NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

GazerRise Fantastic!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

cloudsponge I love how the ending is open to interpretation. When the jazz music is pouring from the room after the death one assumes her religious conversion was planned and faked all along to entice and entrap the missionary on his own terms and she was gloating in her success at sticking it to him. But we see that her reversion to her old ways overnight could just be manifest from an attempted rape and resulting disgust. But can her wiles really be discounted entirely? She was a worldly woman and most likely knew quite well how to really get to the perv and could easily have planned what she did. Her shock and remorse at hearing the news of the death itself could be a further act or reaction to the way the news was delivered. "Oh, yeah, I should show some shock and remorse here, for their benefit." Both interpretations are possible: Her sincere religious conversion instantly cast off due to an attempted rape; or her faking the conversion and then toning down her display of successful revenge a bit.My main quibble with this movie was the portrayal by Walter Houston. I think we should have seen more suppressed and sublimated desire for her as time went on. But we see him coldly spouting off his brain-washing propaganda with pure hard ice in the same continuous way until that drum scene where he, too suddenly in my opinion, turned all penile imperative.His wife seemed to have understood all too well without our knowing why. Could she see his escalating obsession in the past few days? Did she hear love screams that final night? A battle repelling an attempted rape? Loud verbal abuse from Sadie castigating him for his vile hypocrisy?Personally, I like to think her conversion was faked. "I am alright in the daytime but I suffer so much at night, and need and wish for you to be there with me to support me with your comforting strength which I so need and want," as it were. You know, that wanting him, not so much in the daytime, but at night business.She might not have taken the Sydney escape route (via local boat transfers) the night before the death because her revenge was not yet complete. And chances are the ship would not be going directly to San Francisco from Pago Pago but would stop off in Honolulu where she could get off and meet up with old friends and maybe work old jobs. Or simply not get on the boat in Pago Pago in the morning. If she missed that boat from Pago Pago to S.F. neither she nor the governor could do anything until the next boat came - the one to Sydney. I felt that her reversion to the good-time girl was too complete and easily returned to not to have been there all along. And it just makes for a more satisfying story to think that she had such depth, acting skill, and knowledge of male psychology.

nomoons11 Even for the 1930's this film was way over the top. Not even remotely close to reality. Heck the audiences didn't like it when it came out. Why? It wasn't believable.I think most will give this a favorable rating because of Joan Crawford. For me, this was her "bottom of the barrel" role. The premise in this film is so stupid it defies realities of that time.Basic premise is, a boat gets stranded on an island and a few sets of people get off to stay in a local hotel. 1 set is a bunch of holy rollers who think they can impose their will on anyone because they think they have the right. The other is a prostitute who likes to have fun, but, the holy rollers want none of it so the head preacher decides he wants her off the island. He heads to the Governors place to threaten him with his influence from Washington. So the Governor has told her she has to leave and all through out the head preacher baits her on and ruffles his feathers like he's the king of the island. She doesn't want to go back to San Fransisco like he wants because she'll be jailed for an unspecified crime.....but the dear ole preacher just says "you must atone". During all this you'll be grinding your teeth hoping this guy get what he deserves. Sadie now has decided she will go back...and has found religion.Turns out though the old preacher just didn't have the religion that ingrained in him. All the while they wait for the boat, the local tribe keep pounding out this drum beat and rhythm that the preacher succumbs to and he decides to take a turn at her. Next morning he turns up dead...suicide. He'd rather be dead than let everyone know he took a run at a prostitute.For me the acting performances are not what I had an issue with. It was the ridiculous material they had to work with...i.e...the story. Let me ask you. What religious nut from any time in America has had the influence to make a girl leave a place in which she's done nothing wrong? It's ridiculous. She's obviously a prostitute but all she did at the hotel was play music and dance. Where does this guy get the gaol to think he can control anyone's life? It's like the people around her just sit and stare and do nothing to help. They know he's a fanatic and that she's harmless but they do nothing. They could have took her away to hide her so she could leave whenever she wanted but nope. They sit back and do...nothing.As I've mentioned, the preacher gets what he deserves in the end but it left me wanting to take a shower after watching this. This film was not a winner. Sure it's dated but even for any day and time....it's ridiculous.

Mina Sit It's very delightful to watch such honest presentation of the times without the hypocrisy of the production code... Sadie is the most realistic wh**e of the 30s, more than Stanwyck's Baby Face or Jean Harlow's.Joan Crawford delivered one of her best performances as the fun loving girl, the one religious hypocrites love to hate just because they want to feel they are better than her. And actually they aren't... (SPOILER:) the missionary who was supposed to lead sinners to the right way he commits one of the worst crimes, rape (and adultery of course) END OF SPOILER What surprised me the most was Crawford's performance, it was a completely natural and actually she lived the part. In the famous scene when Walter Huston asked her why she left Frisco when she lies her eyes blinked a lot but not when she tells the truth. According to body luggage studies when someone lies he blinks a lot but not when he doesn't... There are another 2 adaptations of the play. One silent with Gloria Swanson (1928) and another one with Rita Hayworth but this one is the best. Maybe because of the time it was made (pre-codes) And I'm still wondering why this doesen't better rating...

aciolino Even now, days later, the image of Crawford's face and she descends into prayer is so striking in my memory that I can feel her remarkable metamorphoses. The combination of acting, direction, and lighting, and whatever else goes into a creating an unforgettable moment in film, is rare. And the film is filled with such moments.Crawford was never better, and not better since. But beside the acting, Huston is superb, does not miss a note, the film itself, despite its location and combination of characters is disturbingly real. Part of that is the use of incessant sounds of rainfall. Eerie. Portentous. So the atmosphere of the film is always charged, charged with the characters presence, with the rain, or the dark/light contrasts or with all of them. All to exceedingly grand and powerful effect.And what a great last line!