VividSimon Simply Perfect

GazerRise Fantastic!

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

davidcarniglia A very powerful drama. Lee Remick and Steve McQueen give fine performances as a hard-luck couple. The supporting cast is great, especially Kimberly Block, as a very perceptive and sensitive child. McQueen's Henry never really escapes the abusive influence of Georgia Simmon's Miss Kate, his former guardian.McQueen spends the whole movie simultaneously waiting for his next meltdown, and trying to dodge it. That he is unsuccessful, even after Miss Kate's death, is a tragic, if expected outcome. What's unexpected, however, is that Remick's Georgette, along with her daughter, simply trudge onward. They are strong enough to be on their own, given the occasional help and encouragement from a stable Don Murray-type.Murray's role is interesting because he's kind of McQueen's shadow, his opposite in every way. He acts as a surrogate husband/father to Georgette and Margaret Rose; in fact he's available. In another movie he would marry Georgette. In my alternative plot, since McQueen's off to prison again, he grants Georgette a divorce, knowing that she and his child will be in good hands with his friend Slim.But this movie doesn't go easy on its characters. It's very poignant seeing Margaret Rose gaze hopefully at the recently-planted chinaberry tree, when she's in fact literally uprooted just as she starts to feel at home in Columbus. She's never very comfortable with McQueen; she admires him for his singing, and somewhat abstractly for the stability that she hopes he represents, but he seems never to really be a part of the family.He never calls her by name, she's merely "the baby." Murray's Slim, on the other hand, she just sort of naturally accepts, sensing his calm but strong nature. Outwardly, Henry's a tough knock-a-bout, performing and carousing at the honky-tonks, getting in fights, and ripping around in his decrepit convertible. But he's haunted by the memory and latent power that Miss Kate represents.Her house is as scary as she is. A Victorian that's crumbling around her; with a scary housekeeper, and the long stairs up to her dark room. Still, Henry loyally sits by her as she's dying, only to hear one more rebuke that are her last words. Another alternative plot, again a simpler, nicer resolution, would have him cash in the silver that he gathers up from her treasures to get a jump-start on his stillborn music career. But, no, instead he just goes nuts, cracking himself up at the graveyard along with his car. We get the feeling that Georgette and Margaret Rose won't see him again, they'll find another chinaberry tree in another town down the road.

Dalbert Pringle It seems that every, single time I see Steve McQueen in any movie (be it from the beginning, the middle, or the end of his career), I always end up asking myself - "How the hell did this dull, non-charismatic bloke ever become a big-name star?" I find McQueen to be one of the blandest, insincere and unconvincing actors of his (or any) generation. Far from being what I would consider a "cool" dude, McQueen really had a tendency to grate on my nerves with his blah character portrayals.And if having to endure McQueen's dreary screen-dynamics was bad enough, I think that when it came to the depressing and absurd nature of this film's story, the viewer would have to be pretty dense and mighty gullible to take its utter nonsense at face value.From my point of view, this film's only really worthwhile moments were the unintentionally hilarious scenes where McQueen (who was unconvincingly playing an ex-con with a mean, hair-trigger temper who's now trying to make it as a rockabilly singer) lip-syncs during his live performance on stage at the town's local hot-spot.Man, you wouldn't believe how really bad McQueen was at lip-syncing. Not only could he not get his mouth in sync with the words, but the voice of the real singer did not suit McQueen at all.Ha! What a laugh-and-a-half! McQueen was so pathetically bad that I couldn't help but burst out laughing.Set in the town of Columbus, Texas - This clichéd "rebel-without-a-cause" story really sucked. I thought that its title "Baby, The Rain Must Fall" was very unfitting, since all of the troubles (rain) that fell on McQueen's character were clearly brought on by his own stupid actions.P.S. - Had this film not starred McQueen, then, yes, I might have actually rated it somewhat higher.

Syl Horton Foote writes lovingly about Texas. In this film, the cast is star-studded with Steve McQueen as newly released parolee Henry Thomas and aspiring country singer. Lee Remick plays his wife Georgette. They have a daughter. The cast also included Don Stroud as the sheriff where he is the good guy. McQueen does a fantastic job in playing Henry Thomas. The writing is weak in some areas like Henry's actions after Miss Kate died and funeral. I never got the history about him and Miss Kate. It's an odd storyline. There is also the relationship between him and his wife that falls flat too. While I love the cast of McQueen, Stroud, and Remick and the supporting cast like Ruth White as well, the writing seems weak like it needs more to explain the history among the characters. The film is fine otherwise but off in some parts because of the writing.

TRRkey I totally agree with the writer who said this and "Sand Pebbles" are McQueen's finest, my favorites anyway. I can't think of anything that would have made this film better from the casting, realistic dialogue and locations, and especially the hopeless nature of the characters, their relationships, which are driven home, I think, all the more by the deliberately laconic pacing. Windblown people on a windblown landscape! I am sure that McQueen didn't have to dig very deeply to conjure up his approach to this part given his background. I first saw this movie over 40 yrs. ago and it touched me then and still does. I particularly like the scene in which he confronts the loud bar patron, for I have worked as a club musician and singer for many yrs. and it very profoundly projects the angst a performer feels when they are attempting to communicate a feeling and are ignored {or in this case beaten up}. Don't let the slowness of the action fool you, that's how things move in a small prairie town. Watch and listen closely because there are a whole lot of things going on in this great story, maybe not always on the surface all the time.