Rain or Shine Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Rain or Shine Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 13, 2024

Marking yet another high-definition debut in the Frank Capra at Columbia Collection, Rain or Shine tells the story of a young woman inherits her father's financially troubled circus. The Blu-ray features a solid AV presentation for a film of its age, along with domestic and international versions of the film and a new Michel Gondry featurette.

Bareback rider Mary Rainey (Joan Peers) is barely able to make ends meet, drowning in the debt of the John T. Rainey Circus which she inherited from her father. Her manager, Smiley Johnson (Joe Cook, having a blast), tells her there's nothing to worry about but Mary, far more practical, knows better. Her beau Bud (William Collier Jr), though, provides an unintended solution: his father all but runs Shrewsbury, the next stop on their performance schedule. Smiley almost immediately begins taking advantage of a man named Amos (Tom Howard), whose naivete finds him investing in the touring circus troupe, as well as the town's children, who bring food from home. No shame. No shame! Mary, meanwhile, has a chance to meet Bud's parents and pitch them the idea of investing in the circus, saving them from financial doom. But Smiley, secretly in love with Mary, spoils the opportunity. Challenges mount and Mary and Bud are faced with the possibility that they won't be able to pull off a miracle. Perhaps one amazing performance could... no, it couldn't. Could it? The tent goes up, the animals trot out, the performers ready their best, and Mary and Bud work to save their livelihoods.

Rain or Shine may be a big-top bit of music-brimming fun, but its twists and turns -- and a lion-taming antagonist named Foltz (Adolph Miller) -- lead it to a place Capra is unaccustomed: a not so happy ending. More tragedy and open-ended drama by film's end, it could almost be argued Rain or Shine was ahead of it's time, closing on an uncertain future and leaving Mary and Bud with a problem that remains unresolved. The moral of the story (cause there must be one, right?) is that life and love are more important than careers and inherited dreams, and there's a distinct lack of optimism to Mary's future with the circus. Or is that just modern eyes telling me so? One of the intriguing things about watching through the Frank Capra at Columbia Collection is you can sense the filmmaker searching prior to hitting his pre-legacy prime; searching for who he is, the stories he wants to tell, the things he wants audiences to garner from his work, the toll he wants to put on his characters to do so, and the ultimate message he has for people just trying to get by in a financially unstable world. (This was, after all, the Depression Era, and Capra was well aware of the struggles of the everyman. Or woman.) His ambitious scale is on full display either way, from lions and tigers and bears oh my to a giant circus tent, set ablaze by an accident. Searching, maybe, but ever the showman, I find myself wondering if Capra's Rain or Shine has a touch of autobiographical anxiety lurking within as each production -- a circus in its own rights -- eeks out of a Hollywood system that offers as little certainty as Mary's future.

Rain or Shine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Blu-ray debut of Rain or Shine features a decidedly decent 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer, albeit one that exhibits more wear than other movies that follow in the Frank Capra at Columbia Collection. Subtle, sometimes glaring white lines pop up throughout the presentation; blemishes that a more extensive 4K restoration would have no doubt been able to tackle. It's not disastrous. It's not even all that disappointing considering the film's age. But it does raise the question as to why Sony didn't simply pony up and put more work into the standard Blu-rays in the box set. Ah well. Contrast is lovely, black levels are rich and inky, midtones look great, and there's plenty of fine texture detailing on display beneath a rather filmic veneer of grain. Edges are crisp but there are a few halos, suggesting an older master, but it isn't very distracting and only appears on occasion. Blocking, banding and the like are absent, so the encode appears to be proficient as well.

Rain or Shine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rain or Shine's DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is a pretty standard affair. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, prioritization is relatively good (again, considering the era and its limitations), and the film's music is only slightly shallow and tinny. The track finds the veritable cliff's edge when tragedy strikes near the end of the story, and the sound of raging flames seem to push the audio to its capacity, but presumably the era, not the mix, is to blame.

Rain or Shine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

In addition to including both the domestic (1:28:30) and international (1:07:46) versions of Rain or Shine, the Blu-ray edition of the film also includes an 11-minute HD featurette, "Frank Capra Finds a Place in the Sun with Michel Gondry," about the unique posthumous bond between Capra and the modern French filmmaker.

Rain or Shine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rain or Shine does some genre hopping, adhering more to the idea of a Greek comedy than anything lighter or more lighthearted. But it still wears its heart on its sleeve and does so with a fair touch of effortlessness. Sony's Blu-ray disc isn't as satisfying -- its AV presentation is closer to average than otherwise -- but it still does a fine job with all its handed.