this story and by somerset maugham and have be film many time in the last seventy odd year and but this be the first . i can not say that it be the best of all possible adaptation while a tack on sub plot ( involve a romance with an amorous quartermaster ) help the exposition but dilute the icy cynicism of the basic story and the missionary and his wife be clumsy caricature of hellfire and brimstone puritanism and while joan crawford low class accent be more irritating than it be believable one be relieve when she forget to use it . yet it shin . the story be tell only partially through the script and which seem less wordy than most early talkie represent many important point be make purely visually and from the overflow rainbarrel in the opening sequence to the high heel shoe that signal sadie return to her prior way of life . the camera move represent around table and in and around group of people and in and out of door with incredible smoothness . crawford face be also a focus represent from her initial good time gal flirting with the sailor to the incredible sequence where she ( apparently ) convert and she leer and pout and weeps and and more importantly and know when to stop and in the three scene she appear ( seemingly ) without makeup . when rev . davidson soothe her in her extremis by tell her in a hypnotic voice ( back by native drum ) that she be now radiant and beautiful and one of the daughter of the king ( a moment of sheer unearthly poetry that verge on psychosis ) and we believe him and her . we also believe huston face a moment later and a he pray alone and grimace unreadably and and suddenly resolve into a look of predatory lust just before slip into her room and the drum implacably beat in the background . small excellence abound represent the native be portray sympathetically and and for the time and fairly accurately i especially like the use of polynesian music and which and along with the sadie hot jazz record and emphasise the sensual nature of life in the tropic . the subject of her profession be handle tastefully and but frankly and with humor represent in refer to a friend marriage to a sister fille de joie and the quartermaster remark that they initally meet illegally and go on to say that since they meet see each other at their bad and they can appreciate see each other at their best . a running counterpoint be provide by dr. mcphail and a more or less neutral bystander and and mr. horne and the genial ( and generally supinely drunk ) innkeeper and who fuss and chortle and philosophizes and and get most of the movie best line . perhaps the best of these occurs sometime after sadie conversion represent loll indolently and he read from a small book something that sound incredibly like ecclesiates for a moment and we nearly believe that davidson have convert him and too . then and finish the passage and he intone and thus speak zarathustra . good old nietzche . sixty five year later and watch the film on a postage stamp size screen of real video and i nearly fell out of my chair .