Lancaster had earlier played a similar manipulative huckster in the filmThe Rainmaker (1956).The film was very popular and a box-office hit - on a budget of $3 million, it grossed $11.3 million dollars.It was shot in the uncharacteristic and unfashionable aspect ratio of 1.33, in protest to the current prevailing trend for CinemaScope features.The film was nominated for five Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Score (Andre Previn)) and won three: Best Actor for Burt Lancaster (his sole Oscar win of four Best Actor nominations), Best Adapted Screenplay (Richard Brooks), and Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones with her sole Oscar nomination, known for her squeaky-clean role in TV'sThe Partridge Family)." When Luke specified: "I'm looking for a Jedi master," the impish dwarf's eyes lit up: "Oh, Jedi master.Kaufman and Edna Ferber.The hit theatrical version starred Margaret Sullavan (in the Hepburn role), Phyllis Brooks (in the Rogers role) and Frances Fuller (in the Andrea Leeds part).By this time, oft-nominated Huston had already directed some of the finest films ever made in the 40s:The Maltese Falcon (1941),Key Largo (1948)andThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)(he won an Oscar for Best Director and Best Screenplay), and in the next year he would direct the classicThe African Queen (1951).