The Rainmaker | |
---|---|
Directed by | Joseph Anthony |
Screenplay by | N. Richard Nash |
Based on | The Rainmaker by N. Richard Nash |
Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
Starring | Burt Lancaster Katharine Hepburn Wendell Corey |
Cinematography | Charles Lang |
Edited by | Warren Low |
Music by | Alex North |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 121 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2.1 million (US) [1] |
The Rainmaker is a 1956 American western romance film directed by Joseph Anthony and adapted by N. Richard Nash from his 1954 play The Rainmaker . The film tells the story of a middle-aged woman, suffering from unrequited love for the local town sheriff; however, she falls for a con man who comes to town with the promise that he can make it rain. It stars Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges and Earl Holliman. Holliman won a Golden Globe Award for his performance.
The Rainmaker has been remade twice: the first time as a television film of the same name in 1982 directed by John Frankenheimer; the second time in Hindi as Thodasa Roomani Ho Jayen in 1990. [2]
During the Depression era in the Midwest, con man Bill Starbuck acts as a rainmaker, but is chased out of town after town. One day, he arrives in a drought-ridden rural town in Kansas and shows up at the door of spinsterish Lizzie Curry and the rest of the Curry clan. Lizzie keeps house for her father, H.C., and two brothers on the family cattle ranch. As their farm languishes under the devastating drought, Lizzie's family worries about her marriage prospects more than about their dying cattle. Prior to Starbuck's arrival, Lizzie was expecting Sheriff File, for whom she harbors a secret yen, though he declined the family's invitation to dinner. Starbuck promises to bring rain in exchange for money. [3] Against Lizzie's protests, H.C. goes for the deal out of desperation for rain even though he thinks Starbuck is a con. Starbuck is exposed, but the Curry clan stands up for him, leading to both Starbuck and File finally declaring for Lizzie. In the end, Lizzie gets her man, and of course, it rains.
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards | Best Actress | Katharine Hepburn | Nominated | [4] |
Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Alex North | Nominated | ||
British Academy Film Awards | Best Foreign Actress | Katharine Hepburn | Nominated | [5] |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Motion Picture – Drama | Nominated | [6] | |
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama | Burt Lancaster | Nominated | ||
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama | Katharine Hepburn | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | Earl Holliman | Won | ||
Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Written American Drama | N. Richard Nash | Nominated | [7] |
Burton Stephen Lancaster was an American actor. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year career in films and television series. He was a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and he also won two BAFTA Awards and one Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor. The American Film Institute ranks Lancaster as #19 of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. She worked in a varied range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, which earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer.
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor, from nine nominations. During his career, he appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen's greatest actors. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
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110 in the Shade is a musical with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by Tom Jones, and music by Harvey Schmidt.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a 1957 American Western film starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, and loosely based on the actual event in 1881. The film was directed by John Sturges from a screenplay written by novelist Leon Uris. It was a remake of the 1939 film Frontier Marshall starring Randolph Scott and of John Ford's 1946 film My Darling Clementine.
Wendell Reid Corey was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a board member of the Screen Actors Guild, and also served on the Santa Monica City Council.
Henry Earl Holliman was an American actor, animal rights activist, and singer known for his many character roles in films, mostly Westerns and dramas, in the 1950s and 1960s. He won a Golden Globe Award for the film The Rainmaker (1956) and portrayed Sergeant Bill Crowley on the television police drama Police Woman throughout its 1974 to 1978 run.
Nathan Richard Nusbaum, known as N. Richard Nash, was an American writer and dramatist best known for writing Broadway shows, including The Rainmaker.
The Rainmaker is a play written by N. Richard Nash in the early 1950s. The play opened on October 28, 1954, at the Cort Theatre in New York City, and ran for 125 performances. It was directed by Joseph Anthony and produced by Ethel Linder Reiner.
The 34th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1961, were held on April 9, 1962, hosted by Bob Hope at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California.
Elmer Gantry is a 1960 American drama film about a confidence man and a female evangelist selling religion to small-town America. Adapted by director Richard Brooks, the film is based on the 1927 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis, and stars Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley Jones and Patti Page.
The 14th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1956 films, were held on February 28, 1957, at the Cocoanut Grove, Ambassador Hotel.
Lawman is a 1971 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Michael Winner and starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb and Robert Duvall.
"Lizzie and the Rainman" is a song written by Kenny O'Dell and Larry Henley. The song was first recorded in 1972, being that year a single release for its co-writer Kenny O'Dell and an album cut for Bobby Goldsboro and the Hollies.
Desert Fury is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen, and starring Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak and Burt Lancaster. Its plot follows the daughter of a casino owner in a small Nevada town who becomes involved with a racketeer who was once suspected of murdering his wife. The screenplay was written by Robert Rossen and A. I. Bezzerides (uncredited), adapted from the 1947 novel of the same name by Ramona Stewart. The picture was produced by Hal Wallis, with music by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography in Technicolor by Edward Cronjager and Charles Lang.
Open Range is a lost 1927 American silent Western film directed by Clifford Smith and written by Roy Briant, Zane Grey, J. Walter Ruben and John Stone. The film stars Betty Bronson, Lane Chandler, Fred Kohler, Bernard Siegel, Guy Oliver, Jim Corey and Buck Connors. The film was released on November 11, 1927, by Paramount Pictures.
Burton Stephen Lancaster was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year career in film and, later, television. He was a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and he also won two BAFTA Awards and one Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor. The American Film Institute ranks Lancaster as #19 of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.