Too many fans seem to be blown away

An Exercise In Nonsense

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It's sad that we don't have on film Jeanne Eagels and her performance from Broadway of the classic Rain. I'm told there was something truly special about it. But having said that Gloria Swanson has given us one riveting performance as Sadie Thompson, the girl that gets everyone thinking from below decks in the South Seas. With the exception of Rita Hayworth's version, I have something nice to say about all the screen Sadies. You've got to be both one sexy dish and an extraordinary actress to pull this role off. In Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford we've had both.W. Somerset Maugham long before Tennessee Williams was writing about taboo sexual subjects and people bought his books and saw the plays and movies from them. Rain is the granddaddy of them all. Maugham as a gay man just asks a simple question, why don't people just let people alone to do their thing if it doesn't harm anyone?That's the attitude in rollicking Marine sergeant Raoul Walsh who is stationed on the tropical south sea paradise that Sadie Thompson finds herself stranded. Walsh who directed also gives us an opportunity to see him before he lost an eye a couple of years later. Also there is Lionel Barrymore and his wife Blanche Frederici, the Reverend Davidson. One of the most uptight people in literature it's like he's got to destroy the thing he lusts for, but can't have because of convention and the beliefs drummed into him. In a nutshell you have a ton of religious and political figures, closeted gays who are outwardly rightwing homophobes. Maugham knew them well. So with one look, Barrymore takes a most personal interest in the 'salvation' of Sadie Thompson. But it's all a cover and in the end when his world is exposed it's the end for him.Rain will be getting productions ad infinitum although they might be underground productions as per the local mores until the end of time. Sadie Thompson got two Oscar nominations in the first Oscar ceremony, one for Gloria Swanson as Best Actress and one for cinematography.Not a film to be missed.

this was my first silent movie and i have to say i liked it. the music didn't change as drastically as i thought it would. i loved the character Sadie Thompson she was funny and was loving life and this new adventure she was about to have starting her life over. then stupid Mr. Davidson had to go and brain wash her thinking having fun was a sin and that she needed to repent if she wanted to be saved. and thinks that anyone who is different then him is evil. when in fact we find in the end he was evil and weak. but it got a little confusing because the end of the film was a little confusing due to the fact that it was lost and they remade it with stills. but in the end i guess he tried to sleep with her and she saw that he's wasn't as holy as he said. so she turns into her self again and falls in love with her handsome friend and Mr Davidson gives in to his dark thoughts and commits suicide.

Gloria Swanson takes hold of the screen and does not for one minute let it go in this adaptation of a W. Somerset Maugham novella about a free-wheeling firecracker (read: prostitute) who comes under the tyranny of a self-appointed reformer (a frightening Lionel Barrymore) in a battle of wills over her salvation. Swanson received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her work in the very first year of Oscar's existence. She lost to Janet Gaynor, who was nominated for a trio of performances that first year, but I'm not so sure she shouldn't have won. Raoul Walsh, tough-guy director of later films like James Cagney's "White Heat" (1949), directed "Sadie Thompson" and stars in the film as Sadie's love interest. The whole thing unfolds in a tropical location during a downpour, and it captures the over-heated exotic atmosphere perfectly.The film's impact is somewhat blunted because of its missing last moments. The version I saw reconstructed the final 10 minutes or so using still shots and title cards; one can only imagine what the actual footage was like. The film has a rather startling conclusion, not because I don't agree with it but rather because a mere ten years later (after enforcement of the Production Code) and for decades after, it wouldn't have been allowed to end the way it does, with Sadie exposing religion as a hypocritical sham and not changing her own racy tendencies one bit.Grade: B+

Gloria Swanson (as Sadie Thompson) is a prostitute bound for Pago Pago, "in the sultry South Seas, where there is no need for bed clothes" as "the rain comes down in sheets." Ms. Swanson is contemplating a change in lifestyle, but has her thinking derailed by hypocritical preacher Lionel Barrymore (as Alfred Davidson). The two are among those quarantined together, due to an outbreak of small-pox. Watch for Swanson's exclamation after being told she's quarantined! It isn't, "Oh, sugar!" AND, that's only the beginning. Gloria Swanson is Sadie Thompson. This is one of her best performances, and it certainly surpasses the Sadies essayed by Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth. Swanson creates a marvelous Sadie - clear, precise, and believable. Her eye-to-eye contact with Blanche Friderici (as Mrs. Davidson) is the first sign you have that a truly riveting characterization is in the works. Swanson uses her eyes magnificently throughout, but is also skillful chewing gum, wiping her hands, and striking a pose… she inhabits the character.Director Raoul Walsh does double duty by playing Swanson's "Handsome" love interest Tim O'Hara. The photography and sets are superior, though the film is damaged in some places. The symbolism is just right - watch how Swanson gets into a TIGHT black negligee and gets caught in a web. Subtle. Yet, the heavy-handed, rain drenched symbolism is easier to take in a "silent" rather than a "talking" picture. The characters to watch are Swanson and Barrymore, as the film progresses; they have a psychological war, which offers some dramatic surprises. Barrymore is, perhaps, less captivating than Walter Huston in the Crawford re-make, which was re-titled "Rain" (1932); it would have been nice to see a version with Swanson and Huston.Sadly, the very end of "Sadie Thompson" is lost. There is a relatively well-done "reconstruction". Most of the missing footage is successfully imagined with stills; this might have been an interesting way to end the film, anyway. However, there is one lost scene, essential to the story, sorely missed; but, you will have no trouble figuring out what has happened. ********* Sadie Thompson (1/7/28) Raoul Walsh ~ Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore, Raoul Walsh, Blanche Friderici