CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
MartinHafer
"Baby the Rain Must Fall" is a film about a super-dysfunctional family. The husband is a screw-up who seems to be determined to destroy his life. Although married to a pretty and amazingly long- suffering wife who has put up with him, he doesn't seem to appreciate her in the least. And, time and time again throughout this film he knows what choices to make and yet he chooses the wrong path. Although on parole and recently out of prison, he just seems determined to be sent back...all the while trying to make it big in a tiny town by singing with his rockabilly band.If you are looking for a fun film, this sure ain't it!! But, if you are looking for good acting and an interesting portrait of a jerk and his young family, it's worth seeing. Well made...just not exactly a pleasant viewing experience.By the way, if you do see it, in the opening portion where they show Steve McQueen singing the title song, look for a young Glen Campbell on the left. Also, it's pretty obvious by the voice that it ain't McQueen singing...and they should have at least chosen a singer whose voice was closer to his.Also, the summary on IMDb says that the child is an infant. Nope. She appears to be about 4 years-old...not an infant at all.
Woodyanders
Georgette Thomas (a fine and affecting performance by Lee Remick) and her little daughter Margaret Rose (Kimberly Block, who's both adorable and heartbreaking) arrive in the small town of Columbus, Texas so Georgette can be reunited with her recently paroled ex-con husband Henry (an earnest, excellent, and engaging performance by Steve McQueen). Aspiring singer/songwriter Henry yearns to make it big with his music, so he performs gigs at local roadhouses when he isn't doing his best to prevent dark memories from his tragic past from causing him to fall short of his goals.Director Robert Mulligan, working from a subtle and sensitive script by Horton Foote, handles the delicate subject matter with admirable taste and restraint, offers a strong evocation of the dreary rural setting (the rowdy atmosphere of the smoky honky-tonk bars in particular is exceptionally well captured), maintains a properly serious and brooding tone throughout, and keeps mushy sentiment to a refreshing minimum. McQueen and especially Remick do sterling work in their roles, with splendid support from Don Murray as Henry's concerned childhood friend and deputy sheriff Slim. Henry's struggle to surmount the demons of his troubled past and burning desire to make something of his heretofore wasted life with his music give this picture a wrenching poignancy. Ernest Laszlo's handsome black and white cinematography provides a sumptuous look. Kudos are also in order for Elmer Bernstein's spare moody score. Alas, McQueen's painfully obvious lip-syncing definitely leaves something to be desired and his too smooth singing voice doesn't come close to matching his natural speaking voice. That criticism aside, it's overall a quite good and moving film.
eigaeye
This film comes close to being something truly great. It is beautifully photographed and acted (particularly the work of Lee Remick), and the theme, not confronted head on, of child abandonment/abuse, which plays under the images, is quite powerfully evoked. The film's shortcomings are mainly mechanical: some rough transitions in the story-telling; the unsatisfactory attempts by Steve McQueen at miming to a too-professional singing voice; and the omission from the scenario of one or two more direct references to the childhood from which McQueen's dysfunctional character has emerged. Certainly, the loving inactions between Remick's character and her screen daughter, Margaret Rose, are completely convincing and form a strong counterpoint to her husband's damaged personality. But we are not sure where we should be focusing: on their relationship, on the wife and husband relationship, or on his relationship with his adoptive mother (who appears only briefly, but is the unspoken menace). Of course, this difficulty is very much part of what the film is about; however, the various relationships sit so apart from each other, the tragic impact of the one on the others is somewhat lost. I suppose it is a testament to the delicacy and understated-ness of Robert Mulligan's directorial touch (seen to greater effect in 'To Kill a Mockingbird') that this sort of reaction is called up at all. One feels this film has so much that is good, the potential is there... A reflection of its time, perhaps: while it was being made, news broke of a shooting in Dallas and the death of a young president.
writers_reign
Horton Foote wrote some decent stage plays, some fine television dramas and was equally adept at dramatising works from other mediums for the big screen. It is indisputable that the highlight of his career was his screenplay for Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird so that anything post-Mockingbird was somewhat anti-climactic. In the event for his follow-up screenplay he chose to adapt an earlier play/teleplay of his own, The Travelling Lady and to team up again with director Robert Mulligan who had, of course, directed Mockingbird. I haven't seen The Travelling Lady in either of its earlier formats but given a title like that it's reasonable to assume its focus was on the eponymous character who is played here by Lee Remick. For reasons best known to himself and Mulligan Foote has now given the lion's share of the story to Henry Thomas (Steve McQueen) rather than his wife, Georgia (Remick), presumably because McQueen had more box office clout than Remick. Foote specialized in wistful, rural dramas (The Trip To Bountiful for example) and this is yet one more fish from the same bouillabaisse, neither better nor worse than any other. Although she had a wide range (amoral perjerer, Anatomy of a Murder; nymphomaniac, The Detective) Remick excelled in clean-cut fiances, wives and mothers and to all intents and purposes she walks away with the film under McQueen's nose. This is a quiet, gentle film full of acute observations of rural life and the mores of small town America and is ripe for rediscovery.
