Like Tears in Rain Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford (1904-1977) was the actress we were looking for. In the 1932 movie "Rain" she played the role of Sadie Thompson, a prostitute stranded on the Polynesian island Pago Pago together with a missionary couple (played by Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi). The reverend Davidson tried to lead Sadie Thompson to a decent and Christian lifestyle, but his effort was not always appreciated.
Joan Crawford won an Oscar for the title role in "Mildred Pierce" (1945) and also starred in "Sudden Fear" (1946) and "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" (1962).
Nargis (1929-1981) was the leading actress in the Hindi movie "Barsaat" (1949), translated for the English speaking world under the title "Rain". Nargis played the role of Reshma, who accidentally met Pran (role by Raj Kapoor) and fell hopelessly in love with him.
Cynthia Pruitt is the name of the actress who played a cabdriver in the 1989 movie "Rain". She drove her cab through a New York heat wave and sought for a deeper spiritual insight. The main male role was for William "Bill" Rice.
Brooklyn Sudano (born 1981) played the title role (Rain Arnold) in a 2006 drama about a talented pianist who grew up as the daughter of an African-American couple, but then faced the reality that her biological father was a Anglo-Saxon upper class man. Robert Loggia and Faye Dunaway were also in this movie.
I could have picked any of more than a dozen movies with the title "Rain", but I wanted to include one of the older movies.

Answer: It Always Rains on Sunday

Now why did Michael Fish pop up in a movie quiz? Michael Fish was not involved in the movie industry, but for several years presented the BBC weather forecast. In this occupation, he had plenty of statistics ready at hand to deny that "it always rains on Sunday".
"It Always Rains on Sunday" (1947) starred John McCallum as Tommy Swann, the ex-convict; Googie Withers as Rose; and Edward Chapman as her boring husband George. The critics especially appreciated the complex narrative mixing romance and noir elements. Director was Robert Hamer and the movie was an atypical production of Ealing Studios, better known for their comedies.
"Iulskiy Dozhd" (1967) was the official title of a Russian movie with the translated title "July Rain". Lena (played by Evgenya Uralova) broke up with her fiancé because of his bad character, and sought love with various artists. Then she met Zhenya (role by Ilya Bylinkin)...
"It Rained All Night the Day I Left" (1980) is the English title for the French-Canadian-Israeli coproduction that hit the European movie theatres under the title "Deux Affreux sur le Sable" - not really a translation, as the French words mean something as "Two Bad Guys on the Sand". Tony Curtis and Louis Gossett Junior played two weapon merchants working for "the colonel" - a widow played by Sally Kellerman.
"Rainbow: Live in Munich 1977" was a rock movie, featuring the European tour of the British rock band Rainbow, starring guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Cozy Powell.

Answer: The Rains of Ranchipur

The name of the doctor in the question should have directed you to the Indian subcontinent - Ranchipur, thus. "The Rains of Ranchipur" (1955) was a remake of the 1939 movie "The Rains Came", with principal roles for Myrna Loy (Lady Esketh), Tyrone Powell (Major Rama Safti) and Nigel Bruce (Lord Esketh).
In "The Rains of Ranchipur", Rama Safti was played by Richard Burton. The movie came to a climax when a natural disaster caused an epidemic, and Dr. Safti had to choose between his profession and his love interest.
"Warm Texas Rain" (2000) showed Steven Bauer as a marine falling once again for the charms of a woman whose attentions had previously landed him in jail. In Dutch there is a proverb about a donkey not hitting twice the same stone, but apparently this doesn't apply to the scenario of this movie.
"Rain over Santiago" (1975) was the English title of the French movie "Il pleut sur Santiago", starring John Abbey, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Bibi Andersson. This movie was a fictionalized retelling of the coup d'état in Chile in 1973, when general Augusto Pinochet replaced the left-wing Salvador Allende. "Il pleut sur Santiago" did not focus on the major personalities involved in the coup (Allende and Pinochet), but rather on some people they were acquainted with.
"Miris kise na Balkanu" (2011, international title "The Scent of Rain in the Balkans") was a Serbian movie about a Jewish family living in Sarajevo just before the outbreak of World War I. The principal roles were played by Mirka Vasiljevic and Aleksandra Bibic.

Answer: Singin' in the Rain

"Singin' in the Rain" (1952) was set in 1927, when the era of silent movies ended and the "talkies" started to take over. Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen played the roles of Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont, the (fictive) biggest stars of the silent movies. When Don insisted on playing a role in a romantic musical comedy, he discovered Lina's voice to be quite unfit for the new era. Then Kathy Selden (role by Debbie Reynolds) came up with the perfect solution: Lina would do the acting, while Kathy would record the dialogues and the singing (without Lina knowing).
"A Dance in the Rain" (1961, original title "Ples v dezju") was a Yugoslav movie (spoken in Slovenian) about Peter, a hypochondriac, and his girlfriend Marusa, an actress of more advanced age who feels insecure whether she still will have sufficient roles.
"I Think It's Raining" (2011) portrayed Renata, a young girl consumed by anxiety.
"Pray for Rain" (2017) showed Annabelle Stephenson as a young reporter who returned to her hometown in California and found criminality has spread through town.

Answer: Purple

I hinted here at the movie "Purple Rain" (1984), starring Prince and Apollonia Kotero. While the characters played by Prince and Apollonia were implicated in a quirky romance, their backing vocal bands competed for a recording contract. Prince played a dwarf with a moustache who liked to dress up in purple, and was very happy driving a bike through the rain.
"Red Rain" (2013) was an Indian (Malayalam) movie about mysterious cattle deaths, coinciding with the appearance of unidentified objects in the sky.
"Silver Rain" (2015) was a Ghanaian movie about a poor homeless girl falling in love with a rich heir. Their love lead to a class war.
"Black Rain" (1989) was an action movie about two policemen from New York escorting a Japanese criminal back home. But in Osaka the Japanese mobster escaped, and the American cops had to infiltrate the notorious yakuza.
Maybe some director might be interested in filming Zeus' escapade with Danae, but I sought in vain for a movie titled "Golden Rain".

Answer: Christopher Cazenove

"Tears in the Rain" told the story of the young American Casey Cantrell (played by Sharon Stone). When Casey's mother died, her last wish was that Casey deliver a sealed letter personally in London to Lord Bredon (role by Paul Daneman). Casey met Michael (played by Christopher Cazenove), Lord Bredon's son, and the couple fell head over heels in love. But what was the content of the letter Casey had delivered?
Christopher Cazenove (1943-2010) acted in twenty-odd movies with theatrical releases, including "A Knight's Tale" (2001) and "Eye of the Needle" (1981). Furthermore he was in about ten TV movies and several TV series, of which the best known is probably "Dynasty" (35 episodes in 1986-1987). He never was cast as the notorious Italian diplomat and adventurer with an almost similar surname.
Fernandel (1903-1971) played the title role in "L'homme à l'imperméable" (1957), marketed in the USA under the title "The Man in the Raincoat".
Steve Zahn played a role in the 1992 sci-fi movie "Rain without Thunder".
The short movie "Things to Do on a Rainy Day" (2009) featured an actor of whom only the stage name is known: Jaspar Law.

Answer: Rain Man

"Rain Man" (1988) is one of my favourite movies, especially for the performance by Dustin Hoffman. The plot started with a deal gone wrong for Charlie, and he had to come up with a vast sum of money quickly to keep his franchise of selling sports cars. Then his father died, and Charlie inherited only an old car and a bed of roses, while the lump sum of 3 million dollars was for an institution where Raymond lived. Charlie planned to kidnap Raymond and demand most of the inheritance as ransom, but gradually he learned to trust Raymond - an idiot savant, for whom (as for most autistics) every change of routine was a threat.
"The Rain Killer" (1990) was a detective story in which a local cop and an agent of the FBI tried to hunt down a serial killer (played by David Beecroft) who made female victims whenever it rains.
"The Rainmaker" (1997) was based upon a story by John Grisham. It featured a not well known lawyer (role by Matt Damon) in a legal fight with an insurance company. The stakes were compensation for the terminally ill Donny Ray Black (played by Johnny Whitworth).
"The Rain Fairy" (2010) was a Czech fairy tale with reference to Empedocles' philosophy of the four elements (Water, Air, Earth and Fire). The Rain Fairy (personification of Water, played by Lenka Vlasakova), toured the Earth on a periodic inspection round and was shocked by the greed of most humans.

Answer: Ken Loach

"Raining Stones" starred Bruce Jones as Bob, an unemployed father who would do anything to get for his daughter a beautiful (but oh so expensive) dress for her First Communion.
Ken Loach (born 1936) was an English director best known for his movies tackling the question of poverty. He started his career in 1967 with "Poor Cow". His first success was "Kes" (1969) about a boy and his falcon, but the fact that the dialogue was fully in Yorkshire dialect limited the international breakthrough.
Loach was a frequent guest at the renowned movie festival in Cannes, with at least two wins and eleven other nominations for the Golden Palm. He won the Palm with "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (2006) and "I, Daniel Blake" (2016). The best known nominations were "Raining Stones" (1993) and "The Angels' Share" (2012).
Alan Bridges directed "Rain on the Roof" (1980), a triangular relation between an aristocrat, his wife and the village idiot whom she is teaching to read.
René Clément directed "Le passenger de la pluie" (1970), a crime movie where an American colonel (Charles Bronson) tracked down a rapist in France.
Haider Rashid directed "Sta per pivoere" (2013), translated as "It's About To Rain". In this Italian movie a twenty-odd boy born in Italy to Algerian parents (role by Lorenzo Baglione) tried to transform his tourist visa into a definitive permit to stay in the country.

Answer: Hard Rain

"Hard Rain" was indeed the atmospheric condition for this heist movie. In fact there was so much rainfall that flooding was imminent, and a small town had been evacuated because the threat of a dam collision. Just at that moment an armoured truck (manned by Christian Slater and Edward Asner) transported a vast sum of money - to the delight of the local gang (headed by Morgan Freeman). Soon it was raining bullets as well...
"Acid Rain" was the title of at least two movies. In the 1998 movie with this title a homeless street singer (Darolyn Adams) was instructed by an angel with a secret mission in the New York underworld. If the singer failed, New York would be utterly destroyed in three days...
"Gangcheolbi" (2017) was a South Korean movie, brought to the USA under the title "Steel Rain". A North Korean spy and the injured leader of the nation fled to South Korea and tried to find a means to prevent a nuclear war.
"White Light/ Black Rain" (2007) was a documentary about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the dreadful consequences.

Answer: Snails in the Rain

"Snails in the Rain" (2013) was produced under the original title "Shablulim BaGeshem". Yoav Reuveni played the student Boaz, and Moran Rosenblatt played his girlfriend Noah. Director Yariv Moser chose to play the role of the college professor Dr. Richlin, and transformed the original story by Yossi Avni Levi into the screenplay.
The French delicacy I mentioned as a hint are the snails (escargots). One may love them or disgust them, but it is one of the typical delicacies in the French cuisine. Eating snails has also been used as a metaphor for sexual relations between two men, while eating oysters serves as a metaphor for the sexual act between a man and a woman. (The 1960 epic movie "Spartacus" contained a scene about how Crassus questioned his slave Antoninus about 'eating oysters' and 'eating snails').
"Strawberries Need Rain" (1970) was a Hong Kong movie about a young girl (Monica Gayle) whom the Grim Reaper (Les Tremayne) visited, saying she had only twenty-four hours before he would take her away.
"La pluie des prunes" (2007), a French movie translated as "Plum Rain", starred Gilbert Melki playing a writer on a business trip to Tokyo, accompanied by his ill grandmother (role by Adriana Asti).
"Rainbow Fish" (2000) was not a movie but a Canadian animated TV series about some young fish at school. The most colourful of the characters was named Rainbow.