Three Days of Rain, based on characters in six short stories by Anton Chekhov, takes place in Cleveland during a three-day rainstorm. Directed by Michael Meredith, filmviewers must keep track of several independent plots, which are separated through the method of short cuts. A common theme is how the down-and-out survive and often but not always are despised by the mainstream. By far the most poignant tale is about Waldo (played by Peter Falk), a homeless alcoholic who tries to navigate his dignity while accepting charity from his son (played by Bill Stockton). A taxi driver, John (played by Don Meredith), tells a neurotic cabrider, Beverly (played by Blythe Danner), that his son has died, but she could not care less. Arrogant Helen (played by Maggi Walker) is upset when her henpecked but decent husband, Alex (played by Eric Evari), wants to give a doggie bag from a restaurant to a polite panhandler; he realizes thereby just what kind of person he is married to. A retarded janitor (played by Joey Bilow) is being fired in a by-the-numbers bureaucratic exercise, to avoid a lawsuit, so that the supervisor can hire a relative. And a young heroin addict (played by Merle Kennedy) has to make an important decision to protect her baby. Indeed, not much has changed since Chekhov’s critique of heartless capitalist society. MH
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