What condition is RAINTREE COUNTY in? (1 Viewer)

[Darren Gross]

This large format (MGM Camera 65) film hasn't shown on theater screens in awhile - at least in my area.

I'm curious, what condition is this film? Do appropriate sound and preprint picture materials exist for this film, particularly of the longer Roadshow version?

Would a restoration or theatrical re-release be feasible?

 

[Joe Caps]

I've heard several stories about this film but I'm not sure which is true. Just asked someone in Warner Vid if they plan to relelase this and was told that right now it would cost too much money and the film is not popular enough.
As you know there is the long version and the short version. the long version that is running occasionally on TCM is the short version master with scenes patched in from a faded eastman color print. Whether Turner used this print to make new negative material when they had it is not sure. I think the six channel stereo track is for the short version only. I would love to see the uncut version on DVD but they would have to make new material if they want to do it anamorphic, because I think the negative they have is only for the short version.
It has has two different endings for act One - a soft music one if there isno intermission and a loud one if there is.

 

[SteveP]

I believe that this film was never exhibited with 70MM prints--all the available theaters were showing the much more popular AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS at the time.

 

[Mark-W]

Funny you mention this..
I am doing some investigation on Clift for a research paper,
and taped Raintree County off of TCM back
in December when Clift was the star of the month.


Had never seen the movie...I thought it was good,
though clearly not in the same league as Gone With The Wind,
and would love to own a good copy on DVD.



Just as an FYI, while the film was a
box office profit maker, even articles on Clift
and the film that came out not long after the film
speculate that Raintree County was
largely a success (though not the big box office
monster everyone had expected and hope for)
because of people's macabre curiosity to see Clift,
sometimes in the same scene,
before and after the car crash that took him
from devastatingly handsome to merely attractive.



I would hope that with Elizabeth Taylor in it,
the film might get released (from a restored print)
on DVD at some point, but we don't even have Clift
in Hitchcock's I, Confess yet,
which any Hitchcock completist would by on DVD.

Finally, the copy TCM aired in December
did have music at the intermission.



Regards,
Mark

 

[Joe Caps]

Which version did TCM show = both have intermission music. If it isin a three hour slot then it is the short version . If in a 3 1/2 hour slot then it is the long version.
the problem is that MGM treid to promote it as another Gone With the Wind and its not that kind of film at all. Its more of a psychological drama that happens to take place during the Civil War. Really good performance from Liz.
Monty Clifts accident did hold things up. Because the movie was shot so out of sequence, most of the post accident shots are early in the film, while later scens are mostly pre accident, making it look as if clift is growing younger as the film goes on. a bizarre effect.

 

[AlanP]

some years back, maybe, 3 or 4, I remember seeing
a ROADSHOW VERSION for sale on VIDEO,
in COSTCO. I picked it up and put, it back
because, I had the video. I LOVE THIS FILM,
and only now, did I realize, there was a longer
version after reading this post !!!!!!

 

[Robert Harris]

Raintree County survives in the long version on 35mm dye transfer, as this was the format via which it was released.

 

[Doug Bull]

Raintree County contains one of my all time favourite crane shot endings.

The sound on the Laserdisc was distorted to buggery which all but ruined Green's glorious Finale.

If Warners did decide to release it with an improved quality soundtrack then I would be first in line to buy it.

 

[AlanP]

Well, what is the status of the GLORIOUS
film arriving on DVD??
LIZ was nominated and so was EVA MARIE SAINT,
I believe for OSCAR for this film.
And "JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBURG" is also one
of WBS biggies, that is still sitting
on the shelf, with a BEST ACTOR TAG ON IT-
MAXIMILLIAN SHELL !!!!!!!!

 

[Robert Crawford]

I believe "Judgement at Nuremburg" belongs to MGM.

 

[Thomas T]

Judgement At Nuremburg is part of the United Artists library and does indeed belong to MGM and Eva Marie Saint was not nominated for Raintree County though Elizabeth Taylor was.