The Rains Came (1939)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

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.

This movie has, for its time, amazing special effects for the flood scene. To let you know HOW amazing the effects were, in this category, THE RAINS CAME beat out GONE WITH THE WIND and its amazing burning of Atlanta! It was THAT good and worth seeing just for this segment. As for the rest of the story, it's okay--not great. It reminds me a lot of the movie JEZEBEL--completed just a year earlier. Both feature a female lead who is spoiled but who eventually prove themselves and both end up with similar fates. George Brent is excellent though it's odd to see Tyrone Power in the role of an Indian--with no trace of an Indian accent! Mr. Power does NOT do a whole lot to impress the audience with his acting range, but he looks nice in a suit. All in all, the story seems a tad familiar and pretty ordinary, but certainly not bad.

I was eight years old when I saw this movie. It was the first movie I remember seeing. My mother says that initially I refused to go into the movie theater because it was a dark, and to me, forbidding place. Once inside, however, I didn't want to leave. I have never seen the movie since, but the images of flooding and sick people under mosquito nets are as vivid to me as if I had seen it yesterday. I also have memories of being put through an emotional wringer by the film, thinking it was "real" and crying at the death and destruction it portrayed. The total effect was to hook me on movies for good and I could hardly wait to get back into that dark, engrossing place.

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.