In the movie SCARFACE, Tony Carmonte (Paul Muni) takes Rinaldi (George Raft) and his other gang members for a night of culture - they go to see a play. Carmonte has cultural pretensions, loving to whistle opera arias from MARTHA and other works, usually just before he has someone rubbed out. But he really likes RAIN, and Muni ends up sending his stooge, Vince Barnet, to watch the conclusion of the play while Muni and his gang rub out Boris Karloff. Barnet catches up to Muni later and tells him that "Sadie" chose the Marine rather than the "cloth" (Minister). Muni likes that, and says "That Sadie is one smart girl." It is not the only time a classic film comments on the play RAIN. In TWENTIETH CENTURY John Barrymore compares another character's behavior to that of the Reverend Alfred Davidson (the Walter Huston performance in this film version).<br /><br />RAIN was considered (in the early 1930s) the greatest stage play since Shakespeare's HAMLET. Certainly it is an engrossing story, based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham. It's ironic that the play, by John Colton, was not written by Maugham as a a play. Maugham was a successful West End dramatist, whose works are still revived on occasion (in 1990 I saw Glynis Johns and Stewart Granger in a revival of Maugham's comedy THE CIRCLE). But his work was better when he had the leisure to write descriptions of characters and their behavior, or of the settings of his stories. It's his short stories and novels that people still read, not his plays. And RAIN is the only one with any dramatic power - and it wasn't his play.<br /><br />RAIN is set in American Samoa, during the rainy season. A ship lands there, and among those who disembark are Rev. Alfred Davidson and his wife (Beulah Bondi). Both are extremely straight-laced - and apparently happy to be so. Davidson is annoyed to see that the hotel/store owner, Joe Horn (Guy Kibbee) has allowed a "wanton" woman named Sadie Thompson to room with there with the Davidsons and Dr. and Mrs. MacPhail. Thompson entertains a large number of American soldiers in her room, and she enjoys playing jazz on her Victrola. Except for the Davidsons, everyone else accepts Sadie. She's really a very friendly young woman, and she makes friends easily. As Mr. MacPhail is a philosopher, and Horn is of a philosophical turn (he keeps reading Ecclesiastes and Nietzche) neither of them really see anything wrong with Sadie.<br /><br />But Davidson is angered by the sinful woman. He has a way of throwing his weight around viciously through his missionary contacts in Washington. Soon he has the soldiers restricted to their barracks, including Sgt. O'Hara (William Gargan) who really cares for Sadie. All protests from MacPhail are ignored (Davidson smilingly forgives the Doctor for his misguided condemnation). Then he turns his attention on Sadie, and forces her to explain why she is the South Seas (it is a criminal matter she is fleeing in the states). He insists that she has to face the criminal charges in order for her soul to be purified. Sadie tries to fight it, but the pressure is too great.<br /><br />However, Davidson's contact with Sadie destroys him. He succeeds in turning her into a true penitent (as he imagines one), but he has become lascivious towards her - and finally has sex with her (we never are sure that it was voluntary or rape). When he realizes what he did, Davidson kills himself. Sadie ends up with O'Hara.<br /><br />The acting in this film was first rate. Because it lost money, Joan Crawford always dismissed it, but her smoldering sexuality bursts every time she appears (Lewis Milestone sets up entrance for her twice in the film which is very suggestive of a "predatory" woman). Huston is equally good, especially as the self-admiring, Pharisaical Reverend who sees nothing wrong about pulling political wires to save a soul (or sending that poor person back to face a probably hellish experience that he would never suffer through). His sudden revelation of sexual desire is a little overdone, but not too badly. The supporting characters like Bondi, Kibbee, and those who really see the power-lust in Davidson (Gargan and Kendall Lee, who is MacPhail) give very good account of themselves in the film, as does Walter Catlett as the ship purser who is a friend of Sadie's. If not a perfect film, it is a worthy one. I only hope that one day the Gloria Swanson version made in 1928 shows up so it can be compared to this one.