My Thoughts about "The Rainmaker"

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Wow, I guess you've watched this film a few times, huh? You make a lot of valid points in your post. I have also been fuzzy as to exactly when the story takes place...some of the settings and and costuming seem very old west and other things seem very contemporary. But as you mentioned, Sukie Magire drives a red sports car which would definitely put the story in the 20th century, but it is difficult to tell exactly what year the story is set in. My main problem with Burt Lancaster's performance is that he speaks so fast that it's sometimes hard to understand what he's saying but I think he captures the spirit of the character quite nicely. Hepburn gives one of her most affecting and heartbreaking performances in this film as the old main brought out of her shell by the dynamic con man. One thing I never understood about this story is what Lizzie ever saw in File...he' dull as dishwater. And I absolutely loved Earl Holliman as Jimmy. Holliman has never been seen to better advantage onscreen.

Perhaps Lloyd Bridges is "Noah" in a drought because he is mistaken about the family's situation. There is more Greek Tragedy than Bible to this. Plague and pestilence, dying cattle, a kingdom out of order, a king whose son is supplanting his control and suppressing the other heirs, a wizard,a young soldier who finds inner strength and wisdom, a restoration of fertility when the emotional crisis is resolved. This is Homer, Shakespeare, Sartre, Camus, and many, many others, Kathleen.
As for apparent anachronisms, I see this taking place within the teens or twenties of the 20th century. The Southwest was a wild place, men carried guns and encountered rattlers and robbers. Telephones and cars were available to these folks, too. Lizzie was probably educated in the East, and Starbuck may have come west from the industrial East or Mid-West, thus explaining their accents and language. There are probably fellows just like Noah, Jimmy, and their Pa ranching today with cell phones holstered on their belts, and lap-tops and gun-racks in their pick-ups.
A favorite movie at my house, you bet!

The 1999 Broadway revival (with Woody Harrelson as Starbuck) gave the date as August 1936. The program of the original 1954 Broadway production did not give a date.

Things changed slowly in that part of the country, so some old-fashioned expressions would still be used (especially in sarcastic remarks) and women didn't always keep up to the fashion of the day.


The carrot has mystery. Flowers are essentially tarts...prostitutes for the bees.

I was wondering this too while watching it..

- it's set in a western town, that looks like the old west is still left behind.
- but there are 50's and onwards looking automobiles.
- Lizzie wears a dress where it looks early 1900's to the mid 10's.
- the red capped girl wears a dress that looks like it's from the 50's.

Yes, obviously 20th century but what decade???

"I promise you, before I die I'll surely come to your doorstep"

It's probably mid to late 20s, based on the car and the train, Starbuck not seeing to be that out of place with a horse and wagon, and the lamps & telephone in the house. The droughts of the late 20s lead to the dust bowls of the early 30s during the Great Depression. Everything's a little too progressive and the styles are wrong for the depression era. But it could be very early in the depression - the oil boom in Texas kept a lot of the state rolling along as normal to all the new oil wealth flowing in.

I would say it is set sometime between the 1910 and 1940 - outside of major metropolitan areas, the South and Southwest was still for the most part very rural back then with far more dirt roads than paved ones, it really wasn't until post-WWII that much of this area caught up with the rest of America.