The Rains Came

[knitwit45]

How lovely to see any of the older movies on a big screen, rather than the confines of a tv screen. Thanks, Lynn!

[Vienna]

I haven't seen The Rains Came for many years but I still remember how very impressed I was by Myrna Loy's performance. She conveyed such a wealth of emotion with quiet power , as her love for Tyrone Power becomes selfless.

[intothenitrate]

Myrna's death scene in that one is perfect. (oops SPOILER ALERT). You've got to have some real depth as a person to die movingly on camera.

[feaito]

I was just thinking that its is kind of uncanny that this 1939 film (and the book on which it is based upon, I bet) deals with the romance of Lady Edwina Esketh married to a British Lord, who has an affair with a Hindu Doctor, who's hailed as the heir of the Maharajah and Maharani of Ranchipur....and circa 1946-1948 Lady Edwina Mountbatten, married to British peer Lord Louis Mountbatten, reportedly had an affair with lawyer and politician Nehru in India.

[moira finnie]

I was just thinking that its is kind of uncanny that this 1939 film (and the book on which it is based upon, I bet) deals with the romance of Lady Edwina Esketh married to a British Lord, who has an affair with a Hindu Doctor, who's hailed as the heir of the Maharajah and Maharani of Ranchipur....and circa 1946-1948 Lady Edwina Mountbatten, married to British peer Lord Louis Mountbatten, reportedly had an affair with lawyer and politician Nehru in India.

It is a bit eerie that this best seller presaged the later alleged affair with Nehru--though unlike the dyspeptic character played by Nigel Bruce in the movie, the tolerant Lord Mountbatten commented on the tenderness that passed between his wife and Nehru, seemingly well aware of the attachment. Still the origins of the story line in this movie may have reflected common knowledge among many people in the '20s and '30s. It may be possible that the author of The Rains Came, Louis Bromfield, who was then internationally known and a globetrotter with many society connections, may have known about Edwina Mountbatten's hectic private life from society gossip. Lord and Lady Mountbatten had what has been described as "an open marriage" from shortly after their wedding and were the subject of gossip ever since. In 1932 things became particularly ugly when The People, a socialist newspaper in the UK, printed an allusion to a prominent society hostess involved in a scandal that "shook society to its roots." Sounds like an old movie, huh?

Actually, Edwina Mountbatten had been widely rumored prior to this lawsuit to have been involved with many people, regardless of race or status (as her husband had as well). The original piece that prompted this case involved the expatriate American singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson, but she sued over that speculation. In fact her affair with the Grenada-born cabaret entertainer Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson was the actual individual who the "blind items" published in the newspapers were referring to in their pages. Thanks in part because of the influence of the royal family (Mountbatten was a cousin to the king and the uncle of the future Prince Philip), no credible evidence of this or any affair ever came out in court and the paper lost the suit (along with thousands in judgments and court expenses, though Lady Mountbatten refused any awarding of damages).

At the end of the day, the public action, unselfishness, restraint, and empathy shown by the Mountbattens during WWII when both threw themselves wholly into the war (In Which We Serve is based on Mountbatten's experiences with the HMS Kelly) and as the last viceroy and vicereine of India are probably their real legacy.

Mountbatten: The Private Story by Brian Hoey and Janet Morgan's Edwina Mountbatten: A Life of Her Own are both pretty good accounts of the foibles, virtues, and very full lives of this pair.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Thank you, dear Moira, for not decimating the Mountbattens on the greasy spit of scandal; and just telling the truth....
The Mountbattens were not perfect but they were no better nor worse than many other British, French, German, Russian & Italian nobles and aristocrats; or Americans for that matter. And, that story could have been about any Brit in society. Allegedly is a very good word to use in these cases.

Never knew Lady Mountbatten but did know Lord Mountbatten fairly well through Nell and Moira Lister.
I was shocked behond belief when he was assassinated. I know his grandson, Timothy Knatchbull, and just saw him last year for dinner at Browns Hotel in London.
three of my friends also know his mother, Countess Mountbatten, quite well but I do not!!

BTW, I always wondered whether the name Edwina in both movies was a coincidence or not.
Methinks there's a naughty clue there - what????

Larry

[JackFavell]

Moira, that's so interesting, you make me want to read both those books.

[moira finnie]

Thank you, dear Moira, for not decimating the Mountbattens on the greasy spit of scandal; and just telling the truth....

Thanks, Larry. I am an unabashed admirer of Lord Mountbatten, having read quite a bit about the history of his work during and after WWII as well as his generous behavior in private. My aunt was an account rep for Wedgewood in NYC and she still hasn't gotten over her meeting with him via his connection to that company while promoting British trade--apparently his good looks, gentle air of easy charm, humor and real glamour were still a pretty devastating combination even when he was in his '70s.

I was shocked behond belief when he was assassinated. I know his grandson, Timothy Knatchbull, and just saw him last year for dinner at Browns Hotel in London.

It pains me to remember the evil done to Lord Mountbatten in Ireland on that day in 1979 (not to mention the murder of his grandson and a local Sligo boy, as well as the physical and psychological harm done to his extended family). Being of Irish descent, it is appalling to me that such an act of cowardice by fanatical and amoral gangsters still overshadows so much of the good that the Irish people have done in the world. The fact that they chose as their victim one of the members of the royal family who had tried to do the most good in the world makes it even worse.

Moira, that's so interesting, you make me want to read both those books.

Wendy, there are several books on The Mountbattens, (some good, some bad), but one that I might like to read is by their daughter Pamela, India Remembered and another by his grandson, Timothy Knatchbull, called From a Clear Blue Sky: Surviving the Mountbatten Bomb. The two I named in the first post about this are ones I have at home so I could pull them off the shelf to check on the background.

[Vecchiolarry]

Dear Moira and Wendy,

Another book you both may want to read is "The Four Graces" by Ilana Miller, a very dear friend of mine from LA.
It is about the four Hessian princesses, granddaughters of Queen Victoria. The eldest is Victoria, the mother of Lord Mountbatten & grandmother of Prince Philip; and she is quite a character.
My grandmother knew her quite well and told me she was an avid smoker and systematically set herself and the drapes on fire quite often.
Once Queen Mary invited herself to tea, "As long as you don't set the house ablaze!!"....
She talked non-stop about all sorts of subjects (was interested in everything) and was called "a gas bag" affectionately by the family...
At the end of her life, so many relatives and friends came to see her every day thet she was 'quite peeved' when she awoke each day that she was 'still here' and that she 'had to face all those damn relatives coming to see me off'........

Larry

[feaito]

How interesting Moira, Larry and Wendy. Thanks for your information.

Anyway, it's pretty uncanny that this book was written in 1932, long before Lord Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India (1946?) and travelled there with Lady Edwina and met Nehru...

I have also been fascinated by the lives of the Hannovers, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Mountbattens (née Battenberg) and especially by all that concerns to the morganatic marriage of a member of the Ducal House of Hesse with Julia von Hauke, which originated the Princely family of Battenberg, whose members living in the UK had to change their surname, due to the Anti German sentiment, just as the House of Hanover-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha had to change their name to Windsor.

On second thoughts the current Prince of Wales is really Charles of Battenberg Hannover-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha... How "un-British" Huh?

[moira finnie]

I love it, Fernando. What a mouthful.