Directed: Raoul Walsh

Year: 1928

Nominated: Best Actress – Gloria Swanson

Plot in 25 Words: Prostitute on the run finds love and a judgmental minister on a south sea island. A mysterious and ambiguous ending to a different prostitute story.

In My Opinion: What is it with this era and prostitutes? Although this one might be my favourite I’m getting a bit tired of all of it.

At least this one had a bit of spirit to it. Gloria Swanson as Sadie Thompson actually has a personality, and instead of playing a timid, meek character forced into a terrible life, she seemed to enjoy her life.

She had swagger and banter, and compared to Janet Gaynor in any of her 95 roles as a prostitute, she was a fully rounded character.

Again, my lack of knowledge of the era lets me down – do ministers have the amount of power as displayed here? Could they revoke visas and passports and prevent onward travel? I find it very interesting if they could. Says a lot about the power the church had. And to say it’s the worlds ‘oldest profession’ no one wants them to do it.

After falling in love and being refused onward travel by the minister she undergoes a religious transformation. I was fairly disbelieving but apparently a three day prayer lock-in and she’d be good to go.

Naturally the super weird minister has to oversee the prayer. Spending so much time with the young lady had a terrible effect on the poor minister. Even so far as to invading his dreams. His wife tells another traveler that her husband has fits in his dreams, calling Sadie’s name. That dreadful hussy.

Yeah, I’m sure those dreams were just terrible.

Then, on the last night of her lock-in, Sadie is found waiting in the minister’s bed. Her intentions aren’t made clear. Is she showing gratitude to the man who saved her from a life of depravity or is she offering him favours in return for her freedom?

Sadly that’s where the film has to end. The last reel is ‘lost’ so the last 10 minutes or so are made up of stills from the shooting of the film and the screen cards replicated from the script. At least we get a resolution to the film but without the body language and facial expressions. It’s a bit evasive.

The last moving scene is of the minister trying to decide whether or not to go to Sadie’s room. Then, in a series of stills, we learn that the minister’s body has been found in the sea, with his throat slit – the implication being that he has committed suicide. Then Sadie appears with her GI love and announces that she’s forgone the religious transformation and continuing on with her original plans – The End.

Star Performer: Gloria Swanson as Sadie Thompson. I’m totally surprised she missed out on the Oscar as her performance here well and truly outshone Janet Gaynor’s various prostitute roles.

Overall: I enjoyed it. I choose to believe Sadie killed the minister and dumped his body. She was playing along the whole time, but without the original footage it’s hard to tell. Gloria Swanson was magnificent and she was robbed.