A Few Words About A few words about...™ Baby the Rain Must Fall -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Baby the Rain Must Fall (I've always had a problem, with the lack of a coma) is one of those productions, for which a simple gaze at the credits, might just tell you everything you need to know.

Produced by Alan J. Pakula

Directed by Robert Mulligan (as a team, they had done an interesting film, a few years previous)

Music by Elmer Bernstein

Cinematography (black & white) by Ernest Lazlo

Screenplay by Horton Foote, based upon his play

Starring Steve McQueen and Lee Remick

And yet, contemporary reviewers didn't seem to get it.

It's a beautifully produced film, albeit about a depressing subject, which seemed to affect those reviews. Take a look at the performances, and I bet you'll feel otherwise.

As a Blu-ray, and in typical Columbia fashion...

It's perfect. And a beautiful release from Twilight Time.


Image - 5

Audio - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Upgrade from DVD - Totally different experience - Yes!

Recommended

RAH

 

[Dick]

I really like this film. I However, what appears to be a complete dearth of special features bothers me. I can live without a commentary for it, but an isolated score would have been so-o welcome, for this reason: the soundtrack album includes only the jazzier cues, and completely ignores Bernstein's lovely melodic orchestral passages. Maybe I'm wrong and the isolated track is included....Robert?

 

[Eastmancolor]

Love the movie. Will have to get the disc at some point. Being a Sony title that Grover Crisp and his team supervised, the disc is sure to look great!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I got the Elmer Bernstein AVA Collection release for the To Kill A Mockingbird score, and the soundtrack for this movie came with it. A couple songs by The We Three Trio on there.

 

[Dick]

I got the Elmer Bernstein AVA Collection release for the To Kill A Mockingbird score, and the soundtrack for this movie came with it. A couple songs by The We Three Trio on there.

Yes, and it is the contents of that AVA soundtrack that is still available now under a different label. I'd have thought that, like so many scores over the past ten years, it would have been issued in "expanded" form to include virtually all of Bernstein's cues.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I was a kid when this film came out, but I still remember the advertising about this film. I think the title song stayed with me even though it wasn't the type of movie I would see at that time. I was more into westerns and James Bond films.

 

[lark144]

I was a kid when this film came out, but I still remember the advertising about this film. I think the title song stayed with me even though it wasn't the type of movie I would see at that time. I was more into westerns and James Bond films.

In addition to John Wayne, I was also a huge Steve McQueen fan, and saw all of his films when they came out, even the more adult ones like BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL, which I loved. The translucent and somewhat mysterious lighting of cinematographer Ernest Lazlo has stayed with me all these years, and I still remember the words to the title tune, which I can sing if requested, but if I were you I wouldn't, as I sing off key.

I have this film on order, and it should be with me by the end of the week.

 

[Vegas 1]

Glad to see this finally making it to BR, I wonder if we will see Soldier in the Rain soon on BR?

 

[Jack P]

I went through it last night. The film's fatal flaw for me is that it's so obvious that McQueen is being dubbed when he sings that it has the effect of taking you out of the film when his character does sing. (Especially the first number)

Remick is terrific as always.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yep, Billy Strange does the singing for Steve McQueen.

 

[haineshisway]

There are many fatal flaws in this film, which is why it was a bomb. It was pretty much "can't miss" with McQueen and Remick and Pakula/Mulligan coming off To Kill a Mockingbird, and the same screenwriter. But there was a reason the play, The Traveling Lady, flopped in 1954, running only thirty performances - and they did nothing to address those issues, the main one being that the McQueen character never really changes, nor does Lee Remick's character. There's no real plot either. So, it's just dramatically inert but with some nice scenes. The dubbing IS terrible, too, but it's not the only problem. It was fun to see a young Glen Campbell in the band. Also, worse than the dubbing is watching McQueen "pretend" to play the guitar - that's comedy.

 

[Dick]

There are many fatal flaws in this film, which is why it was a bomb. It was pretty much "can't miss" with McQueen and Remick and Pakula/Mulligan coming off To Kill a Mockingbird, and the same screenwriter. But there was a reason the play, The Traveling Lady, flopped in 1954, running only thirty performances - and they did nothing to address those issues, the main one being that the McQueen character never really changes, nor does Lee Remick's character. There's no real plot either. So, it's just dramatically inert but with some nice scenes. The dubbing IS terrible, too, but it's not the only problem. It was fun to see a young Glen Campbell in the band. Also, worse than the dubbing is watching McQueen "pretend" to play the guitar - that's comedy.

Your evaluation is correct, but i still like the film.

I p.m.'d you a couple of weeks ago and asked if you might have access to an expanded film score for this movie, as the available CD has only the jazzier tracks and none of the gorgeous orchestral stuff that Bernstein did so well.

 

[haineshisway]

Didn't see it, will go look. Did you PM me here? I just looked in messages and I don't see anything. Weird.

 

[John Hermes]

There are many fatal flaws in this film, which is why it was a bomb. It was pretty much "can't miss" with McQueen and Remick and Pakula/Mulligan coming off To Kill a Mockingbird, and the same screenwriter. But there was a reason the play, The Traveling Lady, flopped in 1954, running only thirty performances - and they did nothing to address those issues, the main one being that the McQueen character never really changes, nor does Lee Remick's character. There's no real plot either. So, it's just dramatically inert but with some nice scenes. The dubbing IS terrible, too, but it's not the only problem. It was fun to see a young Glen Campbell in the band. Also, worse than the dubbing is watching McQueen "pretend" to play the guitar - that's comedy.

Noted session guitarist Billy Strange was hired to teach McQueen some guitar to make the scenes more effective. Strange said McQueen was the worst student he ever had.

 

[rsmithjr]

Glenn Yarborough signs the title song on most versions of the film. A great 60's singer, formerly with a group called The Limeliters.

I remember a psych professor I had in 1966 recommending this film to the class for its portrait of a misunderstood person.

I will not be the last person to mention Steve McQueen!

 

[disctrip]

Glenn Yarborough signs the title song on most versions of the film. A great 60's singer, formerly with a group called The Limeliters.

I remember a psych professor I had in 1966 recommending this film to the class for its portrait of a misunderstood person.

I will not be the last person to mention Steve McQueen!

Not on any copy I've ever seen.

 

[disctrip]

Glenn Yarborough signs the title song on most versions of the film. A great 60's singer, formerly with a group called The Limeliters.

I remember a psych professor I had in 1966 recommending this film to the class for its portrait of a misunderstood person.

I will not be the last person to mention Steve McQueen!

He had a hit version on the radio but he did not sing in the film.

 

[Dick]

Didn't see it, will go look. Did you PM me here? I just looked in messages and I don't see anything. Weird.

I did PM you here. No worries, though. Just wanted to know if Kritzerland had any way of releasing an expanded BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL soundtrack to include all of Bernstein's cues.

 

[haineshisway]

Sony is super hard to deal with - not Sony the label, Sony the studio. We've tried. But you'll note there's not even an isolated score on the Blu-ray, very unusual for Twilight Time, so I think it's safe to assume there wasn't even a music and effects track.

 

[Dick]

Sony is super hard to deal with - not Sony the label, Sony the studio. We've tried. But you'll note there's not even an isolated score on the Blu-ray, very unusual for Twilight Time, so I think it's safe to assume there wasn't even a music and effects track.

I'm sorry to hear this, but thanks for the information. Could have made a lovely full-score CD.