A Walk In The Spring Rain (1970)

Two New Yorkers, a professor (Fritz Weaver) and his wife (Ingrid Bergman), move to rural Tennessee for a year so the husband can write a book. While he seems frustrated, she flourishes ... especially when their neighbor (Anthony Quinn) pays attention to her. Based on the novel by Rachel Maddux, this is a sort of precursor to THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. Ever since BRIEF ENCOUNTER showed there was a market for middle aged romances, they continue to pop up every so often. This isn't one of the better ones. Outside of a beautifully played kitchen scene between Bergman and Katharine Crawford as her adult daughter, there aren't any surprises and it plays out as expected. I'd call it a tearjerker but but it's a passionless endeavor though one has to admire Bergman's tenacity in plugging away. The film has it set up so that the adultery is inevitable. Her husband is an ardorless intellectual and his wife (Virginia Gregg) is an uncouth frump (when she drinks her coffee, she puts a lump of sugar between her teeth and slurps). The lovely Elmer Bernstein score does its best to conjure up some fervor while Charles Lang's wide screen shooting of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee is breathtaking. Directed by Guy Green (A PATCH OF BLUE). With Tom Fielding as Quinn's ill fated son.