Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Curtis Bernhardt

Writers:

Harry Kleiner (writer)
W. Somerset Maugham (story)

Release Date:

23 December 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

RITA TURNS ON THE HEAT IN 3D (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

At a lonely military outpost on American Samoa, sticky heat alternates with torrential rain. A ship quarantine strands here Sadie Thompson...

Plot Keywords:

South Seas | 3 Dimensional | Beautiful Woman | Reference To Freud | Character Name In Title

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Rita Hayworth	...	Sadie Thompson
José Ferrer	...	Alfred Davidson (as Jose Ferrer)
Aldo Ray	...	Sgt. Phil O'Hara
Russell Collins	...	Dr. Robert MacPhail
Diosa Costello	...	Ameena Horn
Harry Bellaver	...	Joe Horn
Wilton Graff	...	Governor
Peggy Converse	...	Mrs. Margaret Davidson
Henry Slate	...	Pvt. Griggs
Rudy Bond	...	Pvt. Hodges
Charles Bronson	...	Pvt. Edwards (as Charles Buchinsky)
Frances Morris	...	Mrs. MacPhail
Peter Chong	...	Chung
John Grossett	...	Preacher

Also Known As:

Rain (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

3 Channel Stereo

Certification:

UK:12 (DVD rating) (2005) | UK:A (original rating) (1954) (cut) | Australia:M (original rating) | Australia:PG (cable rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #16538, Adult Audience) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Kaua`i, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The hotel that W. Somerset Maugham stayed at in American Samoa (the model for Trader Horn's) still stands, but for years has been a general store.

Goofs:

Continuity: Sergeant O'Hara's shirt is wet with sweat as he leaves the radio tent but dry as he exits.

Quotes:

Pvt. Edwards: What do you want me to do, evaporate?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Rita Hayworth: The Columbia Lady (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

HEAR NO EVIL

Poor Sadie

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?