A Walk in the Spring Rain

Last updated
A Walk in the Spring Rain
WALK IN THE SPRING RAIN POSTER.jpg
Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn in A Walk in the Spring Rain
Directed by Guy Green
Written by Stirling Silliphant
Based onA Walk in the Spring Rain
1966 novel
by Rachel Maddux
Produced byStirling Silliphant
Starring Anthony Quinn
Ingrid Bergman
Cinematography Charles Lang
Edited by Ferris Webster
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Don Black
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • April 9, 1970 (1970-04-09)(Knoxville)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A Walk in the Spring Rain is a 1970 American romantic drama film in Eastmancolor made by Columbia Pictures, directed by Guy Green and produced by Stirling Silliphant, from his own screenplay based on the novel by Rachel Maddux. Outside location scenes were filmed in New York City, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Knoxville, Tennessee. [1]

Contents

The film stars Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn, with Fritz Weaver, Katherine Crawford, and Virginia Gregg. The music score was by Elmer Bernstein and the cinematography by Charles Lang. Martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, a personal friend of producer Stirling Silliphant, choreographed the fight between Will Cade (Anthony Quinn) and his son.

Plot

Libby Meredith and her law-professor husband, Roger, 52, move from New York to a small house in the Tennessee backwoods during a snowy winter. Their married neighbor, Will Cade, is attracted to Libby and very helpful and friendly to them. While her intellectual husband is busy writing a book, Libby comes to like the country life and finds herself attracted to Will's rural sensibilities, culminating in a brief affair.

Libby is surprised when her daughter, Ellen, arrives to ask them to return to New York so Libby can help raise grandson Bucky while Ellen attends Harvard Law School. Will's erratic son, who had seen his father and Libby embracing in the woods, molests her when she is out walking. Will rescues her but accidentally kills his son in rescuing her from his clutches. After attending the funeral, the disillusioned Merediths decide to return to New York because they have drifted apart, Roger has failed to finish his book, and Ellen needs Libby for Bucky. When Libby bids the Cades goodbye, he follows her for a private conversation and says he will wait for her to return, but she says she no longer believes in miracles. The last scene, very similar to the first one, shows Libby wearing the same clothes and picking up Bucky from school, and part of the song "A Walk in the Spring Rain" plays over the end credits. [2]

Cast

Production

Writer-producer Stirling Silliphant heard about Bergman's interest in the 1966 Rachel Maddux novel, A Walk in the Spring Rain , and she joined the project. It was her first American film in more than 20 years. Silliphant and would-be director Kevin Billington had a creative disagreement, and Guy Green directed. Green said he made it to work with the stars. [3]

Production was slated for West Virginia, but was moved to the Tennessee part of the Great Smoky Mountains and the national park, primarily the Cades Cove area. Some filming was done in nearby Knoxville and in Gatlinburg, which borders the park; [1] the Merediths spend a weekend at the Gatlinburg Motor Inn (now The Gatlinburg Inn) on Parkway and do some shopping along the street. Rehearsals began in April 1968, and principal photography started in April 1969. [1] It moved to New York City in May or early June and was delayed a day when thieves stole $250,000 worth of equipment. [1] Replacement gear was brought in from Los Angeles.

Release

The world premiere was held April 9, 1970 at the Capri 70 theatre, as part of Knoxville's annual Dogwood Arts Festival. It grossed $17,561 in its opening week, a Knoxville record, and expanded into other theaters in the South East of the United States. [4] "Critical reception was largely negative, and the film proved to be a commercial failure," according to the American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films. [1] A book, Fiction Into Film: A Walk in the Spring Rain, was published in 1970 by the University of Tennessee Press. It included Maddux's novel, Silliphant's screenplay, and commentary by Neil D. Isaacs "on the fashioning of the script and various stages of production," according to Variety . [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingrid Bergman</span> Swedish actress (1915–1982)

Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress. With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cinematic history. She won numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, four Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Award, and a Volpi Cup. She is one of only four actresses to have received at least three acting Academy Awards. In 1999, the American Film Institute recognised Bergman as the fourth greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sevier County, Tennessee</span> County in Tennessee, United States

Sevier County is a county of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 98,380. Its county seat and largest city is Sevierville. Sevier County comprises the Sevierville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Knoxville-Morristown-Sevierville, TN Combined Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gatlinburg, Tennessee</span> City in Tennessee, United States

Gatlinburg is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee. It is located 39 miles (63 km) southeast of Knoxville and had a population of 3,944 at the 2010 Census and a U.S. Census population of 3,577 in 2020. It is a popular vacation resort, as it rests on the border of Great Smoky Mountains National Park along U.S. Route 441, which connects to Cherokee, North Carolina, on the southeast side of the national park. Prior to incorporation, the town was known as White Oak Flats, or simply White Oak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Smoky Mountains National Park</span> National park in Tennessee and North Carolina

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The park contains some of the highest mountains in eastern North America, including Clingmans Dome, Mount Guyot, and Mount Le Conte. The border between the two states runs northeast to southwest through the center of the park. The Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park on its route from Georgia to Maine. With 13 million visitors in 2023, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Smoky Mountains</span> American mountain range along North Carolina/Tennessee border

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains, and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934 and, with over 11 million visits per year, is the most visited national park in the United States.

Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his screenplay for In the Heat of the Night, for which he won an Academy Award in 1967, and for creating the television series Naked City, Perry Mason, and Route 66. Other features as screenwriter include the Irwin Allen productions The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cades Cove</span> Valley in Tennessee, United States

Cades Cove is an isolated valley located in the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The valley was home to numerous settlers before the formation of the national park. Cades Cove, the single most popular destination for visitors to the park, attracts more than two million visitors annually because of its well preserved homesteads, scenic mountain views, and abundant display of wildlife. The Cades Cove Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foothills Parkway</span> National parkway in Tennessee

The Foothills Parkway is a national parkway which traverses the foothills of the northern Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. The 72.1-mile (114 km) parkway will connect U.S. Route 129 along the Little Tennessee River in the west with Interstate 40 (I-40) along the Pigeon River in the east.

<i>The Visit</i> (1964 film) 1964 film by Bernhard Wicki

The Visit is a 1964 drama film directed by Bernhard Wicki, adapted by Ben Barzman and Maurice Valency from Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 play of the same name. It stars Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn, who also produced. Irina Demick, Paolo Stoppa, Hans Christian Blech, Romolo Valli, Valentina Cortese and Claude Dauphin play supporting roles.

<i>Box of Moonlight</i> 1996 film by Tom DiCillo

Box of Moonlight is a 1996 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tom DiCillo, and starring John Turturro, Sam Rockwell, Lisa Blount and Catherine Keener.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Happy Valley, Blount County, Tennessee</span> Unincorporated community in Tennessee, United States

Happy Valley is an unincorporated community in Blount County, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Although it is not a census-designated place, the ZIP Code Tabulation Area for the ZIP Code (37878) that serves Happy Valley had a population of 529 as of the 2000 U.S. Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spence Field</span>

Spence Field is a mountain highland meadow in the Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. It has an elevation of 4,920 feet above sea level. The Appalachian Trail traverses the field, and a backcountry shelter just off the trail provides an overnight stopover for through-hikers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosby, Tennessee</span> Census-designated place in Tennessee, United States

Cosby is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Cocke County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population of the Cosby CDP according to the 2020 census was 807. The community has given its name to the northeastern section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which forms its southern boundary. Cosby's zip code also extends to into Sevier County, and borders the town of Pittman Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oconaluftee (Great Smoky Mountains)</span> River in North Carolina, USA

The Oconaluftee is the valley of the Oconaluftee River in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Formerly the site of a Cherokee village and an Appalachian community, the valley is now North Carolina's main entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

<i>The Liberation of L.B. Jones</i> 1970 film by William Wyler

The Liberation of L.B. Jones is a 1970 American neo noir film directed by William Wyler, his final project in a career that spanned 45 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wear Cove</span> Valley in southwestern Sevier County, Tennessee

Wear Cove is a valley in southwestern Sevier County, Tennessee. It runs parallel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park just to its south. Like other park border regions, the history and economy of the valley are intertwined with that of the Smokies. The primary community is Wears Valley.

<i>The Sins of Rachel Cade</i> 1961 film by Gordon Douglas

The Sins of Rachel Cade is a 1961 drama film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Angie Dickinson in the title role, as well as Peter Finch and Roger Moore who compete for her love.

The Music of East Tennessee has a rich history, and played a major role in the development of modern country and bluegrass music. Bristol, known as "the birthplace of country music",, and Johnson City, notable for the Johnson City recording sessions, are both towns in the Tri-Cities region of East Tennessee. The music of East Tennessee is defined by country, gospel, and bluegrass artists, and has roots in Appalachian folk music.

<i>Wrestling With Ghosts</i> TV series or program

Wrestling With Ghosts is an American television series about the paranormal that premiered as a web-series on June 30, 2017. Since then, the show's concept won the Destination America nationwide search for a new creative paranormal team. The show has since been picked up and is now being aired on the ASY TV According to the original introduction, season one follows a paranormal investigator, directly after he loses his original ghost hunting team to what he calls "a demonic attack" and subsequent fist-fight. He then hires three professional wrestlers as protection on future investigations. In 2021, the series started airing on the Intrigue Channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Thornburgh</span> First film editor for the US govt, author

Laura Thornburgh was an American author, journalist, photographer, director, and film editor who was best known for her 1937 guidebook to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, published under the pen name Laura Thornborough. Her landmark publication Motion Pictures in Education popularized the usage of audiovisual aids in the classroom. As part of the World War I war effort, Thornburgh joined the United States Department of Agriculture film department under the supervision of Don Carlos Ellis as a scenario editor, making her the first film editor for the United States Government.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 A Walk in the Spring Rain at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. A Walk in the Spring Rain at AllMovie
  3. Schwartzman, Arnold (19 November 1991). "Interview with Guy Green side 3". British Entertainment History Project.
  4. "Columbia's A Walk In Spring Rain (advertisement)". Variety . April 29, 1970. p. 14.