User Reviews

Rita Hayworth hardly fit Somerset Maugham's physical description of Miss Sadie Thompson in his short story on which the film is based.

"She was twenty-seven perhaps, plump, and in a coarse fashion pretty. She wore a white dress and a large white hat. Her fat calves in white cotton stockings bulged over the tops of long white boots in glace kid".

However she captured the spirit of the character and I think the film does do justice to Maugham's story. It was updated to the 1950's and opened out with the introduction of other characters - Aldo Ray and his U.S. Marine buddies - but the conflict between the missionary and the bar girl thrown together in Pago-Pago when their ship is quarantined still has bite.

I first saw this film in the late 50's and thought it was pretty powerful - you didn't hear words like 'prostitute' bandied around too often in movies back then.

José Ferrer ate up the role of Mr Davidson, the missionary who sets himself up as the anti-fun police and attempts to save Sadie's soul whether she wanted it saved or not - all the while suppressing a dark side.

Aldo Ray was good as O'Hara, the tough marine sergeant who also wants to save Sadie from her previous life. The marines seemed a little over-caricaturised. It wouldn't have come as a surprise if they'd broken into a chorus of "There's Nothing Like a Dame".

But this film is Rita Hayworth's. Catching the brashness of Sadie, she showed her range; very different to the soft-voiced femme fatale she often played. She sings and dances with stocky Aldo Ray, and is still a luminous presence. According to Peter Ford's biography of his father, "Glenn Ford: A Life", Rita desperately wanted Glenn to play O'Hara and go to Hawaii with her. This was at a time when she was beginning to show signs of the problems that would blight the rest of her life - Glenn Ford always provided an emotional safety net for her.

This film looks good and the story of barely repressed lust with its shock ending still stands up. And of course, a film such as "Miss Sadie Thompson" takes on another dimension knowing the course of the lives of the fascinating people who made it.

This is the 1950's "Disney-ized" version of W. Somerset Maugham's wonderful story "Rain," which was filmed much more successfully and faithfully with Joan Crawford as Sadie back in 1932.

Rita Hayworth is always a pleasure to watch--a true beauty with significant talent, though her performance here isn't much to shout about. Probably due to the wretched script and mediocre direction.

This Technicolor, 3-D (in the original theatrical release), musical version demonstrates clearly that technology does not equal quality.

The worst element of this version is perhaps Jose Ferrer as the unbending moralizer who tries to convert Sadie. Certainly he's supposed to be stiff, but not to the point where his face shows absolutely no nuance of emotion ever.

Look for a studly young Charles Bronson in a minor role, listed in the credits as Charles Buchinsky (this must have been before he discovered that Hollywood didn't like ethnic--especially in the 50's).

No, your best bet is just to read the story. Maugham deserves the attention; he's a much under-rated writer.

On an isolated South Pacific island, the unexpected arrival of Sadie Thompson (Rita Hayworth) causes an uproar among the local men at the US Marine Corps base, as well as with visiting philanthropist and religious zealot Alfred Davidson (Jose Ferrer). Sadie quickly strikes up a relationship with Marine Sgt. O'Hara (Aldo Ray), but the increasingly-offended Davidson will stop at nothing to see Miss Thompson and her wicked ways escorted off of the island.

Previously filmed in 1928 with Gloria Swanson and in 1932 with Joan Crawford, this version is heavily censored due to the production code, although it still manages to be mildly racy for the time. I really wasn't liking Rita Hayworth in this, but gradually I began to accept her take on the Thompson character. She's played as not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, a good-time girl in over her head and barely able to take care of herself. She gets to sing several songs, only she's dubbed, and the syncing is terrible.

Aldo Ray is his usual big lug/gorilla, while Ferrer gets to be self-righteous and bombastic. Charles Bronson gets a little more to do than usual at this stage of his career, playing one of the other Marines, but it's still not much, and he's still billed as Buchinsky (but at least he even got a credit this time). This was shot in 3-D, and played very briefly that way, but it flopped, so a flat version was widely released. The movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Song ("Blue Pacific Blues")

At a postwar isolated Pacific military outpost, the men are all taken with Sadie Thompson (Rita Hayworth) who is stopping for a couple of hours in between ships. They try to hide her from the rest of the base. She becomes the toast of the club and finds that she has to stay for a week due to quarantine. The religious Mr. Davidson is the head of the Mission Board who tries to run her off the island before she catches her boat to Sydney. She doesn't want to go back San Francisco and he suspects she's on the run from the law after being in the notorious Emerald Club of Honolulu. Marine Sgt. Phil O'Hara falls for the brash show girl.

Rita Hayworth rides that boat onto the island and shows her star power. She puts on a big show in this movie. José Ferrer is a good cold foil for her. Aldo Ray is a meathead. I can only imagine if the O'Hara role is played by somebody great like Marlon Brando. The story seems to be stuck between something really juicy and a bad morality play. It's a hard-boiled romance exploitation movie. I don't know what it looks like in 3D. It's not obviously shot that way. At its core, Hayworth shows that she still has it.

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.

The old Sadie Thompson story gets the full Technicolor treatment and some eye-filling location photography of a beautiful South Seas island--but nothing hides the fact that the story is simply another reworking of the Somerset Maugham saga about a sinner, a man of the cloth and a bunch of rowdy U.S. Marines.

RITA HAYWORTH gives her all to put some much needed vitality into the tale and puts some heat into her dance number--"The Heat Is On"--while the men aren't shy about showing how they appreciate her earthy charms. But there's not much to say about the story and its labored message about sin and redemption with JOSE FERRER as the uptight preacher who takes a moral stand on her behavior but can't practice what he preaches.

ALDO RAY and CHARLES BRONSON are among the Sadie admirers in uniform and both of them do splendid jobs. Rita has a nice chemistry in all her scenes with Aldo Ray but her scenes with Ferrer never quite have the impact they're supposed to. She handles all the dramatic moments well, but there's a tired look about her face that is most noticeable during the latter half of the film.

Not exactly an upbeat tale, but Rita does make a believable Sadie Thompson.

Imagine Pat Robertson pointing his boney crazy fingers out of the screen at you and you've got the picture.

Just saw this at the World 3-D Film Expo and it was quite enjoyable. The movie has great depth and wasn't filmed in a really gimmicky 3-D style. The transitions between location and sound stage work was fairly seamless and there were scenes I really wasn't certain if they were shot in Hollywood or the South Pacific.

It's always interesting to stumble on old movies like these that resonate more than 50 years later. How much and how little has changed when it comes to religious zealots...hhmmm?

I have seen the Joan Crawford version of this story, called Rain, and also Gloria Swanson's version, called Sadie Thompson. They are both well worth seeing still, in spite of their age. But even the color and Rita couldn't save this one. This one just made me want to cry, all that waste. Gloria's face is so beautiful in the silent version that it takes your breath away. And Joan Crawford acted the hell out of the part when she did it. Poor Rita, she had one good musical number and that was pretty much it. There was great pathos in the two original movies, but this one was just pitiful. You want to see Mr. Davidson, the missionary? Take a look at what Walter Houston did to that part.Anyway, the scenery was beautiful and the technicolor was bright, and that's about as much as I can say for this movie.

In the post-World War II, while heading to work in New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean, the liberal and joyful Miss Sadie Thompson (Rita Hayworth) is stranded in a rainy island in the Pacific when one crewmember gets typhus and the vessel Orduna is put in quarantine. Sadie befriends a group of marines from an American outpost and is courted by Sergeant Phil O'Hara (Aldo Ray) that proposes her to move together with him to Sidney, Australia. However, the moralist and powerful Reverend Alfred Davidson (Jose Ferrer) recognizes her from the infamous Emerald Club in Honolulu and forces her to return to San Francisco where she has a past that haunts her. Nevertheless nobody can run away from himself.

I have just watched "Miss Sadie Thompson" following the recommendation of a friend of mine. Rita Hayworth is impressively wasted for a thirty-five year-old woman, but perfectly cast in the role of a woman with a disreputable past. In a certain moment after the conversion of Sadie Thompson I hated this movie and I found it awfully moralist. However the unexpected plot point is great and saves this tale of corruption of the human soul. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Mulher de Satã" ("The Satan's Woman")

After reading other reviews- wow. It's not that bad. Yes, the story has been done, but Hayworth makes it well worth watching.

And the theme underlying the story is still relevant. Sadie Thompson is a woman of questionable repute, living on a South Sea island trying to re-make her life.The Jose Ferrer character is effectively odious. A man hung up on projecting his moral issues on the nearest target. This happens to be Miss Sadie.

I recall seeing this film on an TV afternoon movie festival, when I was very young. I enjoyed it. Maybe if we were less jaded we would find the story more enjoyable. This was made in 1953, and the morality issues then are still present today.

The sets are beautiful. This was filmed on the sparsely populated Hawaiian island, Kuaui. Overall even if you are not a major Hayworth fan, the story has redeeming aspects. I will have to watch "Rain" again with Joan Crawford to compare, but it is so dated, this film is worth a look.8/10

When Joan Crawford did Rain and in my opinion not badly in 1932, she contended with the memory of Jeanne Eagels who did the original Broadway production. As we know Jeanne died way too young and we never got to see her do this on film. She was supposed to be nothing less than brilliant. Crawford suffered by comparison no matter what she did.

Rita Hayworth may have suffered in comparison as well to Eagels as well as Crawford because Joan's version was done before the Code was put in place. A part which Hayworth should have scored a huge triumph laid a big old ostrich egg because of all the restrictions firmly in place courtesy of the Code.

W. Somerset Maugham's story which was about some really brutal facts of life including sexual desire and sexual oppression was a sensation in the Twenties. This version water downed the guts right out of Maugham's work. Jose Ferrer who also should have been brilliant as Davidson does what he can with the part, but is ultimately defeated. In fact Davidson is supposed to be a clergyman as was Walter Huston in the Joan Crawford version. Here he's some kind of overseer of a religious/medical mission. The Code forbade any bad depiction of religious figures.

Lester Lee and Allan Roberts wrote the score for Miss Sadie Thompson and the film given its subject matter reached incredibly ironic heights when Rita with Jo Ann Greer's singing voice does a number with kids like you would find in a Bing Crosby film. Ironically the rest of the musical part of the film is the best thing about it with Blue Pacific Blues winning an Oscar nomination for Best Song. But this film also includes a number forever associated with Rita Hayworth with The Heat Is On. Now that WAS in keeping with the subject matter.

They should have waited to do a remake of Rain once the Code had been lifted. A G rated version is ludicrous on its face. But then we would not have had Rita Hayworth at the height of her star power.

This adaptation of Somerset Maugham's sordid tale about an alluring woman who gets progressively judged and berated and then lusted upon by a Christian missionary is less about moral hypocrisy and more about Evolution since, from the moment Rita Hayworth lands on a Samoan island full of marines, the biggest and toughest jarhead in Aldo Ray has her number, and won't let go...

None of his underlings, not even a more muscular Charles Bronson, harmonica-playing Henry Slate or goofball Rudy Bond has a chance; and most of MISS SADIE THOMPSON seems like PR for the noticeably-aged Rita Hayworth to still be a relevant sex symbol... for a young male audience...

And she looks great despite overacting the 'good time girl' routine, singing her lines while speaking her songs. But that experienced countenance neatly blends into a free-spirited yet enigmatic character that hypocritical bible-belting Jose Ferrer realizes could have been a prostitute, forcing our marooned goddess in bright red (intentionally contrasting with the grainy-dull browns and greens for what was originally 3D) into a sudden guilty change of conscience. And this 11th hour melancholy-Hayworth, although turning in a far more subtle, natural performance, is but a means to an extremely rushed ending: Instead of building a hate/love/lust relationship between leads Hayworth and Ferrer, the latter simply frowns then screams and then explodes, leading back to that rushed romance with Ray, an infatuation as equally empty and hollow - but on HER terms.

I was so excited to find this movie...two of my favorite actors together! But the movie just doesn't work. It can't get the spirit of its author (and what a sour spirit) because of censorship, nor does it try to get into the minds of fundamentalist Christians (I don't think the filmmakers could). It's very sad because you see glimpses of greatness. Ferrer and Hayworth seem to be struggling without a director to deliver, but the soundstagey mess of a film overtakes them. The supporting actors aren't very good. If this film had been made with some grittiness, maybe it would have succeeded. But as it is, it's a messy hodgepodge.(the story is definitely not obsolete. we can see versions of it with Jessica Hahn and Jim Bakker, etc.)

Interesting and attractive movie based on the Stage Success "Rain" about conflicts between an ex-prostitute and a stuffy, stiff-upper-lip reformer . A steamship originating from San Francisco has just docked on the South Pacific island of Samoa where there is an American military outpost , sticky heat alternates with torrential rain , in which some US Marines are stationed. Among the passengers is Sadie Thompson (Rita Hayworth) , for who this island is only a transit stop in that she is on her far way . Circumstances force her to stay in the island additional days, which places her in a difficult situation as she starts to run out of money. Sadie is either fun-loving or a harlot depending on one's perspective. Davidson (Jose Ferrer) , a self-professed deacon, is a reformer who has the ear of all the governors representing the South Pacific islands. His self-righteous and sanctimonious beliefs and attitudes include sinners needing to show true penance to achieve ultimate salvation. He believes that Sadie is a prostitute who will continue to ply her trade in the island. He is only half right as she was a prostitute in San Francisco, until she left to start life a new. Davidson confronts her with his beliefs about her, threatening to get the governor to deport her back to San Francisco, which would be her worst nightmare as she is also escaping other things in San Francisco . By this time, Sadie and U. S. Marine Sergeant Phil O'Hara (Aldo Ray) have fallen in love despite her dark past . Phildoes what he can to stop the powerful Davidson, self-righteous Mr. Davidson, powerful head of the Mission Board, who suspects Sadie is a fugitive from the notorious Emerald Club of Honolulu. But he is not as righteous as he wants the world to believe. She's out for all she can get!... And in for all kinds of trouble! Rita turns on the heat in 3D ! . Rita turns it loose! Rita Hayworth turns it on... in 3D! . Sadie could storm any barrack she attacked! Magnetism had never been heard of until she hit town! What a woman! You'll say so, too! .The Story That Startled the World! All the world against her except one man- and his faith never wavered! ."Sadie Thompson" was a triumph before the first camera crank turned! Now it's a smashing sensation! The world's highest paid star in Somerset Maugham's great story !

Riveting and often high-powered rendition of a story by prestigious W. Somerset Maugham "Miss Thompson" or ¨Rain¨ about a prostitute seeking a fresh start who becomes the obsession of a religious extremist , it results in a strong confrontation among them. Piercing drama on an isle in the tropic South Seas in which the star of stars , Rita Hayworth , plays the picture of pictures . Rita Hayworth , glorious exponent of emotion, performs one of the finest film of her extraordinary career. Main and support cast are pretty well , they are well cast . Rita is fascinating as a lusty , fun-loving prostitute , while Jose Ferrer is nice as Alfred Davidson, a hypocritical reformer with full of religion and self-righteousness . As well as Aldo Ray giving a fine acting as Sgt. Phil O'Hara who falls deeply for her , he knows her past but still wants to marry her and take her to start a new life in Australia . Remaining cast formed by notorious secondaries such as : Russell Collins , Diosa Costello , Harry Bellaver , Wilton Graff , Robert Anderson and brief appearance by Charles Bronson.

The first and best version was Sadie Thompson1928 by Raoul Walsh with Gloria Swanson , Lionel Barrymore. And remade as Rain , Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA and Miss Sadie Thompson . The motion picture was well and professionally directed by Curtis Bernhardt , though no originality because copying the stunning 1928 version . Curtis was a Hollywood craftsman who worked in various Majors as Warner Bros and MGM, largely on the strength of Carrefour (1938) which proved so enduring that it was remade as Dead Man's Shoes (1940) in the UK and as Crossroads (1942). Bernhardt rapidly achieved a reputation as a woman's director with occasional forays into suspense with varied results and providing stunning casting in his impressive films . He directed one of Humphrey Bogart's least popular films, Conflict (1945). Soon after , he moved to RKO, which was entering its final chaotic decade, directing The Blue Veil (1951), a remake of a French film. He did a one-shot gig at Columbia, directing Bogie once again in the hopelessly set-bound Sirocco (1951) and Beau Brummell (1954) that was one of the brilliant and convincing slices of history that MGM ever financed . Rating : 6.5/10 , better than average . This is a must-see for admirers of the Technicolor movies nearing its peak of perfection .

Rita Hayworth really "gets" the character much better than Joan Crawford did in the earlier movie. Rita is so fun-loving and innocent in the beginning... Crawford NEVER seemed "innocent" in any of her films <grin>.

Jose Ferrer was spot-on his character, too, though Aldo Ray was not the best choice... but that may be the weakness of the part, which is preachier than the preacher!

The view of Charles Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinsky) as one of the army guys was fun, too.

On the whole, I enjoyed it, and I think it's worth seeing. The ending is true to the book: wonderfully ambiguous.

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 ****

This sanitized version of W Somerset Maugham's "Rain" is an entertaining vehicle for Rita Hayworth who is every inch the star, (that she can't act is immaterial). She's a 'good-time' girl stranded on a very picturesque Pacific island during the war and labeled a prostitute by sanctimonious preacher Jose Ferrer who is also stranded when their ship is quarantined. Of course, Ferrer desires Sadie for himself and sublimates his desire by persecuting her. But in this version none of this is allowed to detract from what is a good old-fashioned entertainment with numerous musical interludes, (that Hayworth was always dubbed never stopped the studio giving her plenty of songs). Ferrer is well cast as the starchy preacher; he always acted as if he had a board up his back, and Aldo Ray almost matches Hayworth for laid-back, sexy charm.

This 1953 version of "Rain" cannot hope to compare with the 1928 or 1932 versions, main;y due to its inability to pick a tone and stick with it. Is it a musical romp about a free-spirited woman? A drama about her conflict with a hypocritical missionary? A comedy? What is it?

The look of the film is garish and ugly. The songs barely make a mark on the memory, and not only because there are so few of them.

Rita Hayworth does her best, but she cannot hope to compete with Gloria Swanson or Joan Crawford, who both communicated world-weariness and inner fire in their performances. Jose Ferrer is monotone throughout. The missionary man is supposed to be disciplined and elitist, true, but he does have, you know, feelings. I'm sure he's not a robot.

Overall, this is not worth your time. Watch the earlier versions instead.

Poor Sadie - either way she had a tough deal of things. Having never seen the movie "rain" I cannot do a comparison, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. So... taken on its own merits, this is an OK movie, not the best, not the worst. Rita glimmers and gleams like gold in a desert when she arrives, and it spoke heaps for the moral code that did exist that she was able to flick away unwanted attention in those days, apart from the one person who wrote his own code of course. The preacher man with too much power was convincing, (and his snivelling wife), doing what most people with too much power do - becoming corrupted by his own invincibility. Although it appears that a man (any man) offering the sanctuary of married life was the solution to the world's problems, or at least Sadie's, part of me was hoping that she would be able to revert to her original plan and go to New Caledonia. Why she didn't just push Davidson off the cliff when they were talking? But it might have spoiled the story! Not a bad way to spend an hour or so... beautiful colour, interesting story and I suppose a happy ending?

I was very surprised to find that Rita Hayworth was very much better than Joan Crawford in the same role (in "Rain"). Crawford always played Crawford, and had a lot of baggage she brought to the role. Hayworth was able to be flirty and vivacious with a "don't cross this line" under it that was very well done. And her changes of feeling over the course of the movie were as convincing as the script would allow, I think.

Jose Ferrar was also great in his part... he also had to undergo change, and did it well.

Aldo Ray was the weak point, convincing at the beginning as an eager Marine, but not really someone she could spend the rest of her life with... she way outclassed him.

Overall, though, an excellent movie, and definitely better in 3D!

The story was already creaky in the two previous versions - Sadie Thompson (1928) and Rain (1932); and this version was sanitized to make the actual story almost incomprehensible.

Rita Hayworth's "The Heat is On" song is about the only heat in this picture. At least, this is one of the few 3D pictures where objects don't come flying at you, and there is some local color from location shooting.

This beautifully photographed film is a solid drama which is a nice showcase for Rita Hayworth. It's a good film, although not particularly memorable. Aldo Ray is good in the supporting part, and Jose Ferrer is rather creepy in his role. The location photography is colorful, and a special treat to see in 3-D if you're fortunate to see it that way. Rita also has a good music number in "The Heat Is On". Worth checking out.