Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

alenzizak Pretty bad film.This is like an exploitation film of the circus. It easily could have been the documentary about life of circus people; that would have been actually pretty impressive, since there are not much documentaries about circus folks, at least not at that time. Errol Morris' Fast, Cheap & Out of Control is almost 70 years later.But I digress. There is not much plot here, it's just circus doing circus in front of the camera. Acting is poor, story is not existent and it's pretty obvious that Capra at that time was the gun for hire and did what studio demanded.There is only one reason to watch this film. If you are on a Capra marathon, e.g. you want to see all the Capra film, go ahead. If you don't seek to accomplish that, just stay away from pre-1933 Capra films. Almost all of them are pretty bad.

ristowge It's evident this is a dated movie, but I think it is eminently watchable. Not Capra's best by any means, but a decent insight to the workings of circuses in the late 20's. A score of wonderful character actors, slapstick and physical comedy nicely blended with vaudeville routines. Yes, the dialog is fast-paced, but there are great one-liners and wholesome comedy. It's a shame the musical numbers are dealt with in the opening and closing credits rather than scored in the movie. Joe Cook is amazing as he juggles, tightrope walks, and balances his way through the movie. His dialogue is quick, tight, and funny. Most of the actors were unknown to me as an amateur film buff, but now I will look for more of their movies. The viewer can see the similarity to Wheeler and Woolsey, The Marx Brothers, Al Jolson, and other stars of early talkies. The visual reproduction is very good, with little background noise, as is the audio recording. This movie is part of a new Early Capra release with four other titles.

MartinHafer In the early days of sound films, studios really didn't know how to use the new medium. Instead of normal speaking voices and normal actors, Hollywood felt a need to overwhelm the audience with sound. A lot of vaudeville comics who spoke a mile a minute were shoved in front of the cameras to take advantage of the fact that audiences could now hear the actors speak. Some of these early talkies are downright dreadful while some others are just odd curios. RAIN OR SHINE falls into the category of just plain dreadful.Most of the blame for this film being so terrible and tough to watch falls on the shoulders of its director, Frank Capra. While Capra did great things for Harry Langdon during the silent era and from the mid-1930s on he made some of the most iconic American films of the era (IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, MEET JOHN DOE and many others), but even great directors have their duds--and this film was definitely a dud.The film is nominally about a circus that is chronically on the verge of bankruptcy. However, the entire show was the vaudevillian, Joe Cook. While one of the reviewers thought that Cook was hilarious, he was simply too much--like a giant migraine. He talked and talked and talked and talked. If you liked this sort of in your face routine again and again, then you'd probably like the film. However, I didn't think he was funny and felt the director should have placed more emphasis on the talented members of the cast. That, or simply punched Cook in the mouth and told him to shut the heck up!! Terrible pacing, annoying dialog and nothing to like--this is truly one of the most painful films I have seen. I only kept watching because I assumed it would get better---it didn't.

CitizenCaine This oddball film boasts an equally oddball cast. Joe Cook, the famous vaudeville performer, stars as Smiley Johnson, a master huckster/manager/showman for a floundering circus inherited by Mary Rainey, played by Joan Peers. Cook is a one man band as he badgers, cajoles, fast-talks, performs, and generally outshines all the other actors and actresses who appear in this film. The loosely strung together plot merely serves as an entertainment showcase for Cook and his two primary stooges who also have appearances in the film. The actor playing a fool most of the time is Dave Chasen, the man who founded the famous restaurant in Hollywood. The other stooge is Tom Howard who eventually picks up on Cook's hijinks, and works on others in the same manner.One gets the notion there isn't much of a story here besides Cook and company's antics. There's a hilarious bit with a fat lady near the beginning of the film who does reappear later in the film for another one of Cook's barbs, but that's it. Louise Fazenda plays princess, one of the circus performers, and she has a funny bit with Cook when they team up to con Howard into buying a 20% share of the circus. After that, she disappears, and that's what hurts this film for the most part. Characters come and go at will throughout the film with nary a reason.Highlights of the film besides Cook include the circus acts themselves, and the hilarious dinner party sequence (which reminded me of something viewers might see in a W.C. Fields movie). The tea gag, the celery bit, and the spaghetti joke, coupled with Cook's frenetic pace, made for a most amusing dinner party without the actual dinner. Cook shows off again at the end in the big circus finale when chaos erupts due to the sheriff attaching the show's receipts. Cook was a tremendous performer who deserved a place in films, but he only made a few appearances in the 1930's. He was later afflicted with Parkinson's Disease.Frank Capra directed the film, and few of his touches are apparent. There are some great tracking shots under the big top, which Capra was known for, and some really snappy dialog at times. Capra was also fond of the small town flavor present in the film. Jo Swerling and Dorothy Howell co-adapted the film from the play by the later well known character actor: James Gleason. Maurice Marks wrote the book. It's probably not a good example of a Frank Capra film, but it's fast paced, old-fashioned Hollywood entertainment. **1/2 of 4 stars.