Today’s movie is a
period drama with a scene that happens on June 22. I hope you will watch this
film tonight and enjoy it.
RAINTREE
COUNTY
In 1858 Indiana’s Raintree County, John Shawnessey and Nell Gaither are
about to graduate when their professor, Jerusalem Webster Stiles tells them the legend of the golden
raintree. Johnny Appleseed supposedly planted one in a swamp in the county. He
uses the tree as a metaphor for the idea of seeking achievement, instead of
money. John looks for the tree, but is unsuccessful. John is challenged to a footrace by ‘Flash’ Perkins and he meets
Susanna Drake, a southern belle who now lives in the county. John wins the race
and has an amorous interlude with Susanna. He helps professor Stiles get out of
the county after Stiles is accused of dallying with someone else’s wife. Susanna tells John she’s pregnant and they
get married. They move to New Orleans, but as an abolitionist John does not fit
in well in the South. He learns there is some kind of scandal surrounding the
death of her parents in a fire when Susanna starts displaying signs of insanity
like her mother. She tells him she lied about being pregnant and they return to
Raintree County. John persuades her to
get rid of her large doll collection, including one that is partly burned.
Their son Jimmy is born. Two years
later on June 22, 1863 [1:37:55 to 1:40:03] Johnny meets Nell again and
they talk about the golden rain tree and Copperheads. Susanna finally tells
John about what really happened with the fire. After her mother went insane her
father took Henrietta, a woman of color, who was Susanna’s nanny as his
mistress. Susanna found out about it and wrote her mother a note. The mother
shot her husband and Henrietta and started the fire. Susanna flees to Georgia
taking Jimmy with her. John enlists in the army to fight and look for Susanna.
He meets ‘Flash’ Perkins and Jerusalem Stiles, who’s now a war correspondent.
John reaches Susanna’s plantation, but only Jimmy is there. Susanna has been
committed to an insane asylum. He finds her and takes her back to Raintree
County. John is later asked to run for
congress, but he declines. Susanna realizes that it is because he has a crazy
wife that he won’t run. She decides to find the golden raintree and heads into
the swamp, but Jimmy sees her and follows. There is a massive search. Susanna
is found dead. John and Nell search on and find Jimmy, not realizing that the
child found the golden rain tree.
This is not Taylor’s best film.
Some of her scenes border on being carpet chewers. This melodrama tries to be Gone
With the Wind, but it unfortunately doesn’t even come close. The story is
interesting enough, with just a hint of mystery to keep it fresh.
Vicksburg: 1863 by Winston Groom (Alfred A. Knopf,
New York, 2000) at page 339 gives the date of the start of the siege. Poster
put up about results of 35th day of siege, at 1:38: 05, which was
June 22.
Producer - David Lewis
Director - Edward Dmytryk
Awards – The film was nominated for the Best Actress
(Taylor), Best Set Decoration,
Best
Costume Design and Best Music Scoring at the 30th Academy
Awards.
Screenplay - Millard
Kaufman
Runtime – 3 hours 2 minutes
Released – December 20, 1957
Starring -
Montgomery Clift as John Wickliff Shawnessey
Elizabeth Taylor as Susanna Drake
Eva Marie Saint as Nell Gaither
Nigel Patrick as Prof. Jerusalem Webster Stiles
Lee Marvin as Orville 'Flash' Perkins
Rod Taylor as Garwood B. Jones
Agnes Moorehead as Ellen Shawnessy
Walter Abel as T.D. Shawnessy
Jarma Lewis as Barbara Drake
Tom Drake as Bobby Drake
Rhys Williams as Ezra Gray
Russell Collins as Niles Foster
DeForest Kelley as Southern officer
Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.
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