Rider on the Rain

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Rider on the Rain
DVD cover
Directed by	René Clément
Produced by	Serge Silberman
Starring	Marlène Jobert Charles Bronson
Music by	Francis Lai
Release date(s)	1969
Running time	120 min.
Country	Italy / France
Language	French
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Rider on the Rain (Fr. Le Passager de la Pluie) is a 1969 French crime thriller film starring Charles Bronson, directed by René Clément, produced by Serge Silberman, with film music composed by Francis Lai.

1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Awards
4 Soundtrack
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

In a god-forsaken, off-season French seaside town we meet Marlène Jobert starring as the diffident, nail-biting, beautiful and lonely Mélancholie "Mellie" Mau, who watches a mysterious stranger step down from the bus into the pouring rain. He follows and eventually rapes her, while her husband (an airline navigator) is away from home. However, when coming to her senses again, she manages to kill her attacker and dispose of the corpse. She decides to keep quiet about the whole incident to avoid complications with her jealous husband. — Enter Charles Bronson as the tough US Army colonel Harry Dobbs, who is out on undercover work trying to track down a serial rapist who has escaped from a military stockade in Germany. He confronts her and she is shocked that he seems to know exactly what has happened, but she sticks to her story of knowing nothing. Since the Colonel is less than forthcoming about his own mission, she also starts to worry about her absent husband possibly being implicated in something shady. Then a dead body is discovered on the beach where she dumped the rapist's body, and further complications ensue...

[edit] Cast

Marlène Jobert as Melancolie "Mellie" Mau
Charles Bronson as Dobbs
Annie Cordy as Juliette
Corinne Marchand as Woman
Jill Ireland as Nicole
Jean Piat as M. Armand
Marcel Pérès as Station Master
Gabriele Tinti as Tony
Ellen Bahl as Madeline Legauff
Jean Gaven as Toussaint
Marc Mazza as The Stranger (Mac Guffin)
Marika Green as Hostess at Tania's

[edit] Awards

In 1970 the film won the Special David of the David di Donatello Awards. In 1971 it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, and for the Golden Laurel.

[edit] Soundtrack

Rider on the Rain is also the main theme of the original movie soundtrack (with lyrics by Sébastien Japrisot and sung by French chansonette Severine). The American singer-songwriter Peggy Lee wrote English lyrics for the song, and recorded it on her 1971 album Make It With You as "Passenger in the Rain."