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Gloria Swanson.
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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Sadie Thompson
(1928) United States of America
B&W : Nine reels / 8600 feet
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Cast: Gloria Swanson [Sadie Thompson], Raoul Walsh [Sergeant Timothy O’Hara], Lionel Barrymore [Alfred Davidson], Blanche Friderici [Mrs. Davidson], Charles Lane [Doctor Angus McPhail], Florence Midgley [Mrs. McPhail], James A. Marcus (James Marcus) [Joe Horn, the trader], Sophia Artega (Sofia Ortega) [Ameena], Will Stanton [Quartermaster Bates], [?] Charles Sullivan? [a Marine]
Gloria Swanson Productions, Incorporated, production; distributed by United Artists Corporation [United Artists Picture]. / Produced by Gloria Swanson. Scenario by Raoul Walsh, from the novelette Miss Thompson by W. Somerset Maugham and the play adaptation Rain by John Colton and Clemence Randolph. Production management by Pierre Bedard. Production design by William Cameron Menzies. Assistant director, William Tummel. Cinematography by Oliver Marsh (Oliver T. Marsh), with George Barnes and Robert Kurrle. Film editor, C. Gardner Sullivan. Intertitles written by C. Gardner Sullivan. / © 6 January 1928 by Gloria Swanson Productions, Incorporated [LP24829]. Released 7 January 1928. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / Swanson was nominated for an Academy Award (and received a Certificate of Honorable Mention) for her performance. The novelette (and play) was subsequently filmed as Rain (1932). A restoration version of the film, with stills and original titles to replace the missing final reel, was completed in 1987 by Dennis Doros of Kino International. AFI-F2 n. 4757 lists the Barrymore and Frederici characters with the last name Atkinson in error. / Silent film.
Drama.
Synopsis: Sadie Thompson arrives in Pago-Pago from San Francisco only to cross purposes with a self-rightious reformer. Mr. Davidson attempts first to expel Thompson from the island back to San Francisco and the waiting police, then tries to save her soul. Instead, he falls prey to her spirit-broken charms and unexpectedly kills himself. // Synopsis available in AFI-F2 n. F2.4757.
Survival status: Fragmentary prints exist (with fragments presumed lost to decomposition) in the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education film collection [35mm duplicate negative].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Death: Suicide - Prostitution - Reformers - Religious reform
Listing updated: 7 September 2023.
References: Film credits, film viewing : AFI-F2 n. F2.4757; Brownlow-Behind pp. 21, 22-23; Brownlow-Parade pp. 296-297, 375; Everson-American p. 336; Higashi-Virgins pp. 87, 92, 148; Hudson-Swanson pp. 14, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196; Kobal-Fifty pp. 41, 43; Quirk-Crawford pp. 16-17; Quirk-Swanson pp. 30, 33, 206-207, 208, 209, 211; Schelly-Langdon p. 129; Shipman-Cinema p. 98; Sinyard-Silent pp. 89, 180 : Website-AFI; Website-ASFFDb; Website-IMDb; Website-Pickford.
Home video: DVD.
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