Movie Screening & Discussion - "Raintree County"

Join Marcus Renna in the Scott Room for a screening and discussion of the 1957 epic historical and romance film, Raintree County. Directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick, and Lee Marvin, Raintree County is adapted from the 1948 novel of the same name by Ross Lockridge Jr.

Set against the backdrop of the antebellum South and the American Civil War, Raintree County tells the story of idealist John Wickliff Shawnessy (Clift). Living in Raintree County, Indiana in 1859, he's fascinated by the story of the county's legendary magnificent raintree. He has a brief, passionate affair with Susanna Drake (Taylor), a rich young woman from New Orleans. When Susanna returns to tell Shawnessy that she's pregnant with their child, he marries her out of duty and honor, leaving his high school sweetheart, Nell Gaither (Saint,) heartbroken. Traveling south to visit Susanna's family, John - an abolitionist - feels out of place and they soon return to Raintree County. The marriage is a rocky one, plagued by Susanna's increasing paranoia and apparent mental illness, and she disappears one day with their young son, Jimmy. When war breaks out, John enlists in the Union Army, determined to find Susanna and recover Jimmy.

A lavish historical historical piece, shot on many different locations, Raintree County had a particularly troubled production, needing to shut down several times due to health issues confronting both Clift and Taylor.