Raintree County

Set in Indiana in the years around 1859, Raintree County follows John Wickliff Shawnessy, an idealistic schoolteacher and aspiring poet whose long attachment to his childhood sweetheart Nell Gaither is broken when Susanna Drake, a wealthy young woman from New Orleans, arrives in the area. John marries Susanna, but the marriage is troubled: he learns that mental illness has run in her family, and her stability becomes a growing source of worry. As the American Civil War approaches, John is drawn into the conflict while his wife's ties to the South pull her in another direction. The film is a romantic historical drama built around a love triangle set against a nation dividing.

Edward Dmytryk directed the picture, the twelfth of the eighteen films he directed, between The Mountain and The Young Lions, from a screenplay by Millard Kaufman. Elizabeth Taylor plays Susanna opposite Montgomery Clift as John, with Eva Marie Saint as Nell, and Nigel Patrick, Lee Marvin and Rod Taylor in supporting roles; seventy-seven performers are credited. Released in December 1957, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production cost about five million dollars and returned roughly six million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.3 from around 4,800 votes, and on TMDB 6.4 from far fewer, while the critics' rating stands at 5.2 from ten reviews.