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.

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 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.