clanciai 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.

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.

cjh668908 Rain (1932) stars Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. Crawford, under contract with MGM at the time, was out on loan to United Artists to make Rain after the huge success of Grand Hotel (1932). The kind of role Crawford plays in Rain is unlike any of her usual roles she had played up to that point. She usually played heroic roles and shop girl roles. Now she was playing the role of a sinner, a loose woman, a hooker named Sadie Thompson. Audiences at the time couldn't accept Crawford playing such a role, so this movie flopped at the box office. Time has given this movie a huge boost, as modern day audiences accept this movie and Crawford's performance much more easily. Crawford herself didn't like this movie, probably because it bombed. She said that she overacted. I do agree that she did overact in some parts, but Crawford gives a great performance. A different role, yes. But her acting works so well for her character. Crawford looks the part as well, and her entrance in the movie is legendary. This movie is a good example of an actress showing her versatility, but unfortunately the subject matter of the movie and perhaps some tunnel vision by people at the time is what made this a flop in 1932. It's amazing how audiences can't accept an actor playing a different kind of role than what they're accustomed to.One of the things I like about this movie is the atmosphere. It's a rather dark movie and it seems to rain a lot throughout (of course). I also like the way a lot of the scenes were shot and some of the camera angles. The movie seems ahead of its time.In my opinion, Rain is one of Crawford's best movies from the 1930s. I think the movie holds up pretty well. I highly recommend it.

GeoPierpont I determined this film to be theee most nail biter, edge of your seat morality play that I have yet to witness all my years... The pre-code days allowed a slice of reality much more so than the banal predictable moral codes of today... Even considering today's headlines and "Elmer Gantry" like replicas, there is no triumph of hiprocisy featured so prominently as one encounters in this enticing film... Joan never looked sexier, and that is given her performance in Grand Hotel... The reformed makeup-less look was much less flattering but we girls all know how humidity never tames the locks to our desire... I ended up rooting for Sailor O'Hara to sock it to the acerbic and disdainful reverend, but the ending proved even more rewarding! I can imagine why this must have resonated so well with audiences in the Theatre who were repressed from the 18th Amendment and saw this as sweet revenge with the impressive ratings... High recommend for those who have been mistreated by nuns, holy rollers, bible thumping holier than thou types, and for Joan's extravagant emotional performance in her early film career.