Rain

Starring: Joan Crawford & Walter Huston Director: Lewis Milestone

Prostitute Sadie Thompson strikes-up a relationship with a moralistic reverend and various American military men in Pago Pago.

Solid Lewis Milestone direction, excellent Somerset Maugham material, and other than the difficulty of understanding why Joan Crawford accepts the epiphany from John Huston (not an insignificant hole), which drags the movie down under some over-acting for a dozen minutes or so, the movie is great, this could be one of the best of the classic Alpha DVDs.

Somerset Maugham's fascinating story and play, first filmed as a silent in 1928 as Miss Sadie Thompson with Gloria Swanson and again around 1953 with Rita Hayworth, truly is best caught in its proper atmosphere in this 1932 version - the continuous dreary drumming of the rain competing with that of the Pago-Pago natives; the outrageously smug, cruelly disdainful and priggish self-rightenous of Mrs. Davidson and her husband the Reverend, a lewd and hypocritical old satyr who loses all self-control when he "reforms" the fallen woman Sadie; and best of all, under the heavily tawdry makeup and hard-boiled talk, the sublme acting of "radiant, beautiful" Joan Crawford, who really was pretty before she became a grotesque, beetle-browed, garishly lipsticked caricature of herself in the 1940's. Prior to her living-legend Warner Brothers' days, Crawford really had to prove herself and did by her fine acting - in this picture especially she emotes without histrionics and puts across the tough but likeable dame Sadie - she seems best suited in the roles of rough characters and working girls in her early talkies, and Rain stands out as one of her best. A worthy story which does withstand the test of time despite the movie itself being a dated emblem of missionaries hoping to reform "godless savages" on remote South Sea islands, including any fallen woman who happens to stumble into their path - it's more than historical curio, it's a compelling tale and true Maugham genius in pointing out human frailities and hypocrisies.
This DVD is an EXCELLENT print, so vastly improved on the version we taped off of a local PBS film-fest - it was a pleasure to finally "really see" this movie.

Joan Crawford gets all the accolades for this film, but I think she comes up a little short. Sometimes she doesn't seem comfortable with Sadie's rough dialogue, and her brittle delivery doesn't always ring true.

For me, the real standout performance is Walter Huston as Alfred Davidson. He goes through a more traumatic change than Sadie does, in that he pays for it with his death. The scene toward the end where Davidson gives in to his baser nature, before he goes into Sadie's room, is a great example of Huston's skill. You can see every emotion playing on his face, and it's frightening to watch -- a real Jekyll & Hyde moment.

Incidentally, in the context of the film, Davidson's character is not described as a "reverend" or a "missionary." The censors wouldn't let those words in the script. (Note that Joe Horn describes him as a "reformer.")

Print quality is excellent, despite the fact that some sequences, noticeably lighter in contrast, seem to have come from a different source. But it's the best quality I've seen anywhere -- I even compared it to a print I taped off AMC five years ago, and the Alpha DVD is superior. Definitely one for your film library!

Out of the three versions of this tale that have been filmed, this version in my opinion, is the best and Joan Crawford is the most satisfying Sadie Thompson. Film is definitly an early sound classic that has an interesting antique look and feel to it. Worth seeing!