Rain

Crawford was released by MGM to United Artists for this second screen adaptation of Somerset Maugham's steamy short story about a missionary bigot and prostitute Sadie Thompson, locked in an implacable battle of wills amid the pounding of tomtoms and tropical rain. Feeling herself in the shadow of distinguished previous Sadies on both stage and screen, Crawford was later to pronounce herself 'lousy', as did contemporary critics and fans. Their judgment in retrospect seems unkind: Crawford's Sadie is a mature, gutsy performance; she and Huston, as the repressed zealot, strike sparks off each other, an electricity that Milestone's stolid direction is seldom able to match. (An adaptation of the play Rain by John Colton and Clemence Randolph, itself an adaptation of Maugham's short story Miss Thompson.) SJo.