Rain (1932)

This early Joan Crawford and Walter Huston film aroused my interest as it was on the first major short story by Somerset Maugham and one of his most famous and notorious ones, and the film lived well enough up to the story. It is marvellously filmed on location in the south seas giving wonderful insights into the native life of only enjoying paradise, when it isn't raining...A ship on its way to Apia stays in Pago Pago and is detained because of some cholera risk, and among the passengers are Walter Huston, a preacher with his devoted wife, and Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson, an adventuress of doubtful reputation enjoying life and drinking directly out of the bottle. There are some merry aussies around her, she gets popular, while the preacher isn't happy about her high and noisy life and tries to 'save' her. Apparently he succeeds by sheer consistency but loses something on the way...It's a typical Somerset Maugham story with profound knowledge of human nature and of the ways of women, the dialogue is swell sustained all the way, the acting is perfectly natural, and there is nothing lacking in this film, which intensifies all the way almost amounting to a thriller. The conclusion is terrifically shocking, his stories always strikes home with a final effect, you can always rely on him, and I never saw a film on any of his stories that did not fully live up to his accomplished art of story-telling.

I would like to echo the sentiments of others who are praising the virtues of this 1932 version. It was a rare loan out for Joan Crawford during her MGM years. The production has a few creaky moments, betraying stage origins. But Crawford is really great, and so is the rest of the cast. I love the way director Lewis Milestone includes those poetic shots of the landscape. This is easily in my top five favorite pre-code films. It's one of those pictures that I go back to often that seems to bring even deeper pleasure. The main thing the later Rita Hayworth version has over this one is Technicolor, but color is not necessary to tell this story.

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'.

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.