Film

Raintree County

Name: Raintree County
Genre: Romance, Drama, History
Released: 1957
Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick, Lee Marvin

Period drama

A three-hour Civil War romance spanning decades and continents, built on the peculiar chemistry between Elizabeth Taylor's sultry outsider and Montgomery Clift's idealistic Midwesterner. It's lush and wounded, full of the Technicolor melodrama that only 1950s MGM could muster. For those who want romance with genuine tragedy embedded in it.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love sprawling, big-hearted studio melodrama, where a restless idealist's romantic tangle is set against a whole nation coming apart, and you don't mind sentiment played straight.

Skip it if you find lush, earnest sentiment tiresome, or you want a lean film, since this one takes its time and rarely hurries toward anything.

What it asks of you: Plan on just over three hours of unhurried scenes, with long stretches of talk and reflection that build feeling more than plot.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Bridges of Madison County1995

Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood in a quiet, devastating romance about two people meeting in the wrong life at the right moment. Like Raintree County, it finds tragedy in roads not taken and the weight of circumstance.

But It's deliberately understated where Raintree County is operatic. If you want grandeur and Technicolor passion, this restrained approach may feel too small.

The Song of Bernadette1943

Jennifer Jones in a sweeping historical romance that shares Raintree County's willingness to let emotion sprawl across canvas and time. Gorgeous, serious, unafraid of big feelings about faith and destiny.

But The pacing is deliberate and deeply reverent. Modern viewers often find it slow; the spiritual devotion may feel remote.

A Place in the Sun1951

Montgomery Clift again, in another tragic love story where ambition and desire collide with circumstance and moral complexity. Elizabeth Taylor is in this too. It's about the same actor, same era, same emotional terrain.

But It's a murder drama at its heart. If you're drawn to Raintree County for its romance, the noir elements here are darker and more brutal.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Raintree County

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Night of the Iguana1964

Montgomery Clift's original role; the same actor's exploration of desire, faith, and self-destruction in a different costume.

Tennessee Williams adapting Tennessee Williams, with Richard Burton and Ava Gardner in steamy, tragic romance set in Mexico. Montgomery Clift was originally cast before his health declined. Same wounded sensibility, same actor's shadow, same passion for doomed attraction.

But It's explicitly sexual and morally complicated in ways 1957 couldn't be. The stakes are personal and bodily, not historical and ideological—a very different kind of darkness.

Gone with the Wind1939

The definitive Civil War romance, equally grand in scope and length. If Raintree County's ambition appeals to you, this is its closest ancestor—lush, doomed, caught between North and South.

But It's almost four hours. And Scarlett and Rhett's relationship is built on antagonism rather than tender idealism; very different emotional register.

War and Peace1956

Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda in a sweeping historical epic about love tested by war and history. Same year as Raintree County, same ambition to make romance *historical*, not just set against history.

But It's adapted from Tolstoy and shows it—philosophical and dense in ways that overshadow the romance. Epic scope can overwhelm character intimacy.

The Egg and I1947

Spencer Tracy and Claudette Colbert in a more comedic take on regional American romance and culture clash. Lighter than Raintree County but with the same interest in how place and personality collide.

But It's essentially a screwball comedy. If you want tragedy and depth, the tone here is fundamentally at odds with that hunger.

Imitation of Life1959

A grand Technicolor melodrama about love, family, and the weight of secrets. Made just two years after Raintree County by a studio that understood how to make emotion feel inevitable and huge.

But It focuses on mothers and daughters more than romance. The emotional core isn't a love story, which may feel like a different kind of film entirely.

The Bad and the Beautiful1952

Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner in a Hollywood noir that's surprisingly romantic beneath its cynicism. Dark, beautifully shot, about people who love each other but can't be together—familiar emotional ground.

But It's cynical about love and ambition in ways Raintree County isn't. If you want sincerity, the world-weariness here may feel cold.

Magnificent Obsession1954

Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman in a melodrama about guilt, redemption, and love that won't be denied. Unashamed about big emotions and second chances. High Technicolor drama in the same register as Raintree County.

But The plot hinges on absurd coincidence and metaphysical luck. Some find it silly rather than moving; sincerity requires patience.

The Crown2016

The same structural core: two people who love each other forced into shapes history demands of them, watching duty erode the marriage.

If what gripped you in Raintree County was the collision between personal desire and historical duty—love tested by the weight of what the world demands—this 10-hour season about Elizabeth II and Philip is that exact engine in a modern key. Intimate, political, shot like a film.

But It's a TV series, not a film; commitment is real. And it's contemporary drama posing as history, not period romance. The tone is cool where Raintree County burned.

Letter from an Unknown Woman1948

The same heartbreak about time, memory, and the ways love persists beyond reason or return, but told with restraint instead of Technicolor grandeur.

Max Ophüls' masterpiece: a woman loves a man across decades while he remains incapable of seeing her. It's Raintree County's tragedy told from the opposite direction—the lover left behind rather than the love triangle. Black and white, compressed, almost unbearably elegant.

But It's not a romance in the conventional sense; the man doesn't reciprocate. If you wanted mutual passion, this is about unrequited longing as a life sentence. Also Austrian cinema, not Hollywood gloss.