THE RAINMAKER (1957) C widescreen 121m dir: Joseph Anthony

w/Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges, Earl Holliman, Cameron Prud'Homme, Wallace Ford, Yvonne Lime, Dottie Bee Baker, Dan White

From The Movie Guide: "THE MUSIC MAN may have owed something to this story, since both concern confidence men who come to small towns to peddle their scams, then fall for spinsters. [N. Richard] Nash wrote the film as a television play then expanded it to work on the Broadway stage, where it ran 124 performances with Geraldine Page in the Hepburn role and Prud'Homme as her father, under the direction of Anthony, who also did this film and, later, the musical version, '110 in the Shade.' Composer [Alex] North garnered an Oscar nomination, as did Hepburn, her seventh. The main problem is that the film is far too talky, and the leads are somewhat grizzled for the situation. Hepburn is a hick-town spinster in an arid area of the Southwest. (She never really convinces anyone that she's a country girl because that New England accent and her flighty mannerisms constantly intrude.) Lancaster is a brash, lively con artist who comes to the burg claiming that he can bring rain to the drought-ravaged locale for the sum of $100. He is taken into Prud'Homme's house and allowed to live in one of the outbuildings. Hepburn's brothers are Bridges, who never quite buys Lancaster's spiel, and Holliman, an oafish young man who is wooing town beauty Lime. Once Lancaster is ensconced, he begins to change things around. Hepburn is being courted, albeit reluctantly, by the town's lawman, Corey, but he doesn't seem to be able to pop the question, and time is a-wasting in her old maid life. Lancaster convinces the plain Hepburn that she is gorgeous, and once she feels that's true, her attitude about herself begins to alter. ... Lancaster does one of his ELMER GANTRY bravura performances and was a perfect selection, although a little timeworn at 43. Hepburn was pushing 50 and Corey was seven years younger. The difference in all their ages was revealed by the close-ups and worked against the believability of the story. Still, it's a pleasant movie with more than many laughs."