A Star Gone Slumming

Rain (1932) – A storm in the South Pacific traps an unlikely band of travelers on the island of Pago Pago. A woman with a past, a self-righteous missionary, and another couple can’t leave because of an outbreak of cholera. She decides to enjoy herself, triggering an increasingly aggressive series of reactions from the missionary.

Directed by Lewis Milestone

Starring Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, Beulah Bondi

Why I Liked It – Claustrophobic and racy for its day. The cast does a solid job.

I’m leery when I get back into some movies before 1940. There are a lot of them that are fabulous, but the acting and visual style are often very different. “The Jazz Singer” had debuted the age of talking movies only five years before “Rain”, and there are some residual bits of silent movie acting still to be seen. The balance for that is that this is a “Pre-Code” era movie, i.e. before the Production Code that passed judgement on the “morality” and “appropriateness” of stories and characters on the big screen. Those movies will regularly take the modern audience to surprising places.

With this movie, I also have to deal with my ambivalence towards Joan Crawford. Movies like “Mildred Pierce” and “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane” give her all the proof she might need to be one of the great stars of her generation. But in all honesty, she never quite grabs me. She’s a powerhouse on the screen that never quite connects with me personally. Here, it feels like she didn’t get a clear grip on the role. Sadie veers from extreme to extreme with a few scenes in a middle ground where Crawford is amazing.

The rather bizarre costume and makeup did not help that when she first hits the screen. Its intention is clearly to set Sadie (Crawford) apart from the folks around her. While they never use the word “prostitute,” that’s the clear implication. She’s on her way to her next port-of-call, and her fellow travelers are fully aware of what “kind of woman” she is. When the cholera outbreak strands them on Pago Pago, Sadie makes friends with the U.S. Marines stationed there. While their partying appears to be chaste, it’s far too loud and undisciplined for well-connected missionary Mr. Davidson (Huston). Through verbal bullying and influential muscle, he makes Sadie’s life hell. His eventual goal with her is anything but holy. A thoroughly despicable character.

That’s pretty rough storytelling for an American market at the depths of the Depression. Unsurprisingly, the movie didn’t do well at the box office. Crawford never thought much of it either. The movie has some ragged edges, but it also has some outstanding performances. Crawford, Huston, and Bondi (as the missionary’s wife) all have moments of impressive work.

But it’s worth your time (and won’t take up much of it with a 94 minute run time)

Rating – *** Worth A Look