by a growing dependence on alcohol and painkillers.

Taylor, who is credited with saving Clift's life, shows some of the sparkle that would quickly make her one of the best actresses in the business, especially during the film's second half. Nigel Patrick, Lee Marvin, Rod Taylor, and Agnes Moorehead head up a strong supporting cast. Robert Surtees' savory cinematography is noteworthy. And, Nat King Cole sings the Johnny Green title song, a minor hit, very sweetly.

****** Raintree County (10/4/57) Edward Dmytryk ~ Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint

Oh, Susanna!

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 1 September 2017]

This soap opera really sprawls over the years before and after the Civil War. Montgomery Clift is a quiet homegrown college graduate in mutual love with pretty young Eva Marie Saint. They seem fated for each other. They'll probably be married, raise a number of surviving children, and live in a white two-story house on the outskirts of Fairhaven in Raintree County, Indiana. But then, the luscious Southern belle, Elizabeth Taylor, visits Fairhaven. She and Clift fall in love forever after.

But dark Elizabeth is Veronica to Saint's blond Betty. Or is it the other way around? No matter. Anyway they have contrasting personalities: the intensely passionate Taylor and the winsome and innocent Saint. Saint, for instance, would never dream of putting out for handsome, intelligent, and sensitive Monty, whereas Taylor does so on their second or third date and then LIES to him about having gotten pregnant. He doesn't mind one way or the other, besotted as he is.

I don't know whether it's worthwhile trying to get through the plot. It's probably been done elsewhere, and I'm too tired to trace the trips, the outbursts of anger and guilt, Sherman's march through Georgia, and the finale, which no power on earth could force me to reveal. Much of it has to do with the fear of having a touch of the tar brush in one's blood.

But I must say, New Orleans is given rather a bad rap as a representative Southern city. It wasn't like any of the others. It had an animated and rich multi-ethnic heritage at the time -- American, French, Spanish, Caribbean, and African. Edgar Degas visited French relatives there late in the '19th century. Slaves of course but not nearly as brutal a system as elsewhere. William Tecumseh Sherman taught at Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, later to become Louisiana State University.

Others have claimed that it was easy to tell the difference between pre- and post-accident scenes of Montgomery Clift but I couldn't. As for the accident, Clift was doing booze and other substances to excess on a daily basis during the shooting. I mean, eating steaks he'd spilled on the floor and so on. After an evening at Liz Taylor's manse perched on a hill, he drove drunkenly down the winding road and didn't quite make it.

Neither the accident nor the booze seemed to interfere with his acting, although the part of the pathetic loner in "A Place in the Sun" suited him better than the idealist he's forced to portray here. Elizabeth Taylor is blindingly beautiful. Many of her films cast her has a frustrated nut job. Eva Marie Saint has the more sympathetic role as the unspectacular girl from home who never manages to shrug off her love for Clift.

It's long. It has an overture and even an entr'acte, evocative photography by Robert Surtees, and a lushly orchestrated but fulsome score by Johnny Green. It's no "Gone With the Wind," though, partly because it substitutes anguish for laughs.

sumptuous and nostalgic

[IRVIN8 · 22 July 2003]

An individual's life is formed by his memories. Books, music and - yes, movies - influence us. We remember the situations and the dialogue, we remember the sweet melodies. These memories enable us to react, as well as give us the ability to identify situations as they occur.

I saw "Raintree County" when I was 15. Orphaned at six, I'd just departed from an orphans home in Dallas, after nearly nine years. Knowing virtually nothing of the outside world, I was receptive to everything, every person that I encountered. That summer of 1958, I sneaked into the Forest Park Drive-In to see Elizabeth Taylor, of whom I knew little, other than that she was a breath-taking beauty, and had been recently widowed when Michael Todd's chartered plane had crashed.

The characters in the movie (when I was 15) were literal, if not visceral: the magnificence of Miss Taylor's satin gowns encased over crinoline, Lee Marvin's sharp, smart-alecky wit, the professor's lechery, Montgomery Clift's Yankee stoicism, Agnes Moorehead's curious detachment, were all primary colors.

Forty-five years have passed. Those primary colors are now a multitude of blendings and shadings of secondary colors. Montgomery Clift's character is now a beautifully controlled young man who reflects his parents' stoicism, a young man whose intelligence and self control are at the core of the film, and upon whom all characters revolve.

Originally, I thought that "Raintree County" was strictly Taylor's vehicle. She is the burr under the saddle, the exquisite seductress that interfers with Clift's heretofore regulated, almost predestined lifestyle upon his college graduation.

'Raintree' is an achingly beautiful film, and Miss Taylor, who is the most gifted in her portrayal of anguished characters, blesses the movie. Norma Shearer could be beautiful in 'Marie Antoinette", but she lacked depth. Betty Davis portrayed Sturm und Drang, but was never a clothes horse. Taylor combines the two.

Having read some of the other's comments, most of whom disliked the story, perhaps it helps to be Southern to truly love this film. And also, one wants to realize that it depicts two diametrically opposed cultures: North and South. When Northern chill mixes with Southern humidity, chaos results. And so it did, and it was known as The War Between the States.

In conclusion, one wants to luxuriate in this film: Lockridge wrote a brilliant story, and for the most part, it is well delivered. It is rich in history and characterization.

A Beautiful Evocation of the North During the Civil War, and More

[silverscreen888 · 6/10 · 16 June 2005]

I discovered Ross Lockridge Jr.'s attempt at the Great American Novel when I first saw "Raintree County" the film in 1957. I was aware that the story that was put on the screen was not perfect, although it is a beautifully-made and often-interesting film; so I read the novel, to discover what had been omitted. Because I have become an expert on both the book and the film, I appreciate even more what is right about cinematic achievement and find myself more willing to ignore the story's flaws. First, consider the direction, a near-miracle of taste, shot composition, blocking and work with actors achieved by Edward Dmytryk. Art direction, lighting, set design, Walter Plunkett's costumes, the low-key music by Johnny Greene, the theme song, the dialogue by Millard Kaufman, and some of the acting rate with Hollywood's finest. In particular, Eva Marie Saint's work as Nell Gaither, Nigel Patrick as Professor Stiles, Walter Abel as T.D. and Lee Marvin as Flash Perkins deserved Oscar nominations. The smaller parts in the film, from James Griffiths to De Forest Kelley to Tom Drake are all well-nigh flawless. And the memorable scenes such as the Southern ball, the visit to a bordello, the great July Fourth race, Johnny's misadventure in the swamp, the scenes on the Academy lawn, the handling of Johnny Shawnessey's house in Freehaven, Indiana, the war scenes, the great rally in 1860, Rod Taylor's office as Garwood Jones in Indianapolis, all are very well mounted. The flaw in the script, which has a story much-altered from the novel that has one philosophical error also (the author cannot accept American individualism as being not social but reality-based) was confirmed for me by Eva Marie Saint. In 1966, I complimented her acting then asked if the story might not have been handled more strongly, to reflect the novel. Sadly, she noted, "Oh no--they GAVE the picture to ELIZABETH!". A multi-million-dollar film had been made to wangle an undeserved nomination for an Academy Award for Elizabeth Taylor, who tries hard but lacks the classical dimension. But, there is a way to enjoy this superbly-made film that renders the problem of Johnny Shawnessey's obsession with the Taylor character smaller: watch it in 'thirds'. The film then becomes Young John Shawnessey; Johnny and Susannah Drake; Aftermath. It was shown this way on a Los Angeles TV station once, and the structure became much more evident. As the central character, Montgomery Clift starts well but the accident he had during the film and his miscasting vitiate some later work; he gets by with most of his very-demanding role, however, and his work in the last third of the film has some real power. I would not have missed this film for anything; it has been part of my life for fifty years; why not make its power, haunting successful scenes and many lovely attainments a part of yours also.

A Civil War story in Indiana? Well ...

[corporalko · 7/10 · 9 March 2019]

There is no actual Raintree County in Indiana -- but then, Ross Lockridge wrote a novel, not a history book. As a native Hoosier, I noticed that a lot of the countryside scenes DO look a lot like southern Indiana. But I noticed that among the credits at the start of the movie were grateful thanks to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and the people of Tennessee and Kentucky. Excuse me? Is it possible that this Hollywood filming crew never set foot in the Hoosier state?

As to the acting, well, Elizabeth Taylor does do a masterful -- mistressful? -- job of playing the dark-haired beauty from the South who meets and falls in love with Montgomery Clift in his small Indiana town. She handles the various twists and turns of the plot and her character well, and well deserved her Academy Award nomination.

Then there's Montgomery Clift. He looks convincingly Civil War in costume and well-coiffed black hair. But ... somehow or other, his facial expressions, his delivery of his lines, the whole way his character comes across, reminded me of a young actor, unsure of himself, in his first stage play. I don't claim to be any expert on his films in general, but as Johnny Shaughnessy I think he falls somewhat short.

And here's one more thing: At several points in the film, the "Hoosiers" have occasion to mention the state capitol, Indianapolis. And they pronounce it, accenting each letter, especially the "O" near the end. Sorry, folks, that isn't how we Hoosiers pronounce the name of our "Naptown." Try this: "Indanap'lis." It reminded me of another movie from the same era, "Some Came Running," also set in Indiana. When some actor had occasion to mention the city Terre Haute, he said "Terry Hout". And I said, "WHAT?"

To sum up, a good, entertaining Civil War movie -- but with some weaknesses that I think could have been avoided.

not that Windy

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 17 February 2020]

John Wickliff Shawnessey (Montgomery Clift) and his girlfriend Nell Gaither (Eva Marie Saint) are part of the 1859 graduating class in Raintree County, Indiana. He is taken with visiting socialite Susanna Drake (Elizabeth Taylor) from a wealthy New Orleans family. Later, she returns to Raintree informing him of her pregnancy. He is honor bound to marry her.

This is trying to be a new Gone with The Wind but it's rather sluggish. The first two hours are a melodrama. Montgomery Clift is a functional heroic lead. Susanna's race heritage is somewhat interesting but her craziness distracts from its sincere seriousness. It could have been a nuanced dissection of race in the south. Like the blackface moment, the movie skirts the issue by blowing it up. Then comes a half hour of war epic. The war epic is not that epic. It's a lighter version of the burning of Atlanta. All in all, it isn't Gone with the Wind. It's only a breeze.

A great-looking film but sadly also a dull one

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 3 September 2014]

Considering the cast and that it is thought as having similarities with Gone With the Wind, Raintree County really did have potential to be a great film. Unfortunately, while it is as bad as some have said it to be it was one of those films with undeniably great things but missed the mark. Raintree County is a wonderful-looking film, the photography has that epic sweep and the costumes and sets are sumptuous and colourful(just look at Elizabeth Taylor's gowns here). Johnny Green's score is hauntingly beautiful with a discordant quality in the darker parts(like the scene in the burnt-out mansion) and a welcome degree of orchestral schmaltz in the strings without over-powering in any way. The song sung by Nat King Cole is highly emotive and Cole gives it even more of an emotional quality. Elizabeth Taylor really does smoulder here and gives some of her finest screen work, giving a very unsympathetic character a good amount of colour. The supporting cast fare well too mostly, Lee Marvin and Neil Patrick especially who look as though they're thoroughly enjoying themselves and steal every scene they feature in. Rod Taylor is fine too. However, Montgomery Clift is too wooden and stoic and spends about half the film looking on edge, understandably admittedly though due to his near-death experience.

Eva Marie Saint had a very underwritten character and poor dialogue to work with but she doesn't succeed in bringing charm or colour to the role and instead comes across as bland and annoying. Agnes Moorhead is quite good but has very little to do considering her calibre. Raintree County is one of those films where it's beautiful and glossy on the surface but under it it's underwhelming. The script is rather leaden in flow with some very clumsy dialogue(especially Saint's and some of Taylor's, the more insane Taylor gets the more uncomfortably over-heated the film gets too). Few of the characters are interesting, Susanna is a colourful character but Nell is both grating and underwritten(like the other woman from hell but in an over-familiar way) and Johnny is even blander and too overly-idealistic, almost at times too perfect as well. The story could have done a much better job with the complex, ahead-of-its-time issues and themes- with better dialogue and characterisation-(Giant also had even more daring issues and themes and incorporated them much more compellingly) and crawls limply along with a particularly long-winded and dramatically passionless first 45 minutes and a lot of overlong padding throughout the film, making the already long length seem longer. This viewer does not have a problem with long lengths or slow pacing, films and TV series have worked with both, but it is highly dependent on how the quality of the writing is which was for me and a lot of others where Raintree County fell short. The direction is rich in spectacle but with not much enthusiasm elsewhere. In conclusion, wonderful-looking but dull, a case of (no meanness intended) the off-screen drama- Clift's car accident/near death experience- being more absorbing than the film itself. The masterpiece that is Gone With the Wind(as this has been compared to) Raintree County is not. 5/10 Bethany Cox

He Married Scarlett O'Hara and Wound up with Blanche Dubois

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 6 May 2005]

When MGM filmed Raintree County it had high hopes that it would be a second Gone With The Wind. It didn't quite come up to that, but it is still a good film on its own merits.

It took about 10 years for MGM to finally bring this to the screen. Shortly before the tragic suicide of author Ross Lockridge, MGM acquired the screen rights to this one and only novel by Lockridge which was a number one best seller in post World War II years.

The story opens in ante bellum Civil War Indiana, specifically in RaintreeCounty. Our hero is John Shawnessy, a sort of aimless young man who teaches school for lack of better direction. He's a sensitive soul with deep abolitionist convictions and no one was a more sensitive soul on the screen than Montgomery Clift.

If all had gone well, Monty would have probably married the girl from home played by Eva Marie Saint. But a visiting Southern belle played by Elizabeth Taylor in her best fiddle-dee-dee Scarlett O'Hara manner sweeps Monty off his feet. He hasn't got a prayer.

But Liz Taylor got her first Academy Award nomination not for simply imitating Scarlett O'Hara. Her role requires her to descend into the madness of Vivien Leigh's other Southern belle Oscar part, Blanche Dubois. It's on this devolution of character that Liz Taylor the actress really shines. She lost the Oscar sweepstakes that year to Joanne Woodward's Three Faces of Eve.

The film almost wasn't finished because of a horrible automobile accident that nearly killed Monty Clift during production. As it was, it was held up for three months while the best plastic surgeons looked to reconstruct Montgomery Clift's face. You can see clearly those shots before and after the accident.

Liz Taylor in her documentary tribute to her favorite leading man and best friend in the world said that Monty Clift did not lose the physical beauty, but he did lose the delicacy of his features which were her own words. In a strange way it probably helped his performance because John Shawnessy does go to war and war is an experience known for scarring and aging people.

As in A Place In the Sun, Monty and Liz's scenes together have that extra dimension that people who care about each other deeply can give a scene. Raintree County should be seen for that alone.

Eva Marie Saint as the good girl from home does all right, but her character just doesn't have the depth that Liz's and Monty's do. Eva Marie is just given less to work with. Others in this nicely rounded cast are Lee Marvin as Clift's friend and rival from his hometown, Agnes Moorehead and Walter Abel as Clift's parents, Rod Taylor as a sleazy politician and Nigel Patrick who observes it all as a wandering reprobate who takes a liking to Clift.

It's not Gone With the Wind, but it's pretty good.

Not nearly as bad as has been said over the years

[jackhutchinson · 7/10 · 15 February 2005]

I have always loved this film, mainly because of the hauntingly beautiful score by Johnny Green. For too long "Raintree County" has been compared with "Gone with the Wind". The whole story and concept is very different. I agree with another poster here that Liz Taylor is marvelous in this, playing out her mental illness. How very sad that Monty Clift died so young. There was so much potential in him for older male roles of character years later. Maybe there will be a time when gay actors won't live quiet lives of desperate misery in fear of losing their careers. Also I think the cinematography is quite rich. Perhaps the late MGM work is not all that great but this one is hardly as terrible as so many film critics and historians have told us over the years since it was made in 1957.

Muddled Mess

[wc1996-428-366101 · 1/10 · 24 November 2012]

I feel really guilty because my partner of 40 years, who is an avid film collector, fished this tape out of his vast repository (5000 films) and set it up so I could watch it. Since his media center is in one room and our eating space in another (the kitchen)I was running back and forth between the movie and my breakfast lasagne waiting breathlessly for La Liz's entrance which I caught just in time between bites of food and of course she was ravishing as always and utterly the center of attention in every shot, everyone else fading into the woodwork - there will never be a star to equal her! But alas the script is a muddled mess and there is no question the studio (MGM)could not have found a worse writer than they did - I looked him up here and he did nothing to warrant being asked to adapt Raintree County from the book which he did along with the book's author. Right off the bat both the story and the central character (The Professor) are just plain silly with heartthrob Clift running off into a swamp in his Sunday Best for absolutely no reason and the professor running off with some man's wife. What all this has to do with the main storyline is anyone's guess, but after reading the synopsis of the story here I realized that poor MGM in its quest to film a sequel to GWTW failed miserably with this pathetic attempt. As the old saying says, you can't go home again!

Susanna Drake is among Taylor's most colorful and intelligent characterizations

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 8/10 · 7 February 2009]

Liz is a disturbed New Orleans belle with a vision that she's part black… She's the beautiful femme fatale to Eva Marie Saint's inevitable cowardly heroine… As in "A Place in the Sun," Liz is used as the symbol of a particular social class and a particular kind of woman… She sets her mark on an idealistic young man John Wickliff Shawnessy (Montgomery Clift) who's looking for the mythical rain tree that contains the secret of the meaning of life…

Trapping him into marriage with the lie that she's pregnant, and then proceeding to lose her hold on her sanity, Susanna detains the good and helpless John for eight years… He is released, able to return to his magnificent dream and to his pure childhood sweetheart, only after tragic events…

Retaining the essence of Ross Lockridge, Jr. best-seller, the movie states the equality of the unhappy romance with the Civil War: the personal drama is therefore a reflection of the nation's wounds… According to the top-heavy symbolism, Susanna Drake represents the South, corrupting and dragging down the North; she's the Body contaminating the poet's Soul…

Taylor plays Susanna Drake's character with an intensity that exceeds all her earlier work… Montgomery Clift as the unlucky poet and Eva Marie Saint as his high school sweetheart and true love are on the remote side, but the scenes with Liz strike fire in a wonderfully brilliant way…

With its battles and its formal balls, its magnificent riverboats and decayed mansions, its bordellos and madhouses, its childbirth and deathbed scenes, and its evacuation of Atlanta, Edward Dmytryk's "Raintree County," like its source, has undeniable epic dimension

With all that money and gloss, a surprisingly bland and uninvolving flick

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 20 August 2006]

Considering the budget and big name actors involved, this movie is a big disappointment. After all, with these ingredients and the hope of MGM execs that this would repeat the success of GONE WITH THE WIND, the movie came up surprisingly short. Sure, the story is set in the same time period, though mostly in the North, but somehow sparks just never fly. Most of this, it seems, is because none of the characters or what happens to them are very interesting and the audience is left feeling little connection with them. Now this isn't to say it's a bad film, just a pretty average time-passer--a very, very, very long time passer!

Eva Marie Saint plays the ultra-nice but rather bland sweetheart of Montgomery Clift when the movie begins. They had apparently been sweet on each other for some time and it looks as if they will eventually marry,...that is, until pretty and vivacious Liz Taylor comes to town and throws herself at Clift. Considering that Ms. Saint's character is never allowed to develop into anything other than a lady who pines for Monty, I could see why Clift ultimately fell for Taylor in the story. Saint's character just was way under-written--needing to be hashed out into a three-dimensional person instead of a rather broad and pathetic character who inexplicably hung around for the whole movie.

Now as for Clift, he, too, was a bit bland. While he had much more depth than Ms. Saint, much of the movie he just reacted to events instead of being a man of action. For example, he never actually asked Liz to marry him until she told him she was pregnant, he was an abolitionist but never really said of did anything about this until the war was about to begin--even though his wife brought a couple slaves with her when they first got married, he didn't enter the war until it was half over and his wife disappeared into the South with their son, and he wanted to go into politics at the end of the film but wouldn't commit since he felt an obligation to stay and take care of his mentally ill wife--at which point the wife killed herself because she knew he wouldn't do anything about politics until she was dead. What a total wimp--a very, very far cry from Rhett Butler or even Namby-pamby Ashley Wilkes!! As for Liz Taylor, she was the only one of the main characters with any depth or interesting back story. The problem, though, is that her character was histrionic and became progressively more and more mentally ill as the story went--but that alone was the only depth given to her character.

So, we are left to conclude that the story involves pretty dull and uninvolving people. And, considering that much of it occurs during the Civil War, it is amazingly turgid and slow. There are so many better and more interesting epic films or films about the war. This one just seems like it has a lot of style but absolutely no substance. This is the rare case where I really thought the movie could stand to have at least 25% of the film edited out to make for a tighter and more watchable film.

Boring Southern epic is better than taking a tranquilizer...an utter waste of time and talent...

[Doylenf · 4/10 · 21 July 2003]

This is the kind of epic that makes you realize how wonderful GONE WITH THE WIND was by comparison. Dull characters are defeated by a dull script. It's better than taking a tranquilizer to put you to sleep.

A long, lumbering, disorganized tale that takes so long in getting to the heart of the story that it's very likely you'll tune out before the story begins. Nothing helps. Not the costumes, the scenery, the pallid performances--the wooden behavior of Montgomery Clift--the syrupy Southern accent affected by Elizabeth Taylor--the pale performance of Eva Marie Saint. Only Nigel Patrick and Rod Taylor bring what little life the story has to realization. They all seem to be trying but nothing works and it remains strangely uninvolving.

Taylor's role is so buried in whatever torment she's supposed to feel with regard to her past, that it becomes annoyingly clear that we're never going to know the truth about her character until the very end of the story. And that end takes an excessively long time in coming without providing enough interesting plot ideas to keep one interested or even caring about the fate of these colorless characters.

An awful bore--so bad that the only compliment I can give the film is its rich musical score by Johnny Green and the title tune which is sung by Nat King Cole with an attractive choral arrangement as backup. Sadly, it can't compensate for the film's many drawbacks.

A total waste of time and talent. Montgomery Clift's accident may have contributed to his lifeless performance but his role, as written, is no help and his character is an insufferable bore. Miss Taylor is no Scarlett O'Hara and Eva Marie Saint makes no impression whatsoever.

GWTW it's not

[burgbob975 · 20 July 2002]

Raintree County, MGM's attempt to make a picture that would faintly remind audiences of Gone With the Wind, did have two things in common with the earlier film: Technicolor and length. Otherwise, it was a disaster, a clichéd period piece heavy on costumes, very light on absorbing human situations.

Raintree had two insurmountable problems: ham-handed direction and a clumsy, uninspired script that failed to flesh out the characters of several cast members including two leading players. Worst impacted was Monty Clift as Johnny Shawnessy, a role so bland that it offered the actor nothing to grab hold of. Johnny is simply a nice person, honorable, loyal, patient, and truthful. He is someone of good values, a person to rely on, occasionally funny in an adolescent sort of way, and a good son to his boring two-dimensional parents. (Correction. Agnes Moorhead as Johnny's mother is one dimensional. The script's fault, not hers.) In short, there's nothing interesting about Johnny. He's ordinary. Apparently, studio executives didn't see a problem with this, even though Johnny Shawnessy is continuously front and center in a film that originally ran for almost three hours, as it does again in the restored video version.

Clift, one of the most gifted American film actors of the twentieth century, knew he was prostituting himself by appearing in Raintree. He responded by delivering what is arguably the worst performance of his career. It's painful to watch him: in most of his scenes he appears pallid, slightly dwarfish, and insignificant, giving the impression that he was privately making believe he really wasn't in the film at all.

The first excruciating hour of the picture is almost enough to drive audiences out of the theater. Since GWTW was long, Raintree County is long--and unfocused. In one particularly vapid scene Monty and Eva Marie Saint linger amid the widescreen splendor of well-scouted, photographically appropriate locations. As the two exchange graduation presents with Laurel and Hardy-like formality, the script calls for Eva Marie to coyly break into girlish giggles and say things like `Isn't that niiieeccce?...We think the same things. Isn't that crazy? Tee-hee-hee-hee-hee.' Privately, Eva Marie must have been wondering what crime she might have committed to have caused fate to whirl her from the triumph of her 1954 performance in On the Waterfront to this swampy mess.

The film is equally inept in making use of Lee Marvin, who was reduced to doing his loutish, clumsy, I'm-so-dumb schtick. Marvin wasn't nearly as good at broad physical comedy as he and some others seemed to think he was. (Doing more subtle comedy, however, where less is more, was another thing altogether for Marvin. Watch him as a clueless wannabe in a wonderful film like Pocket Money to see what he can do with a great comic role.) We watch as Lee challenges Monty first to a race (lots of grotesquely exaggerated, manly calisthenics at the starting line), then to see who can out-drink the other, while a dozen equally buffoonish male extras shout and yell on cue. Johnny, a guileless innocent, gets thoroughly looped for the first time in his life, whoops it up, and executes a flying swan dive into a bunch of liquor barrels. (In real life, Monty was a little less innocent than Johnny Shawnessy; according to his biographers, he was a walking all-nite pharmacy of illicit substances.)

To give credit where it's due, the film is briefly buoyed by the presence of the wonderful Nigel Patrick as a roguish schoolmaster with an eye for other men's wives. Happily for us, Patrick steals all of his scenes, impatiently bellowing at or comically insulting his young charges and generally pumping some desperately needed fire and energy into the film.

After a very long time, something of major interest finally occurs: Elizabeth Taylor makes her entrance. Sexy, conniving, dark-eyed Liz steals Johnny away from poor, decent Eva Marie and soon hornswoggles him into marrying her by falsely claiming to be pregnant. While on their honeymoon aboard a paddlewheeler, she nonchalantly arranges a dozen dolls on their bed and shows Monty her all-time favorite, a hideous half-white, half-black doll, appearing burnt in a fire and looking like it was designed by Bela Lugosi. This creepy figurine seemingly makes no impression on Monty, even as members of the audience are rearing back in horror, crossing themselves, and yelling `Monty! Watch out!!'

Taylor delivers a solid performance that displays the rising talent that she had already shown a few years before in A Place in the Sun and which would later would come to fruition in such films as Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf and Giant. As Susanna Drake, she is initially sexually beguiling towards Johnny. Then, after they marry, she begins to show the first signs of the madness within her. As the atmosphere around her grows slowly darker, you find yourself surprised to realize you're at last being drawn into the story. The actress took a gamble with this unsympathetic role, that of a southern-born woman who fails to see anything wrong with owning slaves and is terrified of possibly finding that she might have a single drop of `negra' blood in her veins. At the same time she manages to elicit a measure of sympathy for this narrow and unbalanced woman by displaying a touching vulnerability simultaneously with her fear of what's happening to her mind.

If anyone triumphs in this upholstered turkey, it's Liz Taylor, always a born survivor.

Civil War-era scandals and family skeletons...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 24 July 2006]

Sprawling MGM production (the studio's attempt to outdo their own "Gone With the Wind"), based on Ross Lockridge Jr.'s book and featuring Elizabeth Taylor as a southern belle haunted by a family trauma. Montgomery Clift plays an Indiana schoolteacher who chances to meets belle Taylor in his beloved Raintree County, leading to a pre-marital affair (and pregnancy); they marry, but he finds living in her neck of the woods undesirable, and she's not welcomed graciously among the Yankees. The Civil War works as a catalyst to bring the two together, where Clift finds his passion for politics coming to the fore. Eva Marie Saint plays an unmarried, moral girl who loves Monty despite his mistakes, Lee Marvin is a tough rowdy who takes on all comers, Rod Taylor plays a political snake, and so on. The story is engrossing, occasionally over-heated and over-zealous, but seldom dull. Still, Taylor, despite getting an Oscar nod for Best Actress, disappears for a long stretch of the proceedings--and this isn't an attractive role for her anyway (she gets to play the insane bit, but it's a groaner). The movie really belongs to Clift, and his performance in the first hour is quite strong (an off-the-set car accident causes his acting in the second-half to be a bit timid). Far too long and predictable, "Raintree County" still isn't bad, with terrific cinematography by Robert Surtees and a sumptuous, Oscar-nominated background score by Johnny Green. **1/2 from ****

An underrated film....and I don't know why!

[themonster0 · 7/10 · 31 August 2017]

Many people have savaged this film over the years, but like 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' I have to watch 'Raintree County' every time it is on TCM.

Considering the tragic accident that happened to Cliff during the filming, I am always in wonder that director Edward Dmytryk was able to make a film that holds together so well. The acting, cinematography and the writing are excellent. Even in the scenes where you can tell Cliff is in pain, his acting is great. Taylor, as always, is her excellent self.

True, the film is long, but don't let that scare you. This film is worth the time to sit down and watch.

Almost the Worst of the Worst

[neocanuckbd · 1/10 · 27 April 2018]

A muddled attempt to achieve a great movie that fails on nearly every level and an absolute waste of time to watch unless you are into unintentional camp failures.

A Sad Southern Saga

[ldeangelis-75708 · 8/10 · 16 January 2023]

I loved this movie, despite its being so downbeat and sometimes depressing. I thought Elizabeth Taylor was fantastic, and I found myself rooting for her, in spite of her character's instability, and her having tricked Montgomery Clift into marriage. I thought their screen chemistry was more powerful than his with Eva Marie Saint, who came off as insipid in her role of rejected sweetheart. (It's like comparing sparkling champagne to flat ginger ale.)

The scenes in the institution were stark and haunting, as was that very unique doll collection. So much fear and tragedy, as well as a two-edge maternal sword: if her mother was a slave woman, then she's part black (anathema to a southern belle); if she's her father's legal wife, then she's inherited mental illness. Top it off with the clash of cultures between her and her northern husband, and suspicion that he still loves his still single ex, and you just know they'll be no Hollywood happy ending.

Yet you'll still watch.

"I'd Just As Soon Live In a Gopher Hole!"

[davidcarniglia · 7/10 · 24 September 2018]

Great cinematography in a period romantic drama. Raintree County contains some Garden of Eden folklore; as Montegomery Clift's John makes finding its mythical raintree his goal.

An interesting premise, a tale close to the Brothers Grimm. Fairhaven, as its name implies, is the idyllic hometown for Clift, Lee Marvin, Eva Marie Saint, and Nigel Patrick. Marvin's 'Flash' and Patrick's Professor are larger-than-life characters not far from the Johnny Appleseed mold that the townspeople invoke as the raintree's founder.

Eva Marie Saint's Nell plays an angelic love interest for John; but Elizabeth Taylor's Susanna pretty much spikes the punch by seducing John away from Nell. She's everything that Nell, and, by extension, most of the rest of the town is not: Southern, wealthy, and manipulative. Nell never really lets go of John, though.

Taylor does a great job as the manic-depressive Southern belle; John finds himself spellbound by her. Her fake pregnancy doesn't seem to bother him much, although her obsession with dolls; in particular the hideously half-burned one, does give him pause. She seems so bent on keeping skeletons in the closet that she believes the gossip about her mixed-race parentage.

Ironically, as John later discovers, she knows that the black woman Henrietta isn't her mother. It's as though she wants to disappoint or compromise John by keeping the rumors alive. Nothing good seems to happen in the South. Aside from the surprises, deceptions, and evasions facing John there, the war makes it literally hostile.

One part of the war sequence didn't work. Since both sides were allowed to recruit regiments locally, so John would likely run into 'Flash'; and he's certainly going to end up in one of the Union Army's campaigns in the South. But the odds of him just happening upon Susanna's family's plantation is infinitesimal. Admittedly, that bunch of scenes tidies up the plot.

Finding Susanna in the asylum after the war was a scary bit. Their subsequent return to Fairhaven had the odd effect of miraculously 'curing' Susanna. But not for long. There's a puzzling scene at John's house as Nell tries to convince John to get into politics, while Susanna stands by passively.

That lays the groundwork for Susanna's disappearance into the swamp; it's as though she realizes that John will never be happy with her. She kills herself to let Nell have him after all. As a bonus, John finds his missing son under the fall foliage of the actual raintree.

This movie is great to look at. As others have noted, though, without Marvin, Patrick, and Taylor, most of the acting falls somewhat flat. That contributes to a tone problem. Some scenes, such as at the asylum and at the party (where the guy dons blackface to mock the freed slaves), are powerful and disturbing. But most of the Fairhaven and swamp excursion scenes seem to be in another world; and when we see the Professor or 'Flash' we know that something harmless is coming.

The tranquility-disturbed-by-chaos theme would work better if Clift's character wasn't so guileless. Nothing seems to jar him out of his odd sense of detachment. He's never wholly in the Raintree world or Susanna's world. I realize that Clift had a real-life trauma during the time of the movie's filming. But even in early scenes, presumably shot before his accident, he seems a bit dazed. As far as Taylor's character goes, I couldn't figure out the point of the dolls; the burned one had meaning for her, but the hoard of other dolls isn't really explained. I guess we're to assume that she's stuck emotionally at her age at the time of the fire.

Despite these loose ends, Raintree County is worth spending time with; the song is as beguiling as Fairhaven itself. 7/10.

Exhibit A for Evidence Proving Not All Classics are Good

[bkrauser-81-311064 · 4/10 · 13 August 2016]

People keep asking me, often in a huff, "why do you think older films are automatically better than newer films". Indeed, nearly every older film I've reviewed gets at least a passing grade versus, the odd movie that I catch in theaters. I figure a good half of those are simply not worth your time no matter how much subconscious or unrealized buyers remorse you have. Yet such criticism I feel is unfounded based on the simple fact that most of the older films I've seen come highly recommended by critics and audiences old enough to remember them. I'm not going to say that all critically lauded or "important" films are great or even good, but when you're fishing from a stream known to have fish, you can't be surprised when catch a few prized trouts.

In proving my point, Raintree County is exhibit A when it comes to crappy films made before your parents were old enough to vote. At nearly three hours, this Civil War era drama is as overwrought, underwhelming and bloated as this year's DC Extended Universe flicks. While trying to be that generation's Gone with the Wind (1939), the film only succeeds in sabotaging the legacy of the book it's based off of. I caught this film while watching TCM and in keeping with the analogy of the opening paragraph, I wish I had thrown it back.

Raintree County is the story of an idealistic school teacher (Clift) and his decade long romance with high school sweetheart, Susanna a mentally unstable southern belle played by Elizabeth Taylor in full Mommie Dearest (1981) mode. Bred from a well-to-do family in the plantation south, Susanna can't help but fall in love with Clift's rather plain John Shawnessy and shuttles up to Raintree County in Indiana just before he onset of the war. Feeling displaced, she leaves with their son in tow to stay with her family in Georgia. The war starts, John joins the Union Army to find his family, Susanna is institutionalized, someone gets cancer, the butler did it and the dog saves the day. Okay those last three things don't really happen but that's the kind of molasses thick melodrama you can expect from this musty relic.

As a historical figure director Edward Dmytryk is infamous for being one of the Hollywood Ten that refused to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare. As a director however, he reached his professional high-point with The Caine Mutiny (1954) which had the same languid sepia feel that feels like the film negatives were drenched in urine. Camera-wise Raintree is ham-fisted and full of the same sweeping brush strokes that made Gone with the Wind so iconic. Yet in the hands of Dmytryk and veteran cinematographer Robert Surtees, it just feels like a carbon copy of a carbon copy of a carbon copy.

Elizabeth Taylor does a commendable job hanging on to the little human bits that keep Susanna just north of realistic. Yet when we get to the final act it becomes obvious that her performance is playing to the cheap seats for Oscar glory. Montgomery Clift is as dead as a door nail in this lugubrious mess and Lee Marvin's portrayal as John's friend Flash is one-note and broad. The only real stand out really is Nigel Patrick whose roguish school master seems to have come out of a Neil Simon play just to slap the cardboard around.

Raintree County is a perfect example of an old film that should be forgotten despite its caliber as Oscar-bait before there was such a thing. It's listless, boring, over-broad, airless and unfocused. It's as if someone took an old-timey hot air balloon and made it a movie. Sure it glistens in the sunlight thanks to it's costume jewelry encrusted moorings but it's also painfully slow and not worth looking at for too long.

Magnifique

[ReadingFilm · 10/10 · 3 October 2022]

The top review here of, "no solid idea what this trash movie was about" is really embarrassing and should not be on imdb let alone the first remarks on a powerful and elegant epic that is so well crafted. It is like teenagers putting graffiti on a classic painting.

The film is really great once Taylor starts turning it up and the melodrama kicks in. It is really an anti-epic. You see the traces of the 60s showing up, with their own graffiti, and the demon goddess Taylor became. The movie is a lot more transgressive than its given credit. The quotation of slavery and all the southern tropes are countering its dreaminess bringing an unease across it. Clift is acting the hell out the character and it reads constantly. Point is he wants to be a writer, when he is in a literary moment in history that does not need him. How do people come of age in historic times?

He chooses to craft his own love story, choosing the bad girl instead of the good one. She gives him soul at a cost. It's deadly, reflecting the setting. Like, she is pro-slave... It is almost Interview with the Vampire how he reacts to her.

That is the beauty of melodrama on screen it is bringing the most bleak kind of shocking art, but at a totally comfortable distance... for us to experience, not be imprinted with. They just saw the need to hint at things back then. They are our parents films, much as we think we invented everything they were every bit like us.

Try not to compare it to "Gone With the Wind"

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 19 July 2017]

Raintree County was intended to repeat the glory of Gone with the Wind, but despite the similarities, it is still its own movie in its own right. If you go into it comparing it to one of the universal favorite films of all time, you'll be disappointed. Elizabeth Taylor is the Scarlett O'Hara type, a shallow, flirtatious Southern belle, and Eva Marie Saint plays the meek Melanie character. In this movie, however, there's no Rhett Butler substitute. The male lead is a sensitive dreamer, Montgomery Clift, reminiscent of Ashley Wilkes.

The plot is slightly different, even though it's a Southern epic during the Civil War. Monty is a student who enjoys the finer things, and he has a lot in common with his childhood friend, Eva Marie. When the visiting Liz comes to town and wows him with her gorgeous gowns, beautiful face, and tight bathing suit, Eva Marie doesn't stand a chance. But why does that mean our loyalties should lie with Eva Marie for the rest of the movie? Yes, she got thrown over for a prettier girl, but is that the end of the world? She never gets over it, and she spends the rest of the movie lurking around like a bad penny. It's obvious Monty and Liz are deeply in love, so if you want to root for them, go right ahead.

After all, not only did they make a sizzling pair onscreen, but they were lifelong friends in real life. It's always nice to know when costars actually got along during the filming, but this movie had a terrible tinge of sadness to it. The handsomest star of his era was horribly maimed in a car accident in the middle of filming Raintree County. The production was halted, but when it resumed, and for the rest of his life, he was never the same. The physical and emotional changes were heartbreaking. His costars, his dear friend, and director Edward Dmytryk had their hands full, and it's a labor of love for them to have finished the last picture featuring the man he used to be.

On a brighter note, Johnny Green's beautiful score won the Rag Award in 1957. It has many lovely themes and truly puts you in the setting of the film. Elizabeth Taylor also earned a Rag nomination for her surprisingly dramatic performance. You'll also see Lee Marvin, who at that point had been steadily showing his face in featured roles. I'm not a fan of his, but I can totally understand why he became more of a star after this movie. He has a very memorable part, and a very endearing key scene.

Ten ton turkey

[jamdonahoo · 5/10 · 19 February 2008]

The attempt of MGM to replicate GWTW resulted in a forty pound robin of a film. While the scenery is beautiful the characters are dull as dish water. In GWTW all the players are memorable while in this mess not one interesting, likable, or even hateable character exists. Poor Montgomery Clift, no wonder he was drinking heavily throughout the filming. Compare his role as Johnny to Gable's Rhett Butler. An example of total miscasting. Clift's acting skills were becoming increasingly wooden as his career progressed. Even the lovely Liz could not redeem this worthless extravaganza. It is bad, pretentious, poorly written, overbaked and excruciatingly long.