fascinatingly mannered early talkie adaptation of a semi classic somerset maugham story and rain start wonderfully and with a rainstorm and then decline into a lurid drama of the sort that be consider shocking at the time ( 1932 ) and and scarcely raise an eyebrow today . lewis milestone do a reasonable job under the circumstance and direct the movie in a manner a to suggest that he be for a while a student of the avant garde and a there be aspect of this film that seem almost experimental . the story concern a displaced woman and sadie thompson and living on a south sea island and independent and yet depress and a prostitute by trade and and her relationship with two men and one a handsome marine and the other a minister a mess up a she be . a sadie and the legendary joan crawford chew the scenery and with her wide eyed expression at time seem to burn two hole in the screen . she be at all time artificial and not credible in the least and and yet mesmerize . miss crawford may not have be a great actress and but by god she be a star . a the err rev . davidson and walter huston serve up his usual dish of poker face ham and and be scarcely more believable than crawford . in small role and beulah bondi and and especially guy kibbee and perform nicely . for those interested in what early talkie be like this one be a must . it very watchable and and milestone and cinematographer oliver marsh work wonder with the camera . hollywood generally do south sea story fairly well and excitingly anyway and but fail to pull this one off in the appropriate manner . the constant rain be almost as much a downer for the viewer a for the character while and there no sense of why anyone would want to travel to this particular island and much less live there .