Miss Sadie Thompson

Rita Hayworth, clad in an eye-catching orange gown, burns up the screen in the torrid 1953 drama "Miss Sadie Thompson," now given a Blu-ray release in both 3D and conventional 2D formats by Twilight Time.

Adapted from W. Somerset Maugham's short story "Miss Thompson," about a prostitute and the fundamentalist preacher who sets out to save her soul only to forcibly ravish her body, "Miss Sadie Thompson" is the third film version (out of four, we learn from the audio commentary track, the fourth being an "unofficial" African American take) following Gloria Swanson's star turn in "Sadie Thompson" (1928) and the Joan Crawford-starring "Rain" (1932). All the films were preceded by a hit stage play adaptation, "Rain," from 1922.

The 1953 version tones things down somewhat, reinterpreting Sadie as a high-spirited and independent woman ("I pay my own way," she declares) who is more than happy to entertain the Marines she finds herself keeping company with in American Samoa while she awaits a ship to continue her journey. She's far from a pride, but is she a whore? The overbearing and moralistic missionary, Mr. Davidson (Jose Ferrer), who is also staying at the local motel along with his disapproving wife, is convinced that she is. Mr. Davidson had previously led a crusade to shut down a nightclub in Honolulu called The Emerald Club, a place notorious for its "disreputable women." He insists that Sadie used to be one of the women selling herself to the military men at that establishment.

A good doctor also staying at the hotel, MacPhail (Russell Collins), defends Sadie against Davidson's judgmental claims, but it's Sgt. Phil O'Hara (Aldo Ray) who takes the greatest interest in Sadie, falling madly in love with her from practically the first moment. Sadie begins to return his feelings and the two make plans to start a new life together in Australia, but not before Davidson pulls strings with the island's governor (Wilton Graff) to get her deported back to San Francisco (yes even back then religion exercised an untoward influence over elected officials).

The film may have adjusted its two central characters in order to sidestep political and religious pushback, but it also does something none of the previous adaptations had dared: It shows the moment of the rape (though not in graphic terms). Does that really qualify "Miss Sadie Thompson" as a diluted version of the source material? The standard narrative says yes, and essayist Julie Virgo agrees in her liner notes to this edition. Film historians Dvid Del Valle and Steven Peros, discussing the movie, its stars, the story's various incarnations, and other intriguing matters, disagree.

What's indisputable is the film's magnificent qualities: An unmistakable Technicolor sheen, Hayworth's fantastic performance, Ferrer's nuanced and complex portrayal of a Man of God undone by earthly desire he's unprepared to manage, and Ray's burly, bull-like presence, muscular and eager at first and then practically snorting with anger before melting into a man who simply wants to protect the woman -- fallen or not -- whom he loves.

Originally conceived as a musical, the film retains several musical numbers, including the notorious (and ebullient) "The Heat is On" (no, not the song from "Beverly Hills Cop" -- this is a decidedly different tune from a different, and arguably more musically deft, era). Hayworth's dance in this number leaves no question that Sadie knows her way around men, and she isn't afraid to rile them up -- both because she's a bon vivant, and also because she has an overriding confidence that not even Davidson's sexual brutality can crush. (In the aftermath, Sadie is more emotionally wounded than physically, and her anger arises more from disappointment than fear: Men, she declares, are "all alike: Pigs!")

From its location (the Hawaiian island Kauai, back in the day) to its early feminist messaging, this is a film that stands up to the modern world with a cool gaze and a hot heart, and asks why on earth we think we've made any real progress. Women are judged as harshly now by arrogant, controlling men wth Bibles in their hands as back in the conformist 50s; we could well use all the Sadie Thompsons we can get, to stand up to them with both the joie de vivre and the spinal starch that Hayworth shows us onscreen.

Aside from Kirgo's liner notes and the audio commentary, this edition offers both 3D and 2D versions of the film, as well as an introduction by Patricia Clarkson and the original theatrical trailer.

"Miss Sadie Thompson"
Blu-ray
$29.95
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/miss-sadie-thompson-3d-blu-ray