Susan Hathaway The loathsome Reverend Davidson (Walter Huston) is evil incarnate, but presents himself as the only good person in the world, who must tell everyone else what to do and how to do it. The fact that many people ignore him just bolsters his belief that the world is Evil, and he alone is Good. (His wife (Beulah Bondi), a screeching harpy who obediently venerates him, doesn't count as another good person because she's a mere woman.) When Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) tells Davidson to his face what a hypocrite he is, he suffers what he considers an unbearable insult: a "party girl" dared to confront him with the truth about himself! He is then on an obsessive crusade to "save" her, by which he means humiliating her, demeaning her, and forcing her to complete obedience to his will. In one scene, as Sadie tries to stand up for herself, Davidson begins chanting the Lord's Prayer over and over, drowning her out, until she finally succumbs to his brainwashing and sinks to her knees in a chilling demonstration of how religion can be used as a club to bash "sinners" over the head.Davidson even convinces Sadie that she must "atone" for her sins by returning to the U.S. and turning herself in for a crime she was framed for. Ironically, what really saves Sadie is Davidson's inevitable surrender to his own evil.

Tweekums Set in Pago Pago, American Samoa, a group of travellers find themselves stuck for a couple of weeks when the boat to Apia is delayed. Holed up in the general store tensions soon start to rise as a group of bible-bashing reformers take an instant dislike to good time girl Sadie Thompson. Offended by the way she plays music and has men in her room they try to get her kicked out of the establishment; when that fails the try to get her deported on the next ship out. When she is told she must take the next boat out she pleads with the puritanical Alfred Davidson to be allowed to stay a couple more days to catch the boat to Sydney rather than going to San Francisco; where she would have to spent three years in the penitentiary for a crime she insists she did not commit. He states that if her soul is to be saved she must do her time whether innocent or guilty. He starts reciting the Lord's Prayer until it appears that she agrees with him.This 1932 film clearly has religious hypocrisy it its sights as Davidson and his fellow travellers clearly have absolute views of right and wrong… anything that they don't like is wrong and anybody who does such things is a sinner doomed to eternal damnation… no 'love the sinner; hate the sin' for them. Walter Huston does a fine job portraying Alfred Davidson; a truly vile character; a bully and a hypocrite. Joan Crawford is just as good as Sadie; she may have done some wrong in her past but she is a far more sympathetic character than any of the do-gooders who want rid of her. The rest of the cast is solid enough. The constant rain that keeps people indoors for most of the film helps create a claustrophobic atmosphere. As the ending approaches it looks as though it will be rather depressing but thankfully we get an ending that is best described as 'most satisfying'.

MissSimonetta 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.

Cristi_Ciopron Naturalism, my pals, naturalism was often interwoven with melodrama and stridency, in Maugham as in T Williams (--the difference being, naturally, that Maugham was a remarkable writer, while T Williams, a hack--)—in other words, psychological exploitation, _dramsploitation; RAIN seems a quite peculiar drama, well handled and intelligently crafted, it looks peculiar, striking, unusual, fundamentally exciting and intriguing, with a pretty good pace and sharply devised roles and Mrs. Crawford's particularly raw and convincing performance; and most of all, it has those things, those twinned things we call gusto and brio.Mrs. Crawford does what was once called a composition, a performance carefully developed of a role that allows for a broad range of expression–like Charlize Theron being the murderess in a famous movie, or Pacino playing the officer in SCENT OF A WOMAN, or Brando being the godfather Corleone, or Rourke in HOMEBOY and BARFLY, or Nicholson in A FLEW OVER … and THE SHINING.Well, Mrs. Crawford is awesomely good at what she does. Her performance in RAIN, and her character, Sadie Thompson, are memorable. What is less successful is the preacher's conversion, he switches abruptly, there's no rise of desire felt in him.RAIN has a modern look and feel, and a thorough appeal; its author was the legendary Lewis Milestone, the one who has directed All Quiet on the Western Front, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, etc.. In RAIN, his directing is neat and commending, the movie's style has suppleness and sharpness.The script exposes the bitter fruits of virtue. In those early days of the talkies, when there was the tendency to deliver filmed theater, they preferred to shoot not the literary sources directly, but stage adaptations—like they did with Dracula in the same span of time. RAIN is also based not directly on the Maugham prose, but on a stage version.