With Rain, Joan Crawford is given the opportunity to play the jaded Sadie Thompson in Somerset Maugham's fine novel about sex and religion. A tramp steamer is forced to dock at remote Pago Pago in the Samoas after a disease breaks out on board. Among the passengers is pavement pounder Crawford, who quickly becomes a favorite of the woman-hungry soldiers on the island. Party-girl Crawford jokes with and teases the soldiers, especially the good-hearted Sergeant O'Hara (Gargan), who feels a sincere fondness for her.





Also off the steamer comes Rev. & Mrs. Davidson, religious zealots played by Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi, who are both fanatical missionaries ready to convert the God-forsaken natives. The severe Huston dedicates himself to the crusade of reforming prostitute Crawford. She responds to his religious tirades with smart talk and mockery, and she soon grows impatient and angry with his relentless preaching. Meanwhile, Gargan wants her to make an honest woman of Crawford by making her his wife.





The persistent Huston keeps chipping away at Crawford's hardened shell until he compels her to confess her sinful ways. The extent of his religious abuse includes the threat that, unless she changes her moral attitude, he will have her deported to any number of ports where she may be imprisoned for past indiscretions. The defeated Crawford succumbs and embraces Huston's religious philosophy, believing he is sincere in wanting her salvation.





Huston unexpectedly loses control of his iron will and, while natives beat on drums in the forest, he is overcome with lust for Crawford. He attacks and rapes her in her room, causing her to reject her new-found religious ideals. At dawn the Sadie we knew before her conversion emerges from her room. She learns that Huston has committed suicide but she can find no pity for him. Gargan comes to her as she is about to leave the island, and it appears that even the cynical and jaded Sadie may now be able to accept the love of the soldier and plan a new life.





Milestone captures the mood and murk of the rain drumming down on this claustrophobic world, fraying nerves to the breaking point. Crawford is overall quite convincing as Sadie. Huston is excellent as the humorless religious fanatic, who cannot save himself from his own desires. Movie mogul Schenck persuaded Crawford to leave her safe niche at MGM to make this film at UA. Due to feelings of inadequacy, Crawford was not happy during the making of Rain. Fearing she would be unfavorably compared with Jean Eagels and Gloria Swanson, who had played the Sadie Thompson role previously on the stage and screen, Crawford's insecurity manifested itself into animosity between herself, the director and her co-stars.





Milestone required multiple rehearsals of Crawford, which wasn't her style. She was unnerved by Huston, Gargan and Catlett, all polished New York stage actors. This caused Crawford to retreat to her cabin, locking herself inside, and having her meals brought to her. Crawford marched onto the set one day and refused to perform until all the visitors gaping at her were sent away. Milestone had to order large black-cloth screens to shield the outdoor set from public view. Despite the negative reviews of the film upon its release, her portrayal, upon viewing today, is much better than the critics of the time thought. She is sensitive, raucous, bawdy, and yet, genuinely touching when she succumbs to Huston's religious assault.