writers_reign
Old Willie Maugham got a lot of mileage out of one short story. Under it's original title, Rain, it was produced on Broadway with Jeanne Eagels, and filmed twice, once with Gloria Swanson and once with Joan Crawford. They even had a shot at a Broadway musical version with a fine score by Vernon Duke but June Havoc (the real 'Baby June' from Gypsy) couldn't draw flies at the box office. Now Rita Hayworth has a stab at it, opposite Jose Ferrer as the religious zealot who has the hots for her. Director Curtis Bernhardt squanders a good five minutes of film getting over the fact that we're on a hot, humid and boring island in the Pacific, before bringing on the two leads. Rita Hayworth was a finer actress than she was given credit for, more or less trapped as sex on legs she was always able to project the vulnerable, insecure child just below the surface but though she does her considerable best she is manacled hand and foot to a dull, portentous, unimaginative script, matched in every detail by the direction. Catch it on TV or perhaps as a freebie with a newspaper but don't go out of your way.
selffamily
Poor Sadie - either way she had a tough deal of things. Having never seen the movie "rain" I cannot do a comparison, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. So... taken on its own merits, this is an OK movie, not the best, not the worst. Rita glimmers and gleams like gold in a desert when she arrives, and it spoke heaps for the moral code that did exist that she was able to flick away unwanted attention in those days, apart from the one person who wrote his own code of course. The preacher man with too much power was convincing, (and his snivelling wife), doing what most people with too much power do - becoming corrupted by his own invincibility. Although it appears that a man (any man) offering the sanctuary of married life was the solution to the world's problems, or at least Sadie's, part of me was hoping that she would be able to revert to her original plan and go to New Caledonia. Why she didn't just push Davidson off the cliff when they were talking? But it might have spoiled the story! Not a bad way to spend an hour or so... beautiful colour, interesting story and I suppose a happy ending?
MarieGabrielle
After reading other reviews- wow. It's not that bad. Yes, the story has been done, but Hayworth makes it well worth watching.And the theme underlying the story is still relevant. Sadie Thompson is a woman of questionable repute, living on a South Sea island trying to re-make her life.The Jose Ferrer character is effectively odious. A man hung up on projecting his moral issues on the nearest target. This happens to be Miss Sadie.I recall seeing this film on an TV afternoon movie festival, when I was very young. I enjoyed it. Maybe if we were less jaded we would find the story more enjoyable. This was made in 1953, and the morality issues then are still present today.The sets are beautiful. This was filmed on the sparsely populated Hawaiian island, Kuaui. Overall even if you are not a major Hayworth fan, the story has redeeming aspects. I will have to watch "Rain" again with Joan Crawford to compare, but it is so dated, this film is worth a look.8/10
ClassicSiren
i think Rita Hayworth does extremely well in this part of a vivacious, bawdy and flirty night singer given she was actually an extremely shy person at heart and was nothing like her character. this might sound strange but the story between Sadie and Mr Davidson rather reminded me of Esmarelda and Frollo. He was an obsessive moral preacher who despised and was attracted to her, she was a free spirited beautiful women who stands up to him at first, they have a big collision followed by her leaving the hotel, then having to return because he bad mouthed her all over the village, it sort of came as a shock at the end and sort of didn't when he rapes her whilst everyone is at the festival. The hotel is deserted. He is alone with her in her hotel room. She is defenceless. You sort of think you are seeing coming but you don't, the first sign he shows is when he won't moved completely from the doorway so she has to squeeze past him, after that he starts to walk nearer, closer to her then perhaps he should. Over all, its a good film, Rita shines and ferer gives you the creeps, the song 'the heat is on' will make you sizzle, its definitely worth a watch
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