Tag: Gladys Cooper

As a native of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon specifically, I have seen my share of rain. In fact, NW Oregon (where I’ve lived my entire life) is in the middle of yet another “atmospheric river” event. Basically, we’re getting rain and a lot of it–at least 3″ between yesterday through tomorrow. Personally, I like the rain. It’s relaxing and makes the outside smell nice. Plus, it makes for excellent movie watching weather. As long as the rain stays out of my basement, I am good.

During the last major rain event, just a couple weeks ago, I watched a bunch of excellent rainy film noir and Clue because I love it and it has rain. That rain marathon and this week’s downpour inspired me to write a post about rain in the movies as well as allows me to highlight some of my favorite movies. Right now, I haven’t returned to watching any rainy films, because I’ve been obsessed with playing Pokopia on Switch 2.

Movies have been using rain since almost the beginning to put forth a certain emotion, add suspense, express a metaphor, or even just to add some atmosphere. A rainstorm is often used as a reason for characters to be forced to stay confined in one space, such as in Key Largo (1948). Rain can be used as a setting for romance, such as the famous kiss in the rain between Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). To add atmosphere, rain will often be included such as in Clue (1985), where the characters are summoned to Mr. Boddy’s mansion during a dark, rainy night, and end up caught up in a murder mystery. In this blog entry, I want to focus on some of my favorite rain scenes in films.

Rain is often used to lend suspense to a scene, and where else would you want a lot of suspense and drama? A scene in which someone is driving. Driving in the rain can already be fairly treacherous. Add in a driver who is nervous, angry, distraught, or any other distracting emotion and it’s almost always a recipe for danger, or at least great melodrama.

BEST DRIVING IN RAIN SCENES

1. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Lana Turner’s Georgia is distraught after discovering that her boyfriend and producer, Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) has been cheating on her with a starlet. She expresses her indignation over his betrayal and he more or less tells her that he can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t owe her any loyalty, because he gave her stardom. Distraught, Georgia gets into her car and takes off on a high-speed race home, through a pouring rainstorm. Anyone who thinks Lana couldn’t act should watch her performance in this scene. She enters the car sobbing, but soon collapses into pure hysteria as the reality of Jonathan’s betrayal and callousness sets in. Juxtaposed against the frenzy of rain and flashes of lights, Georgia’s emotional collapse reaches its apex when she screams and slams on the brakes.
2. Dead Reckoning (1947). Humphrey Bogart’s character, Rip Murdock, is investigating the death of his friend, Johnny. During his investigation, he falls in love with Coral Chandler (Lizabeth Scott). Unfortunately, he learns that Coral isn’t all she seems and was involved in his friend’s death. Coral and Rip end up in a car together after she accidentally shoots her accomplice instead of him. While Rip drives through heavy rain, he and Coral argue over her intending to kill him. She then pulls out a gun and he hits the gas pedal to floor it. Anyone who has watched a lot of old movies knows that whenever it’s raining and someone is driving recklessly, something bad is going to happen. In this film, Rip ends up crashing head-on into a tree, mortally injuring Coral.
3. Psycho (1960). This is a classic and for good reason. In this film, Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane leaves Phoenix and heads to California with $40,000 in stolen money in hand. She wants to marry her boyfriend, Sam (John Gavin), but he refuses to do so due to lack of funds. When Marion’s employer asks her to deliver a $40,000 deposit to the bank, the temptation is too strong to resist. This money would solve all of her and Sam’s financial woes. While she originally plans to drive through the night, a rainstorm forces her to seek refuge at the Bates Motel, operated by the young and nervous Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Unfortunately for Marion, this is the end of the line.

Rain can also be used to add romance to the scene, because what is more romantic than a classic kiss in the rain type scene. Rain also seems to bring people together–often because they’re forced to seek shelter and each other for warmth.

FAVORITE ROMANTIC RAIN SCENES

1. The Long, Long Trailer (1954). My favorite film of all time features a romantic, albeit cliched (now) romantic kiss in the rain. Tacy (Lucille Ball) and Nicky (Desi Arnaz) spend the entirety of the film more or less on the honeymoon road trip from hell, with one catastrophe after another. The tension and frustration reaches its end when Nicky discovers that Tacy has not only lied to him, but has also put their lives at risk. The couple needs to drive over a high elevation (8000 feet) peak in Colorado. Because of the steep incline and possibility that extra weight could pull the trailer down (and possibly off) the mountain, Nicky tells Tacy that she needs to get rid of all the extra weight she’s added to the trailer in the form of rocks and preserves. Tacy’s idea was that they could collect large rocks from different places they visit and use them to decorate their patio when they reach their new home in Colorado. As a cost-saving measure (to justify the purchase of the trailer), Tacy stars canning fruits and vegetables.
   
   Instead of removing the material from the trailer, she instead distributes it evenly around the trailer, thinking it would solve the weight issue. It does not. Everything comes out. Nicky discovers it. The couple fight and separate. In the pouring down rain, Nicky finally tracks down Tacy (and the trailer) at a trailer park where she’s in the middle of planning to sell the trailer. He opens the trailer door, finds Tacy, but can’t bring himself to apologize. Nicky drives away and suddenly Tacy realizes that she doesn’t want him to leave. She runs out into the rain, in front of Nicky’s car. He stops and gets out. Nicky and Tacy embrace, having made up and reconciled. They run up the steps into their home (the trailer) and kiss.
2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). While a lot can be said about this film, ::cough:: Mickey Rooney ::cough:: there are some fun parts as well. The ending of ‘Tiffany’s’ is much like the end of The Long, Long Trailer, with Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly and George Peppard’s Paul (or “Fred Baby” as I like to call him) reconciling and kissing in the rain drenched streets of New York City. However, this scene has extra poignancy beyond the classic kiss in the rain. In a previous scene, Holly very cruelly abandons “Cat” her pet, out in the rain, saying that nobody belongs to anyone–even animals. Her whole mantra throughout the film is that she’s a free spirit, she doesn’t belong to (or with anyone). Paul is the only person her circle to actually care about her and want to help her. Everyone else in her orbit is someone she makes money off of (via trips to the powder room), or someone who takes advantage of her naivete (e.g., Sally Tomato providing her with the “weather report” to pass on to one of his associates).
   
   However, Holly is no better in that she only associates herself with people she believes can do something for her. She’s a phony, her agent says. Paul bitterly tells Holly off by stating that in her efforts to prevent herself from being put into a “cage” she’s put herself into one, because she’s unwilling to share herself or part of her life with anyone. He then gets out of the car, throws the ring (that they’d had engraved at Tiffany’s during their fun day in New York City together) at her. The ring is a symbol of a time where Holly was probably being closer to her true self and not putting on airs. Holly grabs the ring, places it over the ever important (and symbolic) left ring finger and realizes that she (and Cat) belong with Paul. Their kiss in the rain (plus keeping Cat warm) symbolizes their new life together. Holly found where she belongs.
3. Top Hat (1935) Another one of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films that features Astaire as a character who initially annoys Rogers’ character until a dance brings them together. In this film, Astaire’s Jerry Travers, a tap dance star, arrives in London to appear in a show for producer Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). Late at night, he decides to practice his number (on hard floors!) and wakes up and annoys Dale Tremont (Rogers). She comes up to his room to complain and he is smitten. She is less so. Then there’s a case of mistaken identity, with Dale thinking that Jerry is Horace, the husband of her friend Madge (Helen Broderick).
   
   Jerry pursues Dale throughout the film and she continues to be repulsed by him because she thinks her friend’s husband is coming onto her. A rainstorm at the park forces Jerry and Dale to seek refuge under a gazebo, where they dance to “It’s a Lovely Day (to be Caught in the Rain).” As with many of their films, Rogers’ annoyed attitude towards Astaire lessens, as they start to fall in love through song and dance.

Finally, rain can also be utilized to add a certain atmosphere to a film, or to evoke a specific feeling.

FAVORITE ATMOSPHERIC RAIN SCENES

1. Singin’ in the Rain (1952). This film contains the most iconic rain scene of all and I would be remiss to not mention it. Gene Kelly’s classic dance in the rain to the title song, is perhaps the greatest dance number ever captured and the most joyous. I dare anyone to watch this scene and not feel better at the end. What is happier than a dance in the rain, splashing in puddles, without a single care in the world? The “Singin’ in the Rain” number happens after Kelly’s character, silent screen star Don Lockwood, returns from a disastrous screening of his first “talkie,” The Dueling Cavalier. It co-stars his on-screen partner, the incredibly untalented Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who is oblivious to the movie’s awfulness and delivers one of my favorite lines, “I liked it!” Don figures that his career is over until friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) and new love, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) convince him to re-tool the film to be the musical, The Dancing Cavalier, with Kathy providing behind the scenes support to cover up Lina’s inadequacies. Overcome with joy and his new lease on life, Don happily sings, dances and splashes his way down the Hollywood streets, until he’s stopped by a befuddled cop. What a buzzkill.
2. Clue (1985). This film opens with the six main characters arriving at the mansion of Mr. Boddy, in their color-coded vehicles. The house is tall and ominous, as is the torrential downpour. Inside the mansion, both Mr. Boddy and the chef are killed, leaving the six guests, plus butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) and maid Yvette (Colleen Camp), to wonder who was responsible. The rain forces other unsuspecting visitors to enter the mansion, like a motorist breaking down in the rain and wanting to use the phone, and a cop investigating the motorist’s abandoned car. It rains the entire time throughout the film, lending a sort of spookiness to the classic mystery of “Who Killed Mr. Boddy?”
3. Thunder on the Hill (1951). This film takes place almost entirely at a convent. Sister Mary Bonaventure (Claudette Colbert) is in charge of the hospital ward of the convent. A horrific rainstorm closes nearby roads, keeping everyone inside and others out. A woman, Valerie Carns (Ann Blyth), is brought to the convent to wait out the storm due to the closed roads. She is supposed to be delivered to the prison to await her execution for the murder of her brother. However, the washed out road delays the inevitable and she is forced to stay at the convent. As one can imagine, Valerie is not particularly amiable or even polite. Sister Mary does her best to be gracious and empathetic to Valerie, eventually softening her up a little. Through talking to Valerie, Sister Mary realizes that she may be innocent and decides to investigate Valerie’s brother’s death before the rain lets up and the roads re-open.
   
   In this film, the rain adds a harshness and uneasiness to the events in the film. As soon as the rain lets up and the road is passable, Ann Blyth’s character is headed to Death Row for a crime that she may not have committed. Other refugees are unhappy with her presence. The head doctor’s wife, Isabel, is a patient at the hospital and is unhappy with Sister Mary. Lending to the tension is that this same doctor also testified against Valerie in the case against her brother–more or less sealing her conviction. The Mother Superior (Gladys Cooper) is upset that Sister Mary refuses to follow her orders that she not intervene between Valerie and the police. Sister Mary is also holding onto her own baggage–the recent suicide of her sister. The relentless rain, the only thing keeping these people cooped up at the convent, increases the tension and drama.

HONORABLE RAIN SCENE MENTIONS:

1. The Big Sleep (1946). It rains constantly in this film and only lends to the overall darkness and spookiness of the proceedings. The plot is also a mess, the weather might as well be too.
2. My Neighbor Totoro (1988). In this film, sisters Satsuke and Mei discover Totoro, a forest spirit, living near their new home. The sisters are living near a local hospital where their mother is convalescing. Totoro and his fellow spirits watch over the girls and intervene when Mei goes missing.
3. Casablanca (1942). Humphrey Bogart’s Rick stands in the rain, eagerly awaiting Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa’s arrival, only to be handed a “Dear John” letter. As Rick’s heart breaks, the rain washes Ilsa’s words off the page. His life is over as he knows it.
4. Red Dust (1932). Getting caught in a monsoon forces Mary Astor’s stuffy Barbara into the home of the rugged Dennis Carson (Clark Gable). Also staying with Dennis? Vantine (Jean Harlow), a prostitute who is none too happy or impressed with Barbara’s presence. Vantine has her eye on Dennis too and does not want to share. However, upon spotting a rain soaked Barbara, Dennis is overwhelmed and seduces her. The rain in this film lends an intensity, further making an already stifling film feel even more stuffy than it did before. This isn’t a cold rain. This is a hot, humid, rain.
5. The Old Dark House (1932). A common trope in horror or mystery films, this is another movie that uses rain to force people inside. Horror often has people seeking shelter from strangers, and they’re always unusual strangers. In this movie, Phillip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) are driving in a heavy storm with their friend, Penderel (Melvyn Douglas). They end up seeking refuge from the Femm siblings, Horace and Rebecca. The Femms are very weird. They warn their visitors about their butler Morgan (Boris Karloff), who is mute, alcoholic, and extremely dangerous. Eventually, two more people arrive at the Femms seeking shelter, Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and Gladys DuCane (Lillian Bond). As the group stays at the home longer, they start to discover more and more unusual people and continue to be terrorized by Morgan. This is not only suspenseful, it is also very funny. “Please pass the po-tay-toes,” is my favorite line in the film.