The Rainmaker

The Rainmaker, motion picture about a con man who enters an arid Southwestern town and talks its inhabitants into hiring him as a rainmaker, based on the play by N. Richard Nash. Released in 1956, this award-winning film stars Burt Lancaster as the drifter Starbuck, who talks H. C. Curry into letting him stay in one of the outbuildings at his big home. Curry’s spinster daughter Lizzie (played by Katharine Hepburn) draws the dramatic man’s interest and he woos her, improving her previously trampled self-confidence. Lizzie’s brother, Noah (Lloyd Bridges), who spent his life telling the woman that she was plain and dull, doesn’t care much for Starbuck and believes that his rainmaking scheme, which will cost the town $100, is a fraud. This story was later remade as a Broadway musical called 110 in the Shade.

Director

• Joseph Anthony

Cast

• Burt Lancaster (Starbuck)
• Katharine Hepburn (Lizzie Curry)
• Wendell Corey (File)
• Lloyd Bridges (Noah Curry)
• Earl Holliman (Jim Curry)
• Cameron Prud'homme (H. C. Curry)
• Wallace Ford (Sheriff Thomas)
• Yvonne Lime (Snookie)
• Dottie Bee Baker (Belinda)
• Dan White (Deputy)
• Stan Jones (Townsperson)
• John Benson (Townsperson)
• James F. Stone (Townsperson)
• Tony Merrill (Townsperson)
• Joe Brown (Townsperson)
• Kenneth Becker (Phil Mackey)

Awards

• Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor (1956): Earl Holliman

Quotes

• H. C. Curry: “I don't believe in rainmakers.”
• Starbuck: “What do ya believe in mistah? Dyin' cattle?”