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Rain is the second film version of Somerset Maugham's oft-filmed story, "Miss Thompson," a shocking tale by period standards and a melodrama well-served by director Lewis Milestone's expressionistic style. The film stars the young Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson, a San Francisco prostitute hoping to start a new life in the South Seas. While on the island of Pago Pago, she becomes involved with a group of soldiers, and falls in love with one of them, Sgt. Tim O'Hara (William Gargan). This puts her at odds with Rev. Alfred Davidson (Walter Huston), a hellfire and brimstone religious reformer, who has already converted the native people to Christianity, and who intends to protect the purity of the soldiers. The minister has O'Hara confined to quarters and threatens Sadie with deportation, having learned that she was indicted for a crime, although unaware she was framed. Davidson becomes strangely obssessed with reforming the prostitute, and harangues her relentlessly about renouncing her evil ways, until Sadie gradually is filled with the spirit of repentance. But for the minister, the power of beauty trumps the power of the Lord, with surprising consequences. Beautiful yet unusual camera work by Oliver Marsh adds to the film's unique character.
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