Sadie Thompson (1928)

Directed by

Raoul Walsh

Genre

drama film, silent film, romance film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 31m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 41 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A woman with a past arrives in Pago Pago hoping to start over. A self-righteous missionary tries to force her back to her old life, leading to a bitter clash of wills.

tensemelancholicslow-burnemotionalsomberconfrontationalclaustrophobic

What happens

Sadie Thompson is a 1928 American silent drama film that tells the story of a "fallen woman" who comes to Pago Pago to start a new life, but encounters a zealous missionary who wants to force her back to her former life in San Francisco. The film stars Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore, and Raoul Walsh, and it is one of Swanson's more successful films. Due to the public's apathy towards silent films, a sound version was prepared in the latter half of 1928. While the sound version has no audible dialog, it features a synchronized musical score with sound effects along with a theme song. Due to the subject matter, the making of the film was extremely controversial. However, it was a financial and critical success for Swanson. The film was based on the 1921 short story "Rain" by W. Somerset Maugham and the 1922 play, based on the story, by John Colton and Clemence Randolph, starring Jeanne Eagels. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Gypsy of the North (1928)
• Drums of Love (1928)
• The Tragedy of Youth (1928)
• Tropic Madness (1928)
• The Divine Woman (1928)
• The Gateway of the Moon (1928)
• The Crowd (1928)
• A Woman's Way (1928)