When MGM filmed Raintree County it had high hopes that it would be a second Gone With The Wind. It didn't quite come up to that, but it is still a good film on its own merits.
It took about 10 years for MGM to finally bring this to the screen. Shortly before the tragic suicide of author Ross Lockridge, MGM acquired the screen rights to this one and only novel by Lockridge which was a number one best seller in post World War II years.
The story opens in ante bellum Civil War Indiana, specifically in RaintreeCounty. Our hero is John Shawnessy, a sort of aimless young man who teaches school for lack of better direction. He's a sensitive soul with deep abolitionist convictions and no one was a more sensitive soul on the screen than Montgomery Clift.
If all had gone well, Monty would have probably married the girl from home played by Eva Marie Saint. But a visiting Southern belle played by Elizabeth Taylor in her best fiddle-dee-dee Scarlett O'Hara manner sweeps Monty off his feet. He hasn't got a prayer.
But Liz Taylor got her first Academy Award nomination not for simply imitating Scarlett O'Hara. Her role requires her to descend into the madness of Vivien Leigh's other Southern belle Oscar part, Blanche Dubois. It's on this devolution of character that Liz Taylor the actress really shines. She lost the Oscar sweepstakes that year to Joanne Woodward's Three Faces of Eve.
The film almost wasn't finished because of a horrible automobile accident that nearly killed Monty Clift during production. As it was, it was held up for three months while the best plastic surgeons looked to reconstruct Montgomery Clift's face. You can see clearly those shots before and after the accident.
Liz Taylor in her documentary tribute to her favorite leading man and best friend in the world said that Monty Clift did not lose the physical beauty, but he did lose the delicacy of his features which were her own words. In a strange way it probably helped his performance because John Shawnessy does go to war and war is an experience known for scarring and aging people.
As in A Place In the Sun, Monty and Liz's scenes together have that extra dimension that people who care about each other deeply can give a scene. Raintree County should be seen for that alone.
Eva Marie Saint as the good girl from home does all right, but her character just doesn't have the depth that Liz's and Monty's do. Eva Marie is just given less to work with. Others in this nicely rounded cast are Lee Marvin as Clift's friend and rival from his hometown, Agnes Moorehead and Walter Abel as Clift's parents, Rod Taylor as a sleazy politician and Nigel Patrick who observes it all as a wandering reprobate who takes a liking to Clift.
It's not Gone With the Wind, but it's pretty good.
It took about 10 years for MGM to finally bring this to the screen. Shortly before the tragic suicide of author Ross Lockridge, MGM acquired the screen rights to this one and only novel by Lockridge which was a number one best seller in post World War II years.
The story opens in ante bellum Civil War Indiana, specifically in RaintreeCounty. Our hero is John Shawnessy, a sort of aimless young man who teaches school for lack of better direction. He's a sensitive soul with deep abolitionist convictions and no one was a more sensitive soul on the screen than Montgomery Clift.
If all had gone well, Monty would have probably married the girl from home played by Eva Marie Saint. But a visiting Southern belle played by Elizabeth Taylor in her best fiddle-dee-dee Scarlett O'Hara manner sweeps Monty off his feet. He hasn't got a prayer.
But Liz Taylor got her first Academy Award nomination not for simply imitating Scarlett O'Hara. Her role requires her to descend into the madness of Vivien Leigh's other Southern belle Oscar part, Blanche Dubois. It's on this devolution of character that Liz Taylor the actress really shines. She lost the Oscar sweepstakes that year to Joanne Woodward's Three Faces of Eve.
The film almost wasn't finished because of a horrible automobile accident that nearly killed Monty Clift during production. As it was, it was held up for three months while the best plastic surgeons looked to reconstruct Montgomery Clift's face. You can see clearly those shots before and after the accident.
Liz Taylor in her documentary tribute to her favorite leading man and best friend in the world said that Monty Clift did not lose the physical beauty, but he did lose the delicacy of his features which were her own words. In a strange way it probably helped his performance because John Shawnessy does go to war and war is an experience known for scarring and aging people.
As in A Place In the Sun, Monty and Liz's scenes together have that extra dimension that people who care about each other deeply can give a scene. Raintree County should be seen for that alone.
Eva Marie Saint as the good girl from home does all right, but her character just doesn't have the depth that Liz's and Monty's do. Eva Marie is just given less to work with. Others in this nicely rounded cast are Lee Marvin as Clift's friend and rival from his hometown, Agnes Moorehead and Walter Abel as Clift's parents, Rod Taylor as a sleazy politician and Nigel Patrick who observes it all as a wandering reprobate who takes a liking to Clift.
It's not Gone With the Wind, but it's pretty good.