Rain (1932) User Reviews (77)

Sadie and the Preacher

[lugonian · 7/10 · 16 May 2003]

RAIN (United Artists, 1932), directed by Lewis Milestone, from the short story about sex, sin and salvation by W. Somerset Maugham, stars Miss Joan Crawford (courtesy of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Company), in one of her most prestigious movie roles that stands in a class by itself. Originating as a 1922 stage play starring Broadway's legendary Jeanne Eagles, it first appeared on screen during the silent era as SADIE THOMPSON (United Artists, 1928), starring Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore. Regardless of its then controversial subject matter, it did well at the box office, earning Swanson an Academy Award nomination. Four years later, it was remade as RAIN. Considering what might have been logical choice in having Swanson and Barrymore reprising their original roles with spoken dialog in place of title cards, Crawford and Walter Huston, forceful screen personalities, were fine substitutes. Unfortunately, lightning or heavy rains didn't strike twice, for that Crawford's sound adaptation reportedly became a box-office flop. The fault might have been for its bad timing, remaking a film so close to its original, and Jeanne Eagles still being in the memory of those who have witnessed her performance on stage, yet had RAIN been distributed a few years later, it might have met with problems with the censors and production code, thus, not having that spark of solid dialog that this version has, and yet, probably would not have had that "filmed stage play" appearance either. The camera does take time out for some location viewing of the Cataline Islands, where portions of the film were reportedly lensed.

For the benefit of those who are totally unfamiliar with the Maugham story and/or the movie itself, the plot is set in Pago Pago, the Samoan island where a group of steamer passengers are forced to remain because of a minor epidemic on board. And due to the heavy rains, they find they must stay a little longer than anticipated. Among the passengers entering the island's general store/hotel run by Joe Horn (Guy Kibbee) and his native wife (Mary Shaw) are Doctor Robert MacPhail (Matt Moore), a philosopher, and wife, Nina (Kendall Lee); Alfred and Martha Davidson (Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi), a missionary couple, among others. Entertaining the Marines in her state room is Miss Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford), a prostitute, who enjoys the company of men, playing loud jazzy music and cigarette smoking. She quickly catches the eye of Sergeant Tim O'Hara (William Gargan) but the disapproval of Davidson, who objects to her immoral ways such as drinking and smoking on the Sabbath. At first Davidson forces himself upon her to reform. All he finds is that his religious persistence annoys her and that Sadie can be equally demanding and powerful as he. Sadie tries to meet him half way when she learns that she must return to San Francisco and serve a three year prison sentence, and becomes bitter when Davidson won't give in to her pleas. Eventually Davidson does succeed in saving Sadie's immortal soul by cleansing her from her sins, but in turn, Davidson soon finds himself being lead into temptation and unable to be delivered from evil.

For many years, RAIN has earned the reputation as being one of Crawford's mistakes. On the contrary, it's Crawford's performance that keeps the story together. For the first hour, she appears with cat eyes, heavy makeup, curly hair, cigarette, birth mark under the left side of her chin and wearing a tight checkered dress. Her transformation scene occurring later having Crawford's Sadie cleansed from her sins and appearing pure at heart, is surprisingly effective. Walter Huston almost upstages Crawford every which way he can. He, too, gives a solid performance as the Reverend Davidson. The famous scene where Davidson recites the Lord's prayer with the swearing Sadie suddenly reciting the prayer with him, is one of the film's true memorable moments. This scene itself became a clip used for the mid 1970s TV show, "Don Adams Screen Test," for young hopefuls to re-enact this particular scene and win a trip to Hollywood and a part in an upcoming TV show or motion picture. Up to then, RAIN was winning a new audience.

Director Milestone was given a difficult task in keeping the pace moving by circling the camera around, moving it at all different angles so not to focus on the central characters for any length of time. His directing technique might not meet with much appreciation today, but his overlooked method as to how to develop the story and characters on a set stage are evident here. Along with forceful dialog, Milestone full takes advantage of this new medium of sound with the use of repeated rain heard falling on the ground and rooftops. The Alfred Newman underscoring benefits the film as well.

I first came across RAIN when it made a special television presentation on WNEW, Channel 5, in New York City, June 10, 1973. Preceding the movie was a surprise presentation by Joan Crawford herself giving her profile about working in RAIN. Initially released at 93 minutes, a 77 minute print was presented during its 90 minute time slot with commercial interruptions. By the 1980s, however, RAIN became one of many public domain titles distributed to home video, mostly in full length. Cable television presentations shortly afterwards, ranging from Arts and Entertainment and the Learning Channel (1980s), American Movie Classics (1991-2000) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere March 8, 2007).

Columbia updated the Maugham story to post World War I as MISS SADIE THOMPSON (1953) starring Rita Hayworth and Jose Ferrer, with the addition of Technicolor and songs. Of the three screen incarnations of Sadie Thompson vs. The Reverend Davidson (The Prostitute and the Reformer), RAIN (1932) is the best known and revived, especially on rainy day. Although the film itself has aged, the story itself hasn't. (**1/2)

In this awkward early talkie, a beautiful, young Joan Crawford leaps off the screen with a vivid and charismatic performance that anticipates her later award-winning career.

[Steve3 · 8/10 · 5 August 1999]

Try to see this on as big a viewing screen as you can, as the film is often quite dark, and Crawford is so beautiful in it you'll want a good look. I loved it!

In this second screen version of W. Somerset Maugham's morality tale, "Rain", Joan Crawford gives a performance that knocks the rest of the cast off the screen.

First made as a silent with Gloria Swanson, the stageplay "Miss Sadie Thompson" had been a controversial broadway hit, and young Joan Crawford fought hard to get the coveted role of Sadie. She shed her drawing room manners and designer gowns, researching the part by visiting the red-light district of San Diego to see what the street-walkers of the day looked and sounded like. Her appearance in the film was considered offensive for it's realism, and the film stiffed at the box office. Sadly, it's financial failure relegated Crawford to years of popular but light-weight "respectable" roles, before her Oscar-calibre performances of the 1940's and 50's.

But for audiences of today, the film is worth reconsidering. The other performers are wooden and stilted but Crawford's performance, embarrassingly natural in 1932, leaps off the screen. The topic matter that was so controversial, even offensive, in the early 1930's is not a hard sell to modern audiences: that bible-thumpers aren't always the good guys, and "sinners" aren't always so bad.

Further, the feminist aspect of the film is clearer today. As Sadie makes her way around the Pacific, a fun-loving free-spirit often one step ahead of the law, it's the fact that she's a female that draws the ire of the puritanical fire-and-brimstone missionaries: a young man would have gotten away with it.

And for us post-Woodstock viewers this touching story strikes a familiar chord: of the harmless, light-hearted kid who hurts no-one but whose very existence is offensive to the powers that be.

And it must fairly be said that when she was a young (I think she's about 25 when she made this) she is a strikingly beautiful babe, heavy make-up or not.

If you've ever written Crawford off as "man-ish" or "bitchy" because of roles she did later in her life, check out this movie and take a look at the sexy, vivacious girl who was once described by F. Scott Fitzgerald as "the personification of the American flapper"!

I found the film fascinating (that's why I went on to look up all the above information).

Live And Let Live

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 8 March 2007]

Joan Crawford was reportedly not happy with her performance in Rain although for the life of me, I can't figure out what she had to be ashamed about. In a few years Rain could not possibly have been made due to the imposition of The Code where no man of the cloth could be anything less than decent.

Perhaps Crawford was unfortunately compared to Jeanne Eagels on stage and Gloria Swanson in a silent film adaptation which starred Lionel Barrymore as the sex crazed Reverend Davidson. Still Crawford's Sadie Thompson need not take a backseat to anyone else's.

Somerset Maugham wrote the original novel and John Colton adapted it into a play performed on both the London and Broadway stages. Rain is a deceptive work, at first glance it appears quite dated, but in reality its quite relevant for today.

My favorite character in this is Guy Kibbee's Horne who runs the hotel/ trading post on that tropical South Sea Island where all the characters are stranded temporarily. Joan Crawford is there and in the same hotel are the Reverend and Mrs. Davidson played by Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi. Kibbee says he left the USA because he saw that 'reformers' like the Davidsons were beginning to dominate the body politic in America and he wanted out.

Two things made Rain such a big hit at the time both as a book and play. One was Sigmund Freud who was gaining great popularity talking about repressed sexual desires. Freud would have had a field day analyzing both the Davidsons. It's important to remember that Bondi is just as repressed and uptight as Huston. Freud's writings were not just confined to his profession, they were popularly read by the masses.

The second thing was Prohibition. When Kibbee talks about the reformers triumphing (and you have to get the sneer in his voice when he says reformers)he's talking about their greatest triumph, the 18th amendment. The Evangelical Moral Majority types of the day were the ones that brought Prohibition about and America went on its biggest hypocrisy binge because of it. Folks just like the Davidsons inflicted Prohibition and all that went with it on America.

Sadie Thompson represents everything the Davidsons say they despise, but what Reverend Davidson wants. It all leads to tragedy.

What Maugham is saying and being a gay man himself, knew what it was like to be repressed and show a different face publicly, is just live and let live. Such a simple concept, but one some today have a hard time wrapping their minds around.

As for Joan Crawford, she wouldn't have said what she supposedly said about her performance in Rain knowing in the next generation there would be a musical version with a dubbed Rita Hayworth singing with the island kids. Now that one was one for the books.

Tense Drama; Sometimes Uncomfortable But Holds Your Attention

[Snow Leopard · 31 May 2001]

One of several versions of the often-retold story of Sadie Thompson, "Rain" is a tense drama that focuses effectively on the tension between two very different persons, portrayed by Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. While not always convincing, it holds the viewer's attention to the end, and often gives us plenty to think about.

Crawford plays Sadie, a young woman with an immoral past, and Huston is Reverend Davidson, a fire-and-brimstone preacher who is stuck with Sadie and several other travelers for a time on a tropical island. A series of confrontations between the two follows, initiated by the reverend, who is outraged by Sadie's character and behavior. The other characters observe, comment, and occasionally try to intervene. Meanwhile, the island is engulfed in an endless, torrential rain, providing an eerily effective backdrop to the story.

As the story proceeds, the two characters begin to affect each other in significant ways. Sometimes these changes seem too sudden and not entirely believable, and at other times they are very believable but discomforting in what they reveal about the characters and about human nature. The cast helps get past some awkward moments with some good acting, and this keeps the viewer interested in how it all will turn out.

"Rain" will not be to everyone's liking, but it is a thought-provoking story that should be of interest to anyone who enjoys psychological drama.

A memorable story where a 'cat' and a 'dog' clash in steamy tropical heat.

[RJBurke1942 · 7/10 · 8 September 2006]

I'd seen The Razor's Edge with Tyrone Power, and I'd read a couple of Maugham's short stories (I forget which ones, it's been so long), but I'd never taken the time to see read the story or see this film until now.

What interested me most was the presence of Joan Crawford, an actress for whom I've never had much regard. Now, that might sound strange, but I wanted to see her in a film that predated the 1950s and 1960s movies that I knew; in those, she looked old and worn, as you might expect after so long in movies.

I wanted to see her when she was young and didn't look like a man in drag, as I perceived her in later movies (maybe it all those padded shoulders of her dresses and coats, emphasizing her mannish looks?).

Anyway, I'm glad I did see her in this because she proved that she was indeed an excellent actress. And, although the video I got was a poor copy, Crawford literally shone, an illuminating contrast to the dark nights, the unending sight and sound of the rain and the dour and dominating aspect of Walter Houston as the self-righteous and chauvinistic preacher Davidson who tries to reform the prostitute Sadie Thompson (Crawford). It's worth seeing this movie just to see Crawford in a stunning performance, and close to her best, I think.

Such a story, of course, has its roots in numerous biblical accounts of fallen women and men who try to redeem them, although I'm not suggesting that Maugham simply plagiarized the bible. It just happens to be a story that's timeless, and is no doubt part of the human condition everyday, somewhere in the world.

However, the intriguing aspect for me is this: just when did Sadie figure out how to get Davidson off her back and out of her life? Was it when he was monotonously reciting The Lord's Prayer over and over again, or did she have a brilliant brainwave when he finally succumbed to all that she stood for, in his eyes, as a prostitute? You'll have to see the movie yourself to decide.

However, I have a feeling it's the former scenario which makes Sadie Thompson more than just a smart, wisecracking hooker and perhaps was indeed the personification of evil that Davidson railed against. Therein lies the tragedy for Davidson: he pays the ultimate price for misjudging Sadie's power over him because he thinks he's more powerful than she. So...is it any co-incidence that this femme fatale went by the name of Sadie, a name that comes very close to Sade, and all that that implies? The small supporting cast performs brilliantly, as befits a stage play. And the period settings evoked strong memories of New Guinea, where I spent much of my youth fifty years ago.

Fans of Joan Crawford would like this film. I did, even though I was no fan of hers.

Joan Crawford and Walter Huston are excellent in Rain

[tavm · 7/10 · 16 August 2006]

Rain stars Joan Crawford as fun-time gal Sadie Thomson and Walter Huston as the preacher trying to save her. Director Lewis Milestone has a great eye for the visuals with the close-ups of rain in rivers, sands, and trees in the beginning and near the end. Besides the two leads, there's also good performances by Guy Kibbee as the hotel owner that houses Crawford and Huston, Beulah Bondi as Huston's wife, and William Gargan as Crawford's Navy protector. Two of the best scenes are when Huston repeatedly says the Lord's Prayer as Crawford becomes mesmerised and starts saying it herself and Huston's final scene as he says a silent prayer to himself before he changes his expression to one in which he seems about to lose self-control before he rushes to where Crawford resides. I wish questions about Sadie's time in San Francisco had been answered. Other than that, I found this to be a compelling pre-Code drama about individuality vs. conformity. For Crawford and Huston fans, this is well worth seeking out!

Story great, acting great, filmmaking better

[teleny · 9/10 · 17 March 1999]

This story, by Somerset Maugham, has been filmed many times in the last seventy-odd years, but this is the first. I cannot say that it is the best of all possible adaptations; a tacked-on sub-plot (involving a romance with an amorous quartermaster) helps the exposition but dilutes the icy cynicism of the basic story, the missionary and his wife are clumsy caricatures of hellfire and brimstone puritanism, while Joan Crawford's "low-class" accent is more irritating than it is believable -- one is relieved when she forgets to use it. Yet it shines.

The story is told only partially through the script, which seems less wordy than most early talkies: many important points are made purely visually, from the overflowing rainbarrel in the opening sequence to the high-heeled shoe that signals Sadie's return to her prior way of life. The camera *moves*: around tables, in and around groups of people, in and out of doors with incredible smoothness. Crawford's face is also a focus: from her initial "good-time gal" flirting with the sailors to the incredible sequence where she (apparently) converts, she leers, pouts, weeps, and more importantly, knows when to stop, in the three scenes she appears (seemingly) without makeup.

When Rev. Davidson soothes her in her extremis by telling her in a hypnotic voice (backed by native drums) that she is now "radiant, beautiful, one of the daughters of the King" (a moment of sheer unearthly poetry that verges on psychosis), we believe him -- and her. We also believe Huston's face a moment later, as he prays alone, grimaces unreadably, and suddenly resolves into a look of predatory lust just before slipping into her room, the drums implacably beating in the background.

Small excellences abound: the natives are portrayed sympathetically, and for the time, fairly accurately-- I especially liked the use of Polynesian music, which, along with the Sadie's hot jazz records, emphasises the sensual nature of life in the tropics. The subject of her profession is handled tastefully, but frankly and with humor: in referring to a friend's marriage to a sister fille de joie, the quartermaster remarks that they initally met "illegally" and goes on to say that since they met seeing each other at their worst, they can appreciate seeing each other at their best. A running counterpoint is provided by Dr. McPhail, a more-or-less neutral bystander, and Mr. Horne, the genial (and generally supinely drunk) innkeeper, who fusses, chortles, philosophizes, and gets most of the movie's best lines.

Perhaps the best of these occurs sometime after Sadie's conversion: lolling indolently, he reads from a small book something that sounds incredibly like Ecclesiates-- for a moment, we nearly believe that Davidson has converted him, too. Then, finishing the passage, he intones, "Thus spoke Zarathustra.... Good old Nietzche!"

Sixty-five years later, watching the film on a postage-stamp-sized screen of Real Video, I nearly fell out of my chair.

Long as I remember the rain been comin' down

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 10 November 2013]

Interesting well-directed adaptation of Somerset Maugham story about a prostitute and a missionary out to reform her. I was surprised to discover this was a box office flop when it was released as I enjoyed it very much. Joan Crawford and Walter Huston are great as the two leads. Beulah Bondi and Guy Kibbee offer solid support. But the real star is Lewis Milestone's wonderful direction. He takes what would otherwise have been a very stagey film, especially for 1932, and keeps the camera moving and lively. Milestone not only directed but produced Rain as well. He was one of the best directors of the 1930s and I don't feel like he gets anywhere near enough credit. Try to catch this if you can but beware of bad prints.

A Fine Film and Performance - Crawford Was Wrong!

[Kirasjeri · 9/10 · 17 August 1999]

For reasons that likely have much to do with her self-perceptions, insecurities, and desires for her screen image, Joan Crawford never liked her performance in this fine film. I do not know why; she was never better. The first talkie of the classic Jeanne Eagels' play "Rain", it was effective in every way even though it uses many old-time editing cuts and inserts. They actually worked, and I liked the direction very much, too. Huston was fine as the sanctimonious but sincere preacher trying to convert the "loose woman" Sadie Thompson - but in the end loses the battle, something I wish was shown, but then it wasn't in the play or book so I shouldn't expect it. A fine film, and the antique-type music adds to the effect. See the IMDb review of the serviceble Rita Hayworth version, "Sadie Thompson", and the horrid movie on the life of the actress, "Jeanne Eagels" which contains scenes with Kim Novak trying to recreate the stage play.

All we needed was the rain...and sexy Sadie.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 27 August 2006]

W. Somerset Maugham's torrid tale in grainy black and white and evocative of the early 30's. Joan Crawford is Miss Sadie Thompson, a "fallen woman" temporally stranded in the rain on the island of Pango Pango with a group of Marines and a fire and brimstone missionary(Walter Huston)and his wife(Beulah Bondi). The puritanical preacher's wife is very irritated with the trashy Sadie, but the staid Reverend Davidson(Huston)finally gives up on the religious babel and a heart-to-heart almost reforms sexy Sadie. Provocatively the missionary is found face down in the sea. This oft-told tale is worth watching.

Directed by Lewis Milestone and also starring: Guy Kirbee, Ben Hendirk's Jr and William Gargan.

Pre-code melodrama is a lot of fun, undeserving of its bad reputation...

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 20 September 2008]

Joan Crawford is appropriately torrid and trashy as Sadie Thompson, party girl stuck on an island in the South Seas with a preacher who is dead-set on reforming her. Handsomely-produced Somerset Maugham melodrama was a box-office disappointment in its day, but is certainly interesting and enjoyable, and better than its reputation implies. Maugham's serious story is irrevocably turned into high camp by Hollywood, which probably didn't please the writer, but Joan's over-the-top performance gives the proceedings an electric charge (especially in the picture's second-half). One cannot help but admire the star for her all-out try, and fans should love it. Others may find much of the film heavy-going, with a great deal of talk, and the rest of the cast (including Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi) barely stands up to Crawford's eminence. ** from ****

The best known drama associated with William Somerset Maugham

[theowinthrop · 9/10 · 9 October 2006]

In the movie SCARFACE, Tony Carmonte (Paul Muni) takes Rinaldi (George Raft) and his other gang members for a night of culture - they go to see a play. Carmonte has cultural pretensions, loving to whistle opera arias from MARTHA and other works, usually just before he has someone rubbed out. But he really likes RAIN, and Muni ends up sending his stooge, Vince Barnet, to watch the conclusion of the play while Muni and his gang rub out Boris Karloff. Barnet catches up to Muni later and tells him that "Sadie" chose the Marine rather than the "cloth" (Minister). Muni likes that, and says "That Sadie is one smart girl." It is not the only time a classic film comments on the play RAIN. In TWENTIETH CENTURY John Barrymore compares another character's behavior to that of the Reverend Alfred Davidson (the Walter Huston performance in this film version).

RAIN was considered (in the early 1930s) the greatest stage play since Shakespeare's HAMLET. Certainly it is an engrossing story, based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham. It's ironic that the play, by John Colton, was not written by Maugham as a a play. Maugham was a successful West End dramatist, whose works are still revived on occasion (in 1990 I saw Glynis Johns and Stewart Granger in a revival of Maugham's comedy THE CIRCLE). But his work was better when he had the leisure to write descriptions of characters and their behavior, or of the settings of his stories. It's his short stories and novels that people still read, not his plays. And RAIN is the only one with any dramatic power - and it wasn't his play.

RAIN is set in American Samoa, during the rainy season. A ship lands there, and among those who disembark are Rev. Alfred Davidson and his wife (Beulah Bondi). Both are extremely straight-laced - and apparently happy to be so. Davidson is annoyed to see that the hotel/store owner, Joe Horn (Guy Kibbee) has allowed a "wanton" woman named Sadie Thompson to room with there with the Davidsons and Dr. and Mrs. MacPhail. Thompson entertains a large number of American soldiers in her room, and she enjoys playing jazz on her Victrola. Except for the Davidsons, everyone else accepts Sadie. She's really a very friendly young woman, and she makes friends easily. As Mr. MacPhail is a philosopher, and Horn is of a philosophical turn (he keeps reading Ecclesiastes and Nietzche) neither of them really see anything wrong with Sadie.

But Davidson is angered by the sinful woman. He has a way of throwing his weight around viciously through his missionary contacts in Washington. Soon he has the soldiers restricted to their barracks, including Sgt. O'Hara (William Gargan) who really cares for Sadie. All protests from MacPhail are ignored (Davidson smilingly forgives the Doctor for his misguided condemnation). Then he turns his attention on Sadie, and forces her to explain why she is the South Seas (it is a criminal matter she is fleeing in the states). He insists that she has to face the criminal charges in order for her soul to be purified. Sadie tries to fight it, but the pressure is too great.

However, Davidson's contact with Sadie destroys him. He succeeds in turning her into a true penitent (as he imagines one), but he has become lascivious towards her - and finally has sex with her (we never are sure that it was voluntary or rape). When he realizes what he did, Davidson kills himself. Sadie ends up with O'Hara.

The acting in this film was first rate. Because it lost money, Joan Crawford always dismissed it, but her smoldering sexuality bursts every time she appears (Lewis Milestone sets up entrance for her twice in the film which is very suggestive of a "predatory" woman). Huston is equally good, especially as the self-admiring, Pharisaical Reverend who sees nothing wrong about pulling political wires to save a soul (or sending that poor person back to face a probably hellish experience that he would never suffer through). His sudden revelation of sexual desire is a little overdone, but not too badly. The supporting characters like Bondi, Kibbee, and those who really see the power-lust in Davidson (Gargan and Kendall Lee, who is MacPhail) give very good account of themselves in the film, as does Walter Catlett as the ship purser who is a friend of Sadie's. If not a perfect film, it is a worthy one. I only hope that one day the Gloria Swanson version made in 1928 shows up so it can be compared to this one.

Strong but flawed look at religion's dark side

[imogensara_smith · 6/10 · 23 August 2006]

Religious hypocrisy is always a meaty subject, and Rain is one of the most gratifyingly uncompromising takes on the issue. I've rarely seen a movie that presented Christian evangelism in such a bad light. I only wish the story was as convincing as the message. There's no reason it shouldn't be: the idea of a self-righteous missionary converting an initially resistant but secretly guilt-ridden free spirit, only to succumb to temptation himself, is perfectly plausible. It's just the way these developments are presented that fails to be credible. Rain is based on a play (which itself was based on a story by Somerset Maugham) and it uses a typical plot device of forcing a group of characters to share a small space, in this case a hotel on the Samoan island of Pago Pago, where the travelers from a boat are forced to wait out a rainstorm and a quarantine that prevents them from sailing on to their destination. Among the travelers is a powerful missionary, Alfred Davidson (Walter Huston), and his prim wife, and a conspicuously "loose" woman, Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford), who has evidently been a prostitute in Honolulu, but is now heading for a legitimate job in Apia. (Another couple, a thoughtful, enlightened doctor and his conformist wife, are present merely as observers in the drama.) Sadie attracts disapproving attention by entertaining American soldiers in her room with booze and jazz records (the gatherings seem quite harmless, however), and Davidson determines to "save" Sadie, or failing that, have her deported back to the United States, where she faces prison time for what she claims is a false charge. The final significant character is O'Hara, a good-hearted soldier who falls in love with Sadie and asks her to go to Sydney with him.

The main credibility problem is created by Davidson, and I think the fault lies more with the way the character is written than with Walter Huston's performance. He's so blatantly despicable from the get-go, so obviously smug, vindictive and uncharitable, that it's hard to imagine him succeeding as an evangelist. Everyone except his wife seems to see through him, including Sadie Thompson, who tells him, "When you were a boy I bet you caught flies and pulled their wings off." He should be charismatic, even seductive; instead he comes off as a rigid, charmless bully who barks at his intended converts without the slightest effort to appeal to them through persuasion or sympathy. So when Sadie does succumb to him, the effect is bizarre. One minute she's telling him off, the next she's reciting the Lord's Prayer as though hypnotized. He seems to have some occult power over her, which changes her personality entirely. If her sense of guilt and powerlessness had been built up from the beginning, her conversion could have been more realistic. Likewise, if Davidson's desire for Sadie had been signaled early on as the real source of his interest in her, it might be believable when he heads for her room with impure intentions, but instead lust seems to hit him out of nowhere, and he undergoes a two-minute transformation from pious Jekyll to leering Hyde. All these faults lie in the script, which feels schematic and didactic; things happen to prove a point, rather than because they're built into the characters and situations. This is a shame, because the story could have been more powerful.

Lewis Milestone makes a valiant effort to counteract the usual static effect of a filmed play. The movie opens with a beautiful montage of a tropical rainstorm, with a few heavy drops striking dry sand, palm leaves, still water, then coming thicker and faster until a rain barrel overflows in a white torrent. Throughout the film, cinematic interludes introduce the native world outside the hotel, with islanders dancing, singing and fishing; and the persistent torrential rains create an effectively claustrophobic backdrop (serving somewhat the same purpose as the wind in Seastrom's The Wind), though it doesn't help the audibility of the already muffled sound track. Milestone also sets his camera in motion, circling his actors and using tight close-ups of Sadie's bracelet-covered wrists and high heels. But nothing can disguise the essential staginess of most scenes, which are talky and rather slow-paced.

Fortunately, Milestone has a wonderful cast to carry these scenes. Guy Kibbee, usually cast as a lecherous buffoon, is subtle as the languid, live-and-let-live hotel proprietor, who reads Nietszche and has an obese native wife. William Gargan manages to make the idealized O'Hara natural and likable; at first he seems to be a cliché, the naïve farm boy, but he turns out to be experienced and independent-minded. Joan Crawford, as always, seems nervous and artificial, but this works since her character is playing a role: the tough, devil-may-care floozy, accessorized with trampy clothes, heavy make-up, cigarettes and low-down jazz. (Note the use of the St. Louis Blues, pre-Code cinema's ubiquitous motif for red-hot-mamas. See Baby Face and countless others.) She looks so much more beautiful after her conversion, when she appears lightly made-up in a plain black robe, the movie seems to be making an unexpected comment on the deceptiveness of angelic beauty—since her pathetic, brainwashed state is also deeply disturbing. Her recovery is as unrealistically sudden as her conversion. She doesn't suffer at all from the shattering of her illusions; the spell is simply lifted, leaving her exactly as she was before. If not credible, at least this is satisfying. The celebration of an independent-spirited woman, and the elevation of tolerance over piety, is typical of pre-Code's mature, unsentimental attitude. Sadly, the unpopularity of this movie at the time showed that America wasn't ready for this viewpoint—if, indeed, it ever will be.

Very disappointing performances by some fine actors

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 5/10 · 5 November 2013]

There's a time in the early 1930s when almost primitive movie-making suddenly became more modern. It isn't a date...depending on the studio and the director, it seems to fluctuate between 1932 (when this film was made) and about 1936. Regardless, the production values here border on being rather primitive. So that's one black mark (or perhaps -- considering the main character -- I should say red mark) on my score card to begin with.

And then there's Joan Crawford's characterization of Sadie Thompson. If the old adage of less is more...well, let's just say that director Lewis Milestone overdid it in regard to making us aware that Thompson was a loose woman. It wasn't so much that Crawford overacted, as much as the makeup people and costumer overdid the stereotype. And lest you think I'm just having a wrong perception because I'm watching the film in 2013, at the time of its release, "Variety" said: "Joan Crawford's get-up as the light lady is extremely bizarre. Pavement pounders don't quite trick themselves up as fantastically as all that." It is said this was Crawford's least favorite film, although it's unclear whether that was due to her role or the fact that it bombed at the box office. After her temporary reformation, the acting -- and the look -- is more realistic.

Another thing I have against this film is the acting of Beulah Bondi. Bondi is one of my all-time favorite character actresses, but here she is so wooden and stereotyped as the role of the minister's wife.

I feel the same about the acting of Walter Huston here. Wooden in both movement and speech. And yet, just four years later I felt he was magnificent in "Dodsworth".

Matt Moore was fine as the doctor, and Guy Kibbee did nicely as the hotel owner.

My criticism is not to say there were no high points. Some of the dialog is actually quite well written...just not performed realistically. And, for 1932, Milestone used some interesting camera angles.

But overall, my opinion of this film is rather negative, and I guess we must blame the director/producer Lewis Milestone. Ironically, Milestone was a 4-time Oscar nominee, and took 2 Oscars home. Clearly his output was inconsistent.

Oh, and by the way, having lived in the tropics for 2 years...they overdid it with the deluge of rain.

A basically underrated movie

[Jim West · 30 April 2000]

Unlike most people, I like both this movie and Crawford's performance, though the sudden and complete change to and from her religion-inspired catatonic state is a bit too rash and unconvincing (not due only to her acting: the film is so constructed). Huston plays a very sinister character. His brainwash on Sadie Thompson is appalling, and the scene when she succumbs while he recites the Lord's Prayer is most disturbing. Milestone's dynamic camera work is indeed overdone, but it is clear that it was a somewhat naïve attempt to counteract the tendency to sluggishness of the early talkies (compare with 'Anna Christie' with Garbo, for instance). The director gives the rain an important role as a powerful surrounding element of nature, almost trying to treat it as a living character, much like what Sjostrom did in 'The Wind'(1929); it doesn't entirely come through, but it was a worthy effort. The quick editing on Crawford's entrance (repeated in the end) is also impressive.

Can't Understand Why Crawford Doesn't Rate This Performance

[IanIndependent · 7/10 · 15 September 2017]

Despite it's age and accompanying stagey direction this is still a very powerful film. The story works on various levels and having now seen this adaption I want to read the book for any nuances not transferred to the film.

Yet, however good the story, it is Joan Crawford's performance that makes the screen version so watchable. She attracts and enthrals from the beginning (the snappy dialogue assists with this). She plays Sadie Thompson as flirty, sexy, sassy but also weak and vulnerable and does so in all the right places, at the right time, and in the right proportions.

Walter Huston is also a large presence in the film and although these two main performances cast a large shadow which the lesser players struggle to find any light in which to illuminate their own character depictions it is still a very good film and outstanding for it's time.

Don't Rain on Joan's Parade!

[GeoPierpont · 7/10 · 10 January 2014]

I determined this film to be theee most nail biter, edge of your seat morality play that I have yet to witness all my years... The pre-code days allowed a slice of reality much more so than the banal predictable moral codes of today...

Even considering today's headlines and "Elmer Gantry" like replicas, there is no triumph of hiprocisy featured so prominently as one encounters in this enticing film... Joan never looked sexier, and that is given her performance in Grand Hotel... The reformed makeup-less look was much less flattering but we girls all know how humidity never tames the locks to our desire...

I ended up rooting for Sailor O'Hara to sock it to the acerbic and disdainful reverend, but the ending proved even more rewarding! I can imagine why this must have resonated so well with audiences in the Theatre who were repressed from the 18th Amendment and saw this as sweet revenge with the impressive ratings...

High recommend for those who have been mistreated by nuns, holy rollers, bible thumping holier than thou types, and for Joan's extravagant emotional performance in her early film career.

Amazing portrayal of a real woman before "the code" took over Hollywood

[Ursula_Two_Point_Seven_T · 9/10 · 1 October 2004]

Despite some hammy acting, especially by a fledgling Joan Crawford, I easily give this movie a 9/10 rating.

"The Code" refers (in case you don't know) to the morality code put into place in mid-1934 which clamped down very hard on what could be portrayed in the movies. After the code, women that were off-color in any way, shape, or form had to be punished, redeemed through atonement/repentance, or killed off.

However, in "Rain", Joan Crawford plays Sadie Thompson, a prostitute working on a South Pacific (?) island whom all the service-men seem to adore. They treat her like a friend, a comrade, not a lowly piece of scum or mere sexual object. This, in and of itself, was refreshing to see. And it was from 1932 no less!

A group of missionaries are waylaid on Sadie's island due to a torrential rain storm. The head missionary takes an instant dislike to Sadie's character (I believe he is threatened by her free-loving and live-loving spirit), and has the governor of the island extradite her back to the United States, to be prosecuted for some crime that the film does not clearly delineate.

There is also a soldier who loves Sadie and who wants to marry her. He knows she's a prostitute. He's had her and so have most if not all of his buddies, but he loves the person she is and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. He is taken to the brig for a week for some petty offense, and during this week the head missionary convinces (brainwashes) Sadie into believing she is a filthy, sinful creature who must pay for her sins. The soldier cannot believe the transformation in Sadie when he gets out of the brig. The interesting thing to me is that as the "reformed" Sadie, Joan Crawford is MUCH more beautiful (less makeup, more subdued clothing, softer-focus lighting) than as the lurid Sadie, yet the soldier sees she is much LESS than she was before. He sees the INSIDE of Sadie, and sees she is a mere shell of her former self. He tries to persuade her to go away with him, rather than return to the U.S. to "pay for her sins" as the missionary has convinced her she must.

I want to avoid spoilers, so I'll just say that events then take place that make Sadie realize she is just fine as she is, and that the missionary was a hypocrite of a human being.

It blows me away that the message of this 72-year-old film is more daring than most messages we get from modern-day films. We are still stuck in a post-code madonna/whore view of women that was clearly not in place in the early 30s.

Despite the not-best acting in the world, this movie is a must-see for its amazing story and portrayal of a real woman!

Joan Crawford Remake of Silent

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 10 June 2007]

This film is essentially a remake of the 1928 silent Sadie Thompson only with sound. Joan Crawford & Walter Huston recreate the roles of Gloria Swanson & Lionel Barrymore. The script is exactly the same story except that it is murkier because of all the rainy weather.

Sadie Thompson (Crawford) is the woman of ill reputation who needs to be saved. This film centers around this story. She has escaped from San Francisco to an island where she is heading to Australia to escape a prison sentence for what she has done. The rest centers around her decision on what she decides to do.

The photography in this is not quite as good as the original although the films are almost exactly the same length. Ms. Crawfords acting elevates this above being a standard remake & into a better film than some of the early talking films. This one helped launch her successful career.

The story told by the film is solid enough that after only 4 years it was remade. One of the shorter times between remakes in American Film History.

Joan Crawford steals the show!

[Sylviastel · 8/10 · 14 November 2008]

Before she was Mildred Pierce, Joan Crawford played the role of Sadie Thompson based on Somerset Maugham's story entitled Rain. She is a prostitute or too loose with the men especially the sailors. When she and others are stranded on Pago Pago in the Samoa, they have to stay there before they can go anywhere else. Walter Huston plays a devout religious hypocritical merciless minister who tries to steer Sadie in the right direction. Anybody else could have made Sadie either laughable or one-dimensional, Crawford shows her talent in keeping us to like and dislike her character. Crawford's first and final appearance is simply impressive. You can't take your eyes off her. She wants to be the star of the film and she is because she has the talent in order to succeed and she does to legendary status. Crawford's knack for being comical, cruel, vulnerable all at once in this role. Beulah Bondi has a supporting role. For one of the first films in the early thirties, it's an entertaining film.

Acid Rain

[BumpyRide · 7/10 · 13 August 2007]

A total bomb when it first hit in 1932, Rain today holds up rather well for today's audience to enjoy. Perhaps another example of a movie ahead of it's time. One can see why. Crawford's outfits and make up are rather bizarre, one part gypsy, one part hooker. Which I suppose is in keeping with the character of Sadie Thompson. The writing (from a story by W. Somerset Maugham) is not your typical 1930's fluff. There is nothing to like in this world. What I found enjoyable were the clothing and music from the early 1930's. The two "ladies," Mrs. Robert MacPhail and Mrs. Walter Davidson, are decked out from their shoes to their hats which were so stylish and sophisticated, and then comes Sadie. She is not a hooker with a heart of gold but more troubled than in need of salvation. What I found hard to believe was her sudden conversion to Christianity just by repeating the Lord's Prayer several times with Mr. Davidson, portrayed wonderfully by Walter Huston. Sadie's redemption is not to be, once again being taken advantage of by a man, this time by the very man who set out to "save" her. The sins of the flesh run through this movie with the rain perhaps symbolizing the washing away of past sins. Heady entertainment that works well for today with a fine performance by a young Joan Crawford.

Interesting Curio; Crawford is Much Better Than Was Thought at the Time

[ScottAmundsen · 5/10 · 24 October 2012]

RAIN is the second film version of a play that made a superstar of Jeanne Eagels on the Broadway stage; the first was a silent titled SADIE THOMPSON and starring Gloria Swanson, which was a success both critically and commercially. This second version, the first sound film based on the play, used the original title and starred Joan Crawford, who was already a major star but desired to stretch herself as an actress. Unfortunately for Crawford, neither the critics nor the public liked her as the unglamorous prostitute Sadie Thompson; that plus the fact that the play had begun to date rather badly made this film a resounding flop and Crawford took most of the heat for its failure.

A second look, keeping the play's historical context in mind, leads me to the opposite conclusion. Crawford, who came to Hollywood knowing nothing about acting and who learned "on the job," as it were, never reached the heights of Davis, Hepburn, and Stanwyck, perhaps, but she was an apt pupil and she learned her craft well. A look at this extremely dated film today reveals that Crawford's performance is really the best thing about it.

The plot is a moldy bit of melodrama involving a fanatical missionary (played here by Walter Huston) who, stranded in Samoa during a cholera outbreak, encounters prostitute Sadie Thompson and sets out to convert her, which for her involves returning to the States to serve a prison sentence even though she was framed. Mesmerized by the missionary's personality, Sadie is at first converted, then later disillusioned.

The film is not terribly well made (interestingly there is no director credit, though IMDb lists Lewis Milestone); even for 1932 it is grainy and the camera-work jerky in spots. The decision to make the constant soaking rain a character in the drama is a plus: it adds to the atmosphere and makes for a perfect background for Sadie's emotional and spiritual journey.

The acting is a mixed bag. Crawford is much, much better than one would expect since this film nearly wrecked her career at the time it was released. In fact it she might not have recovered had she not made GRAND HOTEL, one of her major triumphs, that same year. But whatever the film's weaknesses may be, Crawford is not among them. In fact her Sadie is a completely believable character; Crawford is utterly convincing as the unrepentant whore, then the "born again" woman redeemed, as she thinks, by the missionary, and in her "fall from grace;" in fact she's quite good, particularly considering that this is perhaps the most complex role she had attempted up to that time.

The rest of the cast is mostly solid, familiar (at the time anyway) character actors, and they pretty much all acquit themselves well. Oddly, the weak link in the cast happens to be the one great actor in the whole thing: Walter Huston as the missionary Davidson. A legendary actor both on stage and screen, Huston plays the missionary like a hero out of an old stage melodrama, declaiming his lines in a way that was out of style even back in the 1920s when the play opened on Broadway. I don't know whether Milestone directed him to read his part this way or whether he simply did his own thing and ignored the director (so far as I know that was not his reputation), but either way it is a terrible choice; his performance is so hammy that it renders every scene in which he appears laughable, and when he and Crawford are on screen together, it is her realistic approach to her character that one finds believable; he is incredible to the point of being ridiculous.

All in all, however, I found myself rather surprised that this film was such a failure in 1932. Huston's acting would have seemed less garish at the time, and I think the critics were terribly unfair to Crawford; even if they found her attempt to stretch her abilities less than successful (a view with which I do not agree), surely she deserved the credit for trying. Simply taking on the role was an act of courage on Crawford's part; Jeanne Eagels was inextricably linked to the role in the minds of many, and when you add to that the successful silent version starring Swanson, who was one of the biggest stars of her day, it took a LOT of nerve on Crawford's part to attempt what was at the time the biggest challenge she had ever faced. And I think she did a creditable job.

Crawford was too hard on herself

[MissSimonetta · 8/10 · 12 August 2014]

I'm not much of a Joan Crawford fan, but she was great in this early talkie version of "Rain." Not as assured as Gloria Swanson in the 1928 version, but pretty close! She sells the character's swagger and crudeness while keeping her sympathetic and likable.

The direction is great. Joan's entrance is creatively staged and shot.

Walter Huston was a fantastic actor, though he does not manage to be as creepy as Lionel Barrymore had been in the silent version. Everyone else is mostly forgettable.

This is not the best version of Rain, but it is still worth a watch and it's miles ahead of that awful and garish Rita Hayworth version in the 1950s.

A 1930s Art House Movie?

[1930s_Time_Machine · 6/10 · 26 November 2022]

If you're interested in this, you may also have watched Safe In Hell - that made a year earlier but actually feeling a little more modern than this. As William Wellman made Safe In Hell more 'arty' than the typical populist feel-good or melodrama movies of the time, so did Lewis Milestone with Rain. Because we expect every second of running time to be stuffed with fast-talking action with no time to breathe from films of this era, this more arty approach, in both films, does make the plot drag a little, Rain however does feel more real.

Rain is very watchable and although the film stock UA used wasn't that sharp, it is beautifully filmed. Lewis Milestone brings his larger than life characters to life. Joan Crawford's outrageous yet authentic prostitute is imbued with vulnerability and fake bravado - she gives a very sensitive and layered performance. Walter Houston's maniacal evangelist is frighteningly believable, at one point he says his greatest achievement was installing the sense of sin in the natives who had previously thought their customs to be natural human. It's also nice to see Guy Kibbee getting a meaty role for a change as a kind of middle-aged proto-hippie. The acting style feels earlier than 1932 but is still good - except for the doctor's wife. Kendall Lee is truly awful - you will wonder how she ever got the role.....in her husband's film!

The film's biggest problem is censorship not just with this movie but with Maughan's original work. The hero is a prostitute and the villain is a man of God! To appease the censors a lot of the plot was heavily disguised. This results one of the most unclear endings in any film ever! Rather than writing or showing the climactic denouement which would have had to be horribly diluted, Maugham and indeed Milestone simply decided to omit it altogether and allow the audience to use their own imagination based on the perplexing final few frames to determine what had just happened. It's a clever and interesting technique but it left audiences in 1932 quite annoyed. We're used these days for ambiguity, for films not just to entertain but to question our own beliefs but this wasn't as established in the early 30s so does not quite work 100%.

Old movie, Old actress, Old ideas. Apply them to Today, MTV anyone?

[richard.fuller1 · 1/10 · 4 June 2001]

My dear online friend, legendaryCrawford of Boston Mass, invited me to see this movie, and valuing my internet pal's opinion on films like this, I couldn't refuse.

But "Rain" was laughable, hardly intense, gripping or thought-provoking. I watched it only to see Mommie Dearest to get some understanding of possibly the second-most self-destructive Hollywood actress, Monroe being the first.

From the moment Crawford spoke and moved in her earthy, brazen manner, I thought of Penny Marshall doing LaVerne DeFazio on the seventies sitcom.

Even during the 'conversion' it looked just like the way DeFazio used to behave when she felt defeated. Some of it bordered on precious (I'm eating' my suppah. I guess my suppah can wait.), but most of it was tiresome and clichéd and contrived.

Why would the pious minister's wife be so offended by Crawford and not by the staggering drunk? Obviously the story was just to make Crawford the victim of the discrimination due to her lifestyle.

Her getup and behaviour of a fallen woman was amusing also when you think of all the dear ladies who have appeared in MTV videos and all that "breakthrough" business Madonna pulled back in the eighties and nineties. Goes around, comes around.

Watch this movie only for Crawford. Again in the conversion, I couldn't help but think of Reverend Lovejoy on the Simpsons when Walter Huston began praying.

Huston and his on screen wife were very unpleasant stereotypes of ticky, self-righteous bible-thumpers ("Don't even look at her" -- but the drunk could stagger all around their table) And I didn't understand Huston's fate at all.

Crawford walks off hand-in-hand with Prince Charming, something she would do in many films later on. But her trashy attire is insightful (again, think of MTV. I'm gonna let my teen-aged nephew see this).