Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Antonius Block The rain falls incessantly in this movie, bringing to mind Matthew 5:45, "he sendeth rain on the just and the unjust alike". In this case, it seems clear that the 'unjust' are actually the devout Christians (Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi), as they sanctimoniously judge Joan Crawford's character and cruelly use their influence to get orders for her immediate deportation from Pago Pago, where this film is set. She is likely a prostitute, but the reason for his action stems from her (gasp) moral crime of listening to music and dancing with some soldiers on the Sabbath. As a more tolerant man observes, "we've all crossed thresholds we don't brag about", but Huston is relentless in cross-examining her about her past, and demanding that she get on the right side of the Lord, even though they've just met.It's interesting to see Crawford stand up to him in what are the best scenes of the film. "You keep yellin' at me to go back and be punished, to suffer – how do you know what I've suffered? You don't know, you don't care, and you don't even ask – and you call yourself a Christian!", she yells, and "Your God and me will never be shipmates, and the next time you talk to him you can tell him this for me – that Sadie Thompson is on her way to hell!" However, she is eventually cowed and resigned to be repentant, which is the first unbelievable part of an unbelievable ending, which I won't spoil.The movie is a little hard to watch because the main characters are so unlikeable. Huston and Bondi are righteous prigs. Crawford is heavily made up and often over-acts her part. There are a few good scenes, however, and it may be of interest to see this adaptation of the short story by W. Somerset Maugham, which spurred several other movies and plays.

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'.

LeonLouisRicci Joan Crawford Hated this one, most Likely because it Bombed at the Box Office and got some Bad Reviews. But it Speaks for Itself. Predictably Talky, but not without some Effective and sometimes Impressive Visuals. From a Painted Up and Garishly Decorated Tainted "Lady of the Night" (Sexy Sadie) to some Fluid Camera-Work for the Time, and an Atmosphere Drenched in God's Nectar, the Movie is a Pre-Code Sermon on Religious Hypocrisy with a Plea for a "Live and Let Live" Society. Walter Huston gives an Acerbic Stiff Performance. But at Their Worst, these Types of Bible-Thumpers are Acerbic, although some can be Charming and Suave. There's an Added Treat of the Inn Keeper Reciting Friedrich Nietzsche (the "God is Dead" Philosopher).Overall, it is Definitely Worth a Watch for Joan Crawford's Iconic Entrance and overall Look and Her sometimes Effective and sometimes Not so Effective Performance, the Direction of Lewis Milestone, and the Pre-Code Freedom to Take On the Subject of Religion that would become a Blasphemous NO NO in the Post Code Years.Reformers were Successful in Bringing about Prohibition and were also Highly Influential in Establishing the Motion Picture Production Code.Right Wing Religious Evangelicals were as Powerful in the Twenties and Thirties as They are Today and Have and Had a Heavy Hand in Directing Political Figures. The Breen Office and Hays Code would Silence the Artistic Opposition on Screen for Decades.

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.