Lack of good storyline.

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

From my favorite movies..

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

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.

"Baby the rain must fall" is a slow-moving intimate story;so if you're looking for an action-packed movie such as many of McQueen's ,you probably won't get something out of it.Filmed in stark black and white ,in a dreary landscape ,with a sky so low it might crumble and fall on the unfortunate couple.Lee Remick ,excellent as ever ,portrays a strong woman ,who had to cope with many setbacks and who however succeeded in raising her little girl.And most of all,she stands by her man,she 's convinced that he will be a famous singer/songwriter some day.Mac Queen is moving as the father -the scene when he says goodbye to her is really harrowing- but less credible as a singer (Clint Eastwood did a better job in "honky tonk man" ) .Like in some other movies by Robert Mulligan ,there is a mysterious side ,something threatening in the dark : Mulligan's flair for eerie disturbing atmosphere was already present in "the spiral road" and would emerge again in later works such as " the stalking moon" and its "enemy" as omnipresent as he is almost invisible and "the other" in which he creates terror in the midday sun.Here "Miss Kate" represents the repressed hidden terror back in the hero's childhood .This lady only appears on her death bed and there's an almost unbearable desecration scene."Baby the rain must fall" never takes the easy way out:for instance ,no romance between Remick and Don Murray,the nice deputy and the end of the movie can be seen as the beginning of a new "cycle" : the heroine will wait till her husband is released,then they 'll try to pick up the pieces till...

Horton Foote wrote some decent stage plays, some fine television dramas and was equally adept at dramatising works from other mediums for the big screen. It is indisputable that the highlight of his career was his screenplay for Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird so that anything post-Mockingbird was somewhat anti-climactic. In the event for his follow-up screenplay he chose to adapt an earlier play/teleplay of his own, The Travelling Lady and to team up again with director Robert Mulligan who had, of course, directed Mockingbird. I haven't seen The Travelling Lady in either of its earlier formats but given a title like that it's reasonable to assume its focus was on the eponymous character who is played here by Lee Remick. For reasons best known to himself and Mulligan Foote has now given the lion's share of the story to Henry Thomas (Steve McQueen) rather than his wife, Georgia (Remick), presumably because McQueen had more box office clout than Remick. Foote specialized in wistful, rural dramas (The Trip To Bountiful for example) and this is yet one more fish from the same bouillabaisse, neither better nor worse than any other. Although she had a wide range (amoral perjerer, Anatomy of a Murder; nymphomaniac, The Detective) Remick excelled in clean-cut fiances, wives and mothers and to all intents and purposes she walks away with the film under McQueen's nose. This is a quiet, gentle film full of acute observations of rural life and the mores of small town America and is ripe for rediscovery.

Based on a short-lived Horton Foote play "The Traveling Lady", this character study focuses on faithful wife Remick, who is reuniting with her husband McQueen who has just been released from prison after several years following a stabbing. Arriving in his hometown, she is surprised to find that he has actually been released for close to a month and is working for room and board at a local couple's home while pursuing a career as a honky-tonk singer at night. Overseeing his behavior with great dismay is his decrepit foster mother Simmons, who prefers him to attend night school in order to make a living. As McQueen struggles to readjust to life on the outside, now with a family to support, he longs for Simmons' approval of his dream to sing for a living. Meanwhile, as Remick begins to break under the weight of McQueen's issues, local Deputy Sheriff Murray provides support, even as he is grappling with the loss of his own spouse. Remick, an actress who usually exuded brains and sophistication, tries hard here to present a simple and plain character and generally succeeds. McQueen takes on a role that is almost autobiographical in terms of the character's past. He is quite authentic and believable except when it comes to the singing. Here he is notably poor at lip-synching and effectively rendering the musical numbers in the film. It's a shame because, otherwise, this is among his best work as a legitimate actor. Murray is amiable and sensitive. Block gives a very unaffected and naturalistic performance as McQueen and Remick's little girl. (This is her only screen credit.) A number of talented character actors dot the cast, though most of them could do a lot more than for what they are called upon. It is perhaps not the most arresting movie since very little actually happens over the course of it, but it does contain some committed acting work from its cast, sports some nice black and white photography, has a vivid, weary, small-town atmosphere and begins with Saul Bass-inspired credits. Also, the title tune (a hit single for Glen Yarbrough) and another one or two numbers are heard. Impatient viewers may bail out long before the end, though fans of the stars should see it and will likely enjoy it.