The Rainmaker (1956) on Netflix
Drought grips the Kansas cattle ranch where Lizzie Curry keeps house for her father and brothers. Sheriff File turns down the family's dinner invitation. Bill Starbuck arrives promising rain.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.9/104,707 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bill Starbuck travels the country as a rainmaker, though he is a con man, and town after town has driven him out. He reaches a Kansas town that the drought has left dry and comes to the door of the Curry family. Lizzie, the daughter, keeps house on the family cattle ranch for her father H.C. and her brothers Noah and Jim. The family worries more about her being unmarried than about the cattle the drought is killing. Lizzie favors Sheriff File, who has declined the family's dinner invitation. H.C., against Lizzie's protests, accepts Starbuck's terms to bring rain, convinced the man is a fraud.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Rainmaker (1956)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Elvis Presley screen-tested for the role of Jim Curry; had he been cast, it would have been his film debut. His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, reportedly vetoed the casting.
- William Holden was originally cast as Bill Starbuck but backed out before filming started. Burt Lancaster lobbied producer Hal B. Wallis for the part, agreeing to star in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral if he got it, and Katharine Hepburn vouched for him.
- Cameron Prud'Homme, as Lizzie's father H.C., was the only actor to appear in both the stage and film version of the story.
