The land of the rain tree

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Movie
German title The land of the rain tree
Original title Raintree County
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1957
length 187 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Edward Dmytryk
script Millard Kaufman
production Dore Schary / MGM
music Johnny Green
camera Robert Surtees
cut John D. Dunning
occupation

The Land of the Rain Tree (Original: Raintree County ) is an American film drama from 1957. The novel of the same name by Ross Lockridge Jr. served as a literary model.

action

The film tells the story of the teacher John Shawnessy, who stands between two women: his childhood sweetheart Nell and the southern beauty Susanna. On the day they graduate from school, Nell and John hear from their professor the story of the rain tree , which lets the finder understand the meaning of life. John goes on a search and almost drowns. While playing competitions with his friend Flash , John gets drunk and starts a race. He wins and receives the winner's laurel wreath from Susanna, who is visiting the north. He's spending an afternoon with her. The two fall in love. The relationship with Nell falls into a crisis.

John and Susanna finally get married because she is faking him pregnant. John urges her to either release her two slaves or pay them a wage; she does the latter after Lincoln's election victory. He also persuades her to throw away her dolls. Then Susanna shows signs of mental derangement. A son is born, but the marriage is in crisis. The war breaks out in which John takes part as a Union soldier . In the south, shortly before the end of the war, he finds his son Jimmy hiding in a plantation house , then his wife in a mental hospital, from which he takes her out because he wants to continue the marriage. It turns out that a slave had raised Susanna because her mother was too weak after giving birth and had psychological problems as well. Susanna had the socially inappropriate wish that the slave would take on the role of her mother, which resulted in an internal conflict.

Nell visits the couple in friendship; Susanna learns from her that she continues to love John. Susanna runs out of the house at night to enable them to live together; Jimmy follows her. The next day, Susanna's body is found in the swamp, after which John and Nell find Jimmy alive without seeing the rain tree nearby.

background

MGM wished this epic about the Civil War themed a success like Gone with the Wind . However, the box office results lagged far behind. Elizabeth Taylor's salary was $ 125,000; Clift, who was a bigger star than Taylor at the time, received $ 300,000.

During the shoot, Clift suffered a serious car accident that permanently altered the structure of his face. This is particularly evident in the opening scene. During the graduation ceremony you can see a young and vital Clift, then after a cut, Montgomery Clift with a changed physiognomy and a deeper voice.

The theme song is from Nat King Cole .

The rental rents for the film were just under $ 6 million. He grossed a total of $ 13 million. The manufacturing cost was $ 5 million. The film is thus one of the most expensive that has ever been produced in the USA until then. It was the first film that MGM produced using the in-house MGM Camera 65 widescreen process , which was later also used for the Ben Hur film .

German version

The German dubbing was created in 1958 in the MGM synchronization studio in Berlin .

role actor Voice actor
John Wickliff Shawnessy Montgomery Clift Hans Dieter Zeidler
Susanna Drake Elizabeth Taylor Marion Degler
Nelly Gaither Eva Marie Saint Gisela Peltzer
Garwood Jones Rod Taylor Peter Mosbacher
Orville 'Flash' Perkins Lee Marvin Wolfgang Lukschy
Prof. Webster Stiles Nigel Patrick Curt Ackermann
TD Shawnessy Walter Abel Paul Wagner
Ezra Gray Rhys Williams Eduard Wandrey
Barbara Jarma Lewis Eva Katharina Schultz
photographer Jack Daly Walter Bluhm
Starter in the race Phil Chambers Robert Klupp
Bartender Jake Oliver Blake Konrad Wagner
Cousin sam John Eldredge Hans A. Martens
Bobby Drake Tom Drake Kurt Waitzmann
Northern Lieutenant Stacy Harris Werner Peters

criticism

“Family epic from the American Civil War. The ambitious film is unstructured in its wealth of material and images, at times clumsy and, despite ironic details, has gotten too sentimental. The MGM's goal of surpassing the success of the film Gone with the Wind was not achieved. "

Oscar nominations

literature

  • Ross Lockridge : The Land of the Rain Tree. Roman (original title: Raintree County ). German by Harry Kahn . Fretz & Wasmuth, Zurich 1949, 720 pp.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Thomas Bräutigam: Lexicon of film and television synchronization. More than 2000 films and series with their German voice actors etc. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-289-X , p. 223
  2. The land of the rain tree in Arne Kaul's synchronous database ; Retrieved October 3, 2008
  3. The land of the rain tree. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used