Baby, the Rain Must Fall (1965)

Beautiful performances from Steve McQueen and especially Lee Remick highlight this rather sad rambling film of the type Hollywood doesn't make anymore. A small personal drama that explores the lives of regular people just struggling to make a place for themselves in the world. Nothing blows up, it's all about emotions here. Horton Foote's screenplay, based on his play, shows his customary understanding of how people react and interact with each other while Ernest Laszlo stark black and white cinematography evokes the dusty small town Texas setting in a way color never could. Something that you'd find either on the indie circuit or maybe on cable today certainly not in major markets as this was and hardly with stars of this magnitude.

Horton Foote writes lovingly about Texas. In this film, the cast is star-studded with Steve McQueen as newly released parolee Henry Thomas and aspiring country singer. Lee Remick plays his wife Georgette. They have a daughter. The cast also included Don Stroud as the sheriff where he is the good guy. McQueen does a fantastic job in playing Henry Thomas. The writing is weak in some areas like Henry's actions after Miss Kate died and funeral. I never got the history about him and Miss Kate. It's an odd storyline. There is also the relationship between him and his wife that falls flat too. While I love the cast of McQueen, Stroud, and Remick and the supporting cast like Ruth White as well, the writing seems weak like it needs more to explain the history among the characters. The film is fine otherwise but off in some parts because of the writing.

"Baby the rain must fall" is a slow-moving intimate story;so if you're looking for an action-packed movie such as many of McQueen's ,you probably won't get something out of it.Filmed in stark black and white ,in a dreary landscape ,with a sky so low it might crumble and fall on the unfortunate couple.Lee Remick ,excellent as ever ,portrays a strong woman ,who had to cope with many setbacks and who however succeeded in raising her little girl.And most of all,she stands by her man,she 's convinced that he will be a famous singer/songwriter some day.Mac Queen is moving as the father -the scene when he says goodbye to her is really harrowing- but less credible as a singer (Clint Eastwood did a better job in "honky tonk man" ) .Like in some other movies by Robert Mulligan ,there is a mysterious side ,something threatening in the dark : Mulligan's flair for eerie disturbing atmosphere was already present in "the spiral road" and would emerge again in later works such as " the stalking moon" and its "enemy" as omnipresent as he is almost invisible and "the other" in which he creates terror in the midday sun.Here "Miss Kate" represents the repressed hidden terror back in the hero's childhood .This lady only appears on her death bed and there's an almost unbearable desecration scene."Baby the rain must fall" never takes the easy way out:for instance ,no romance between Remick and Don Murray,the nice deputy and the end of the movie can be seen as the beginning of a new "cycle" : the heroine will wait till her husband is released,then they 'll try to pick up the pieces till...

This is the kind of film which seems to struggle to find an audience outside of its immediate setting – in its case, the American Deep South. It's basically a familial drama where husband and wife are driven apart by the former's troubled persona – especially due to his own inclination to violence and the enigmatic relationship with his eminent but dying guardian. Director Mulligan had created an all-time classic with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962): this updates the atmosphere (including a failed attempt to replicate the Gothic touch associated with Robert Duvall's Boo Radley character in that film) but still throws in a little girl at the core of the story. Steven McQueen goes through the whole 'Rebel Without A Cause' act to little lasting effect – the performance is even more hurt by the fact that, playing a wannabe rockabilly singer, he's forced to mimic to a number of tunes (including the title number). Similarly, co-stars Lee Remick and Don Murray have typical roles, and John Wayne regular Paul Fix also has a nice bit as a benign Judge. The film notches up some tolerable intensity with scenes where McQueen is beaten up, feverishly tries to dig up the old lady (for whatever purpose) and finally escapes custody – if only for a short while; otherwise, the greatest points of interest here are Ernest Laszlo's moody cinematography and Elmer Bernstein's eclectic score.