The Rains of Ranchipur * (1955, Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Fred MacMurray, Michael Rennie, Joan Caulfield, Eugenie Leontovich) – Classic Movie Review 8129

Director Jean Negulesco’s lumbering and uninspired 1955 The Rains of Ranchipur is a slow and slapdash retread of 1939’s The Rains Came, with the young Richard Burton all at sea, miscast in Tyrone Power’s old role as the Indian nobleman doctor Rama Safti, who is seduced by rich and lovely rich American socialite married woman Lady Edwina Esketh (Lana Turner).

The sexual chemistry just is not there between the stars, and there is little conviction in the storytelling, but much is forgiven when the special effects team conjures up a decent monsoon and earthquake, even if you can see the joins in the process work really clearly on TV.

It is a very old-fashioned outing for a film made in the mid-Fifties and time has not been particularly kind to it. Michael Rennie has the thankless task of playing the part of Turner’s English husband Lord Albert Esketh, which he contrives to make even duller than it is written. Fred MacMurray and Joan Caulfield do not fare much better as Tom Ransome and Fern Simon.

The Eskeths travel to India to buy a prize stallion from the ruler of Ranchipur, the Maharani (Eugenie Leontovich).

Also in the cast are Gladys Hurlbut, Madge Kennedy, Carlo Rizzo, John Banner, Paul Frees, George Brand, Argentina Brunetti, Phyllis Johannes, Elizabeth Prudhomme, Ram Singh, Lou Krugman and Ivis Goulding.

Merle Miller adapts Louis Bromfield’s novel The Rains Came and is is shot in CinemaScope and Deluxe Color by Milton R Krasner.

Joan Caulfield was married to producer Frank Ross.

It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Special Effects.

Burton looks silly in a turban, especially when it is Turner you expect to be wearing one.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8129

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