Sadie Thompson

SADIE THOMPSON reached the screen after extensive wrangling over how much of the sexual content of Somerset Maugham's short story, Rain, could be preserved. Sexy Sadie (Gloria Swanson) has come to a remote South Sea in hopes that she can escape her shady past as a prostitute. Marine Sgt. Tim O'Hara (Raoul Walsh) is smitten with her, and she promises to marry him. But she's run afoul of a hypocritical reformer, Alfred Hamilton (Lionel Barrymore), who's on the island converting the natives with the help of his dour wife (Blanche Friderici). Sadie's initial reaction to Hamilton is to ignore him, rebuffing his talk of sin and salvation with a flip remark and a h...