Rain

Rating:
Summary: Nice but a bit "watered down"
Review: "Rain" is a classic pre-censorship movie of the 30's. As usual with this type of film, one must do a fair amount of reading between the lines to get the full story. Joan Crawford gives a strong performance as Sadie Thompson, a trollop on the run from the law. Walter Huston as Alfred Davidson, a bible thumping, over the top preacher, is sufficiently scary. The rest of the cast puts in fine performances. The cinematography is also exceptionally elegant.

The story is a bit watered down from it's Somerset Maugham original, and some extreme leaps of believability are needed on the part of the audience to accept the denouement. But the story is strong and powerful and surprisingly up-to-date considering it is almost 70 years old. It would seem the religious right has been throwing its muscle around longer than we think.

I highly recommend "Rain", if for no other reason than to see Joan Crawford in the type of role that made her famous.

Rating:
Summary: Rev. Davidson tries to save Sadie Thompson's soul...
Review: "Rain" is one of the classic films from the early sound era. Joan Crawford plays Sadie Thompson, a prostitute quarantined with other passengers on the island of Pago Pago. Sadie gets along okay with the military men stationed on the island, especially Sergeant O'Hara (William Gargan), but then the Reverend Alfred Davidson, played by Walter Huston, decides to save her from the penitentiary. However, the repressed minister finds he is more interested in raping Sadie than in reforming her, sending the story to its tragic ending. W. Somerset Maugham's story "Miss Sadie Thompson" had been turned into a play by John Colton and Clemence Randloph, which was then adapted for the screen by Maxwell Anderson. But it is director Lewis Milestone, with his composition and camera movements, who ends up dominating this drama. The shots and sound of the rain falling on the huts is as memorable as Crawford's performance. The only problem with this DVD package is that there are no extras. I realize you cannot have commentary from the directors and actors of a film made in 1932, surely there are some film critics/historians who could be called upon to enhance our viewing experience of "Rain."

Rating:
Summary: Rev. Davidson tries to save Sadie Thompson's soul...
Review: "Rain" is one of the classic films from the early sound era. Joan Crawford plays Sadie Thompson, a prostitute quarantined with other passengers on the island of Pago Pago. Sadie gets along okay with the military men stationed on the island, especially Sergeant O'Hara (William Gargan), but then the Reverend Alfred Davidson, played by Walter Huston, decides to save her from the penitentiary. However, the repressed minister finds he is more interested in raping Sadie than in reforming her, sending the story to its tragic ending. W. Somerset Maugham's story "Miss Sadie Thompson" had been turned into a play by John Colton and Clemence Randloph, which was then adapted for the screen by Maxwell Anderson. But it is director Lewis Milestone, with his composition and camera movements, who ends up dominating this drama. The shots and sound of the rain falling on the huts is as memorable as Crawford's performance. The only problem with this DVD package is that there are no extras. I realize you cannot have commentary from the directors and actors of a film made in 1932, surely there are some film critics/historians who could be called upon to enhance our viewing experience of "Rain."

Rating:
Summary: No Mildred, but certainly no Trog, either...
Review: 'Rain' appeared at a point in Crawford's career where she'd have done anything, played anyone - even Wally Beerey's grandmother, or so the saying goes - for a good part. And along comes Sadie Thompson, Prostitute of the South Seas, the Original Good Time Had By All, and off Joan went, to revel in a meaty role made famous by contemporary theatrical actress Tallulah Bankhead.

Panned by an unimaginative set of critics, and reviled by a public used to seeing La Carwford as the Ingenue shopgirl in such fluff as 'Our Dancing Daughters' and 'West Point', it's really a testament to the fickleness of the moviegoing public that this, a movie of really sterling performances and interesting, almost experimental direction, could have been so overlooked.

Joan plays Sadie, a hooker on the run, who is forced into an island-wide quarantine after her connecting boat ride is infected with cholera. Among the other passengers so stuck is Rev. Davidson (Walter Huston), who, upon discovering Sadie's sluttish past, becomes hell-bent on 'saving' her soul.

Joan gives an honest and raw performance here, and does not try to glamorise or romanticise the heroine. Hers is a bitter and hard-edged Sadie, full of bile towards men and the establishment, yet tender and vulnerable when the role demands. Her range as an actress is showcased here in the excellent exchanges with Rev. Devine, and Walter Huston responds in kind with a terrific rendition of the sanctimonious, dictatorial Man of the Cloth.

Direction by Lewis Milestone is highly remarkable for the period, the stacatto rainfall and panoramic camera sweeps contrast beautifully with the enclosed, claustrophobic interiors of the General Store, and the poverty and primitive status of the isalnd community shines through, lending a feeling of wilderness to the piece.

All in all, this is an excellent picture, and one of Crawford's finest performances. It's no Mildred Pierce, but where that movie falls down in terms of unbelievable glamour, this one excels - the realism is relatively palpable.

Thoroughly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: JOAN OF CRAWFORD
Review: A fun and fascinating adaptation of Maugham's novel. To create the steamy Pago Pago atmosphere, the entire crew went west of Hollywood! (it was actually filmed on Catalina Island). Crawford never approved of her interpretation of Sadie Thompson, batting at the ball after Jeanne Eagels, Blanche Sweet and Gloria Swanson took their turns swinging the bat and hit. Joan was insecure especially since she was told "When Jeanne Eagels died, RAIN died with her". Strangely enough, her performance, when seen today is definitely one of the more interesting of her incredible career which spanned from 1925-1970. Audiences (mostly women) in 1932 flocked to watch Joan suffer in mink; they couldn't or wouldn't accept her as this blatant trollop of the South Seas! While her wardrobe for the tarnished lady is somewhat bizarre, her acting is certainly more watchable in this film than those in which she passed herself off as a zombie in the forties and fifties (with exceptions of A WOMAN'S FACE, HUMORESQUE, POSSESSED, etc ), Crawford was rather limited and wooden in her acting technique; it was her spunky flair and undeniable beauty with which her fans identified (even her "sister" Bette Davis admitted "Boy, did that dame have a FACE"! But Davis had acting talent which Crawford could only sigh at with envy!

Rating:
Summary: Fate can be escaped
Review: A woman escapes three years in a penitentiary in San Francisco by fleeing to Honolulu where she leads an easy and light life with the sailors that come along. Up to the moment when a preacher of some note arrives and starts persecuting her because her music and her life annoys his wife and himself. So he has her expelled back to San Francisco and preaches her into accepting her punishment, even if it is undeserved, the result of some injustice. This goes on right to the very day before the departure of the boat to San Francisco. On the night before, the preacher, for some unexplained reason, commits suicide. It is not always easy to be the signpost of everyone at the same time as their judge and executioner. This then changes everything and the woman is able to escape to Sidney, Australia, with one of the sailors. She is saved from a punishment that is understood as being unfair. The rain has been dominating the whole film till the very last morning when the sun finally rises over the clouds for the salvation and the escape of the woman. Joan Crawford does a pretty job at impersonating this woman.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Rating:
Summary: remarkable film
Review: An excellent film, superbly transfered to DVD by Roan Group. The filming is quite well done, and the richness of lights and darks in the digital format is crisper and cleaner than any other black and white DVDs I own (and easily as good if not better than any of the Criterion issues I have seen). Crawford is very good. A "Best buy" in my opinion for the money.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant piece of work by Crawford
Review: Anyone who thinks Joan Crawford was just an overly made-up "mooovie star" who couldn't act should see this stunning film. Crawford acts rings around her stage-bred co-stars-and she doesn't over-act, either. It's a brilliant bit of film acting; she knows her lighting, her positioning, but never seems self conscious about it. A shame that the film bombed, and that Crawford repudiated it, as her Sadie Thompson was one of her finest portrayals.

Rating:
Summary: Joan Shines in Spruced-Up Classic
Review: Crawford fans already know that while this movie was a famous flop for Joan, it contains one of her most interesting performances. Now they can see it struck from a near-immaculate print and enjoy both the gorgeous cinematography and those wild closeups of Joan. A friend of mine who is not a Crawford fan described her look in this movie as "Makeup Poisoning". Personally, I love Joan's characterization of South Seas prostitute Sadie Thompson. Highly stylized, it's a little ridiuclous, but compelling. In her "redeemed" scenes Sadie is quite moving (and stunningly beautiful! This was Crawford at her peak). Sadie's ascent up the staircase to confront Walter Houston's lustful preacher is brilliantly handled and has to be one of Joan's best confrontation scenes ever --ranking right up there with Mildred slapping Veda. A little talky and slow in spots, but the rewards are worth the wait.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: From the director of "All's Quiet on the Western Front" comes this little-seen classic version of W. Somerset Maughm's story. A very early talkie, this movie features a young Joan Crawford in the role of Sadie Thompson, a fun-loving floozie who becomes the target of Christian reformers. Crawford (in pre-ham acting mode) is very good as Sadie, as is John Huston as the reformer Davidson. It is very old fashioned but Milestone's direction sets it apart from many talkies of the day. He utilized motion camerashots, the actors move around naturally, not tied to the close range of a hidden microphone in an obvious prop. Therefore, movie is not as stilted and static like many of it's contemporaries. Extra mention should be made for the Roan group who have done an superb job of restoration, and yet do not charge exorbitant prices. On the strength of this dvd I shall purchase more from Roan.