Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

My guess is that many will not recall this film as part of that initial 3-D wave that took place during the fifties. I was surprised to find that it was released that way. I was even more surprised to learn that it did well at the box office. For me it wasn't that great a movie, but it was interesting to view and consider how racy it was considered at the time. In a world where prostitutes are recurring characters on TV shows and porn is available at the press of a button this movie seems quaint in its moral dilemma.Rita Hayworth stars as the title character, a brassy woman on her way to another island in the South Pacific just after the war whose ship strands her on a military base when it has problems. Thompson garners the attention of every military man on the island, all wishing they were the one to romance her but who lose out to Sgt. Phil O'Hara (Aldo Ray) who falls hard for her.Unfortunately for Sadie another visitor to the island is on hand as well, Alfred Davidson (Jose Ferrer), the son of missionaries who is there to carry on his father's work. This is the sort of character who finds fault in most everyone else but himself, in particular the way the island natives behave and in Sadie who he recognizes. When he follows up on his hunch he discovers that Sadie is a woman wanted for solicitation in Honolulu and he blackmails her into returning to the states to serve her time. The conflict between the fun loving independent woman and the staunch religious fanatic should be the center piece of the film. And yet it never quite feels that way.Therein lies the biggest problem with this movie. Based on the short story by W. Somerset Maugham the heart of the story (as well as several other movies based on the tale) revolves around these two as well as the temptation that Davidson feels for Sadie. But that temptation is rarely on display here until very near the end of the film when suddenly he is drawn to her, shattering her changed outlook on life. This should have been a smoldering item that grew as the film moved forward and instead here it feels like a random explosion.The pacing of the film seems leaden but the acting is great. Hayworth turns in a fantastic performance with what she is provided and does a wonderful bit of singing and dancing for the military personnel at a local club. But Ray's character feels forced, ready to marry Sadie at the drop of a hat. The horn dog nature of the soldiers and sailors in the film is at best like a caricature and so over the top you wonder how they survive with little to no women to look at.If made today (and I'm surprised it hasn't been) Hollywood would have a heyday with this story, pitting a staunch conservative religious fanatic against an easy going free spirit who simply wants to have fun. But that shows the difference in time periods when you consider that at the time this film was considered racy and morally questionable. For me the entire movie honestly felt kind of boring. I found myself dozing on more than one occasion.But for those who love the film and Rita Hayworth you can't find a better presentation of this movie. Twilight Time (whose praises I constantly sing) has done the film right with as clear and clean a presentation on blu-ray as you will find. Included with the movie are extras like an isolated music & effects track, audio commentary track with film historians David Del Valle and Steven Peros, an introduction by actress Patricia Clarkson and the original film trailer. I may have to watch this one start to finish with the commentary track on to see what I was missing. For most it will be a movie to bypass but for fans of classic movies and Hayworth you'll add this one to your collection.

W. Somerset Maugham's story "Miss Thompson", previously filmed in 1928 as "Sadie Thompson" with Gloria Swanson, and again as "Rain" with Joan Crawford in 1932, is altered for this brightly-colored 1953 version. Rita Hayworth gets the showy title role here, and she's erratic but serviceable as the wild party girl on the run from police who ends up on a tropical island along with two traveling couples, including a disapproving stuffed shirt who is determined to reform her. Sadie is a cabaret entertainer this time--and a maybe/maybe not prostitute--while her redeemer is no longer a missionary but an important figurehead who specializes in shutting down places of immorality. Aldo Ray livens things up as a smitten Marine sergeant stationed on the island who falls in love with Sadie, but dull, silver-haired Jose Ferrer never convinces as Mr. Davidson while the stereotypical natives act as if they just wandered over from the 1932 version! As for Miss Hayworth, she's quite fetching in the early half of the picture--flirtatious and fun-loving--but the seriousness of the second act defeats her, along with everyone else. The narrative, unsteady to begin with, completely breaks down in the final reel; Sadie gets her happy ending, but it's the audience who is left marooned. ** from ****

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.

Having read some of the comments about this film I must disagree with much of the criticism made against this film. I have seen the 1932 Joan Crawford film "Rain", and while I agree that it is more successful in creating the mood and tone which is required for the story I consider this film version to have its own virtues. Rita Hayworth is good as Sadie (although unlike Joan Crawford she presents herself most of the time a a happy go lucky sort whereas with Crawford it is always apparent that she has a "bad" past)and Jose Ferrer is solid as Mr. Davidson. The location and Photography also add a great deal to the telling of this simple yet powerful story.