Old Willie Maugham got a lot of mileage out of one short story. Under it's original title, Rain, it was produced on Broadway with Jeanne Eagels, and filmed twice, once with Gloria Swanson and once with Joan Crawford. They even had a shot at a Broadway musical version with a fine score by Vernon Duke but June Havoc (the real 'Baby June' from Gypsy) couldn't draw flies at the box office. Now Rita Hayworth has a stab at it, opposite Jose Ferrer as the religious zealot who has the hots for her. Director Curtis Bernhardt squanders a good five minutes of film getting over the fact that we're on a hot, humid and boring island in the Pacific, before bringing on the two leads. Rita Hayworth was a finer actress than she was given credit for, more or less trapped as sex on legs she was always able to project the vulnerable, insecure child just below the surface but though she does her considerable best she is manacled hand and foot to a dull, portentous, unimaginative script, matched in every detail by the direction. Catch it on TV or perhaps as a freebie with a newspaper but don't go out of your way.
Review of Miss Sadie Thompson
