Paramount Pictures was experiencing a financial crisis during the mid-Thirties that inhibited their commitments to their European film stylists such as Josef von Sternberg, Ernst Lubitsch and Milestone. Under these conditions, Milestone embarked upon the final phase of his early sound period, a phase that would expose his difficulties in locating compelling literary material, production support and proper casting. The first among these films was Rain.
The pre-Code drama stars Joan Crawford as the lead character, the prostitute Sadie Thompson. Crawford was loaned out by MGM to United Artists for this film.
Grade: B (***1/2* out of *****)
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The film also features Walter Huston as the conflicted missionary who insists that Sadie end her evil ways, but whose moral standards and self-righteous behavior steadily decay.
The short story “Miss Thompson” by Somerset Maugham has gone through several permutations, both for stage and film, before and after Milestone filmed the work in 1932.
The plot is based on the 1922 play Rain by John Colton and Clemence Randolph, which drew on W. Somerset Maugham’s 1921 short story, “Miss Thompson” (later retitled “Rain”).
A westbound ship en route to Apia, Samoa, is stranded at nearby Pago Pago due to possible cholera outbreak on board. Among the passengers are Alfred Davidson, a self-righteous missionary, his wife, and Sadie Thompson, a prostitute.
Thompson passes the time partying and drinking with the American Marines stationed on the island. Sergeant Tim O’Hara, nicknamed by Sadie as “Handsome,” falls for her.
Her wild behavior becomes more than Davidson can stand and he confronts Sadie, resolving to save her soul. When she dismisses his offer, Davidson has the Governor order her deported to San Francisco, where she is wanted for an unspecified crime (she says she was framed). She begs Davidson to allow her to remain on the island; her plan is to flee to Australia.
During heated argument with Davidson, she experiences religious conversion and agrees to return to San Francisco and the jail sentence awaiting her there.
The evening before she leaves, Sergeant O’Hara asks Sadie to marry him, but she refuses. Later, Davidson, overcome by lust, enters Sadie’s room and rapes her, but Sadie’s screams are drowned out by the drums beating. The next morning he is found dead on the beach, his throat slit.
Davidson’s attack and then hypocrisy and weakness allow Sadie to return to her old self and she goes off to Sydney with O’Hara to start a new life.
Versions and Remakes
Actress Jeanne Eagels had played the role on stage. Other movie versions of the story include a 1928 silent, “Sadie Thompson,” starring Gloria Swanson, and “Miss Sadie Thompson” (1953), which starred Rita Hayworth.
Directed by Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone, by then acclaimed and Oscar-winner (All Quiet on the Western Front) was assigned to direct Joan Crawford by Allied Artists. She was mostly known for her silent films as a flapper, though in the same year, she made an impression in MGM’s ensemble-driven Grand Hotel
Crawford’s suitability for the part has been widely scrutinized, and according to critic Joseph Millichap “almost every comment on the film says she was miscast.” Crawford herself registered disappointment with her interpretation of the role.
Milestone was not confined as yet by the Production Code, and his portrayal of the overwrought Puritan missionary Reverend Davidson (Walter Huston) and his rape of Thompson blends violence with sexual and religious symbolism through adroit intercutting.
Termed “slow and stage-bound” and “stiff and stagey,” Milestone said of Rain: “I thought audiences were ready for a dramatic form; that now we could present a three-act play on the screen. But I was wrong. People will not listen to narrative dialogue. They will not accept the kind of exposition you use on the stage. I started the picture slowly, too slowly, I’m afraid. You can’t start a picture slowly. You must show things happening.”
Cast
Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson
Walter Huston as Alfred Davidson
Fred Howard as Hodgson
Ben Hendricks Jr. as Griggs
William Gargan as Sergeant Tim O’Hara
Mary Shaw as Ameena
Guy Kibbee as Joe Horn
Kendall Lee as Mrs MacPhail
Beulah Bondi as Mrs Davidson
Matt Moore as Dr Robert MacPhail
Walter Catlett as Master Bates
Credits:
Running time: 94 minutes
