Raintree County ** (1957, Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick, Lee Marvin, Rod Taylor, Agnes Moorehead, Walter Abel) – Classic Movie Review 6,416

Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Eva Marie Saint star in MGM’s extravagant 1957 American epic historical romantic Western war film Raintree County, based on Ross Lockridge Jr’s 1948 novel. 

A typecast Elizabeth Taylor settles in comfortably to a tailor-made role as a gorgeous Southern American belle in a showy, Oscar-nominated performance as Susanna Drake, cast opposite her favourite actor friend Montgomery Clift as John Wickliff Shawnessy, in MGM’s extravagantly plush 1957 American Civil War soap opera film Raintree County. It was nominated for four Oscars.

It is set in Freehaven, Raintree County, Indiana, in the mid-19th century when John Shawnessy has just graduated as a writer, and falls in love with Southern belle Susanna, but the Civil War and her past get in the way.

Despite the exceptional cast in their prime, the superb studio and Deep South location production (Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky) and Robert Surtees’s marvellous Technicolor widescreen cinematography, director Edward Dmytryk manages only a mediocre film.

For this, blame this sprawling, unfocused movie’s rambling length (167 minutes), the cardboard characters, the dull story and the unconvincing dialogue in Millard Kaufman’s screenplay, based on the 1948 novel by Ross Lockridge Jr.

The movie is certainly in the interesting and watchable category, but must be considered a disappointment given the massive amount of talent and effort and cost involved.

It also stars the alluring line-up of Eva Marie Saint as Nell Gaither, Nigel Patrick as Professor Jerusalem Webster Stiles, Lee Marvin as Orville ‘Flash’ Perkins, Rod Taylor as Garwood B Jones, Agnes Moorehead as Ellen Shawnessy, and Walter Abel as T D Shawnessy.

It is produced by David Lewis and scored by Johnny Green, with Art Direction by William A Horning and Urie McCleary.

Also in the cast are Jarma Lewis, Tom Drake, Gardner McKay, Rhys Williams, Russell Collins, DeForest Kelley, Myrna Hansen, Olive Blake, and John Eldredge.

It was nominated for four Oscars: Best Actress (Taylor), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (William A Horning, Urie McCleary, Edwin B Willis, Hugh Hunt ), Best Costume Design (Walter Plunkett) and Best Music, Scoring (Johnny Green). Patrick took a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

MGM bought the film rights of Ross Lockridge Jr’s unpublished manuscript for $150,000 in July 1947, and it became a US bestseller when the book was released in January 1948. The planned film was delayed, then shelved, because of rising costs, but revived in 1955. Filming took place from April 1956 to October 1956.

It previewed at the Granada Theater Santa Barbara, California, on 24 January 1957 at 186 minutes, and then premiered at the Brown Theatre (now restored) in Louisville, Kentucky, on 2 October 1957. But in November it was announced that 15 minutes would be cut for general release in the US in December 1957.

It runs 182 minutes (Roadshow release), 172 minutes (restored roadshow VHS) or between 159 and 165 minutes (General Release Version and DVD). The Roadshow version was released on VHS by Warner as ‘Reconstructed Original Version’ and has also been screened on Turner Classic Movies. It has nearly 15 minutes more footage than the General Release Version.

It cost a high $5,474,000, but was very popular, earning $9,080,000 (worldwide total), though MGM still recorded a loss of $484,000.

Montgomery Clift was injured and nearly killed in a car crash during production. Tired and with hangover, he drove into a telephone pole and wrecked his car on the evening of 12 May 1956. He broke his nose, cut his lip, and fractured his jaw, which had to be wired together by surgery.

He returned to finish the film after weeks in surgery and recovery. The accident changed him for ever.  The left side of his face was partly paralysed and his acting was markedly different. Drink and drugs also took a heavy toll on his face and posture.

Apparently his scenes shot before the accident are the only colour footage of him before he was disfigured as all his previous movies were black-and-white.

It is the first film shot in a 65-millimeter anamorphic widescreen process originally called MGM Camera 65, later renamed Ultra Panavision 70, which gave an extra-wide image of 2.76:1, later used for Ben-Hur. 

It is only a movie, but… After Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 election, the crowd sings ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’, but Julia Ward Howe wrote the poem the song is based on for the Atlantic Monthly in 1861. And, while celebrating Lincoln’s 1860 election in 1860, the band plays ‘Rally Round the Flag’, which was not written until 1862 by George F Root.

The cast are Elizabeth Taylor as Susanna Drake, Montgomery Clift as John Wickliff Shawnessy, Eva Marie Saint as Nell Gaither, Nigel Patrick as Professor Jerusalem Webster Stiles, Lee Marvin as Orville ‘Flash’ Perkins, Rod Taylor as Garwood B Jones, Agnes Moorehead as Ellen Shawnessy, and Walter Abel as T D Shawnessy, Jarma Lewis as Barbara Drake, Tom Drake as Bobby Drake, Rhys Williams as Ezra Gray, Russell Collins as Niles Foster, DeForest Kelley as Southern officer, Myrna Hansen as Lydia Grey, Gardner McKay, Olive Blake, and John Eldredge.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,416

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