THE RAINMAKER (1956) Elmer Gantry by way of Music Man and Oklahoma

In the opening shot of THE RAINMAKER, we think we see Elmer Gantry preaching right at us. It’s the same magnetic actor – Burt Lancaster – but here he's con man-rainmaker Bill Starbuck, not the con man-preacher he would play four years later. Like Gantry (as well as another noted flim-flammer, MUSIC MAN Harold Hill), Starbuck is a charleton with a streak of angel who makes a very big promise in exchange for money: to bring rain (rather than trombones) to the drought-ravaged prairie town in 24 hours. A kindly rancher takes him up on it, but his spinster daughter (Katharine Hepburn) refuses to buy in – until Starbuck makes lightning strike her heart. Lancaster is charismatic and funny, and Hepburn pitch-perfect as a "plain-looking" middle-ager with a beautiful soul and the dreams of a young girl. Earl Holliman plays Hepburn's comical younger brother; Lloyd Bridges is her sternly realistic elder brother, and they, along with Lancaster, Hepburn and the rest of the cast, are superb. It’s been said that nearly all of the actors were too old to comfortably inhabit their roles, but I say nonsense. Hepburn was well preserved at 49 and plays much younger. But age is beside the point; the lesson is that no matter what your age or station, dreams can infuse you with beauty and purpose and should never be abandoned.