OLD HOLLYWOOD 'Raintree County' (1957)

Last night, as part of their Summer Under the Stars festival, Turner Classic Movies aired the 1957 MGM epic, Raintree County, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Eva Marie Saint. The film was planned as sort of a successor to Gone with the Wind, which brought about its downfall.

In trying to mimic Gone with the Wind's sweep and grandeur, especially in regards to its running time, Raintree County collapses under its own self-importance; the first hour of the film, mainly devoted to John Shawnessey, drags by languidly. Even Clift, who is almost always excellent, couldn't save this portion of the film after nearly dying in a car accident while descending the hairpin turns after a dinner party at Taylor's home. (Like many films, the backstage story of Raintree County is as, if not more, interesting than anything appearing on the screen. Taylor was on the phone almost every night during filming talking with Mike Todd, the man who would become her third husband.) There is a subplot surrounding Clift's professor whose plans to run away with a married woman which I imagine attempts to serve as a moral compass for Clift's character--when he marries Susanna after believing he has impregnated her--fails. This subplot and the entire character of the professor should have been excised from the script completely.

The film picks up during the second third of the film when Taylor's character is given more focus. Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal of the tormented Susanna Drake won the actress her first of five Academy Award nominations. (She would win two competitively: First for BUtterfield 8 in 1960, and then Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966. She was also awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her pioneering AIDS work in 1993.) Many have derided Taylor's performance as too over the top, but I find her quite good and at sometimes even haunting as a Southern belle who is tormented at the thought of having "Negro blood" running through her.

Eva Marie Saint gives what is largely a flat performance as Clift's former love, although this could be just in comparison to Elizabeth-Susanna's histrionics. Agnes Moorehead was cast in the minor role of Clift's mother, and the talents of this great actress are completely wasted; her part adds almost nothing to the film.

Its attempt to outdo Gone with the Wind ruined what could have been quite a good film. Had the focus of the story been more on the relationship between John and Susanna, it could have been something other than a pale comparison of that great American classic.