According to film magazine, Rainbow Ryan, a minstrel performer, adopts Billy Ryan, the son of an acrobat friend who is killed while performing on stage. Playing in a small town, Rainbow falls in love with Mary Land, the daughter of a strict hotelkeeper who disapproves of all theatrical people. Rainbow moves on with the show, and Mary belatedly discovers that Billy is the child of her dead sister. Mary goes after Rainbow, and he sends Billy back home with her, renouncing his love for her for fear of going against her father's command that she has nothing to do with entertainers. The minstrel show is booked into a small town near Mary's, however, and Billy runs away to see Rainbow. Mary follows, and she and Rainbow are reunited.
The Rainbow Man was the film debut of George 'Gabby' Hayes (billed as "George Hayes").
Critical response
A New York Times review stated that: "The Rainbow Man is an ingenuous stream of slow music and tears, with occasional interludes of more or less effective comedy. Those in the theatre laughed heartily at the fun, and for all one knows they may have shed tears over the distressing state of affairs that surround Rainbow Ryan (Mr. Dowling). Sometimes the incidents are reminiscent of ancient melodramas, for one perceives the most amazing coincidences throughout the picture."[2]
^Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress, p. 148, c.1978 by the American Film Institute
