Lana Turnmer is Lady Edwina Esketh, a beautiful, wealthy, and attractive man-hunting, the sort that finds it expedient to take her husband along on her wanderings... When the married couple arrive in Ranchipur as guests of the Maharani, they meet Dr. Safti, a young Hindu who is the ruler's protégé and in whom the Maharani has recognized the greatness that will be all-important to her country... Edwina, however, decides then and there that she must add this young man to her 'collection.'
The Maharani does, of course, try to prevent the doctor from falling in love with Edwina, whose reputation as an amoral woman has preceded her to India... But as he becomes harder to get, Edwina becomes more and more determined to have him and, out of her yearning, there is born to her the first stirrings of genuine emotion... Soon, Dr. Safti admits his love for her and tells the woman he is prepared to go away with her...
But a severe 'Mansoon' intervened, and the rains came to Ranchipur, followed by a devastating earthquake that destroys most of the bridges, schools and buildings, and smashes the structure of a dam promising for another catastrophe...
Interwoven with all this was a secondary love story concerning a hard-drinking, disillusioned American engineer named Tom Ransome (Fred MacMurray), who wins back his self-respect as well as the love of Fern Simon (Joan Caulfield), a missionary's daughter attracted to him with the confident expectation to accomplish something good in her life...
Lady Esketh, whose character is established in the film's first five minutes when her husband (Michael Rennie) calls her 'greedy,' 'selfish,' 'decadent,' and 'corrupt' all in one breath, is probably the most determined, straightforward femme fatale the star has ever essayed on the screen... "I just look at what I want," she tells the Hindu doctor... Her pretty dangerous character basically matches that of Doña Sol (Rita Hayworth) in "Blood and Sand."
Eugenie Leontovich portrays with strong bravura style the 'demanding' Maharani who raised Dr. Safti as an honest man faithful to his duty, to his people, and his country... This truly remarkable woman proves not selfish for herself but a lot for Ranchipur...
The film's final scenea juicy, climactic confrontation between Lady Esketh and the Maharanigives Lana the opportunity to utter that attention-getting line: "I don't give a damn!" We have heard these words in the climax of the all-time movie classic when Rhett Butler used it to tell off Scarlett O'Hara sixteen years earlier...
Based on Louis Bromfield Novel, and with an excellent cast, "Rains of Ranchipur" is a tedious remake of Clarence Brown's "The Rains Came." Milton Krasner's photography in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color is excessively flattering, and Lana Turner looks gorgeous in her elegant gowns, and Richard Burton specially handsome in the turban...
The Maharani does, of course, try to prevent the doctor from falling in love with Edwina, whose reputation as an amoral woman has preceded her to India... But as he becomes harder to get, Edwina becomes more and more determined to have him and, out of her yearning, there is born to her the first stirrings of genuine emotion... Soon, Dr. Safti admits his love for her and tells the woman he is prepared to go away with her...
But a severe 'Mansoon' intervened, and the rains came to Ranchipur, followed by a devastating earthquake that destroys most of the bridges, schools and buildings, and smashes the structure of a dam promising for another catastrophe...
Interwoven with all this was a secondary love story concerning a hard-drinking, disillusioned American engineer named Tom Ransome (Fred MacMurray), who wins back his self-respect as well as the love of Fern Simon (Joan Caulfield), a missionary's daughter attracted to him with the confident expectation to accomplish something good in her life...
Lady Esketh, whose character is established in the film's first five minutes when her husband (Michael Rennie) calls her 'greedy,' 'selfish,' 'decadent,' and 'corrupt' all in one breath, is probably the most determined, straightforward femme fatale the star has ever essayed on the screen... "I just look at what I want," she tells the Hindu doctor... Her pretty dangerous character basically matches that of Doña Sol (Rita Hayworth) in "Blood and Sand."
Eugenie Leontovich portrays with strong bravura style the 'demanding' Maharani who raised Dr. Safti as an honest man faithful to his duty, to his people, and his country... This truly remarkable woman proves not selfish for herself but a lot for Ranchipur...
The film's final scenea juicy, climactic confrontation between Lady Esketh and the Maharanigives Lana the opportunity to utter that attention-getting line: "I don't give a damn!" We have heard these words in the climax of the all-time movie classic when Rhett Butler used it to tell off Scarlett O'Hara sixteen years earlier...
Based on Louis Bromfield Novel, and with an excellent cast, "Rains of Ranchipur" is a tedious remake of Clarence Brown's "The Rains Came." Milton Krasner's photography in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color is excessively flattering, and Lana Turner looks gorgeous in her elegant gowns, and Richard Burton specially handsome in the turban...