Quote:
Originally Posted by EVERYONE LIES
Can someone sell me on Miss Sadie Thompson? My wife and I love watching classic 3D movies but I'm afraid this one will bore me.
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1953’s
Miss Sadie Thompson has the reputation of being the most watered down and disposable of the three screen versions of W. Somerset Maugham’s Rain, but while it has a few cosmetic changes and lacks the sordid atmosphere of its two pre-Production Code predecessors with Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford, it’s certainly not negligible. Most of the changes are fairly cosmetic: although common wisdom has it that Sadie has been changed from hooker to nightclub singer, she’s clearly referred to as a prostitute (even in the film’s trailer) and even admits that she did more than sing for her supper when she worked in a notorious Honolulu brothel, while changing Davidson (Jose Ferrer) from an ordained minister to a self-appointed missionary official doesn’t stop a supporting character from pointing out that his desperate need to stamp out sin is no different to an alcoholic trying to enforce Prohibition. The first half is pretty light and breezy before the dramatic fireworks start, but it's certainly not boring.
It’s a film with two major assets: strong performances from its central trio of Hayworth (who’s got a few more years on the clock and a few more pounds on the hips, which is just what the part calls for), Ferrer and Aldo Ray and, most surprisingly, its use of 3D
Few would have got the chance to see it in 3D. Arriving just as the fad was dying out, after two weeks all the 3D prints were pulled and the film played in 2D only, which is a shame because it’s easily the best use of the format I’ve ever seen, and it plays especially well on Twilight Time’s Blu-ray release. It avoids the technical mistakes of early films and avoids throwing things at the screen – the closest to an in your face effect is Rita Hayworth blowing smoke at the screen when lighting up – but instead creates a real sense of depth and perspective that makes the most of the locations beyond the usual foreground/background cutout effect (the foreground palm trees may pop out but there’s real depth in the distant forest too) and the characters relationship within the frame which is helped by the cast moving and interacting with the set and other characters more than usual for a 3D film. There’s none of the double imaging when things get too close to the camera and only a slightly troublesome lampshade seems awkward in the format, though the problem of backgrounds in interiors seeming to be shot in closeup even when the foreground is in medium shot still endures in a few scenes, as does the tendency to be drawn away from what is happening in the drama by the odd strikingly effective bit of 3D in the frame. But it's one of the few films of that era where it doesn't feel gimmicky even though a few shots like the camera tracking through a crowd of GIs to Hayworth dancing really stand out.
I'd jump at it.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It dragged in some scenes, felt over dramatic in others, but I recommend it to those who enjoy Japanese or tense action films.
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