Rain - DVD

Rain is the 1932 classic starring Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. The production was filmed in part at Santa Catalina Island in California. A westbound ship en route to Samoa is temporarily stranded at Pago Pago due to a cholera outbreak on board the ship. Among the passengers are Alfred Davidson, a self-righteous missionary and his wife Sadie Thompson, a prostitute. Sadie spends her time drinking and partying with the American marines stationed on the island. Sergeant Tim O'Hara, nicknamed 'Handsome' by Sadie, falls in love with her. Due to her wild behavior, Davidson has Sadie deported to San Francisco where she is wanted for an unspecified crime for which she says she has been framed. Sadie begs Davidson to allow her to stay for a few more days. After that she plans to flee to Sydney, Australia. During a heated argument with Davidson, Sadie experiences a religious conversion and agrees to return to San Francisco and the jail sentence awaiting her there. On the evening she is to leave Sergeant O'Hara asks Sadie to marry him and offers to hide her until the Sydney boat sails, but Sadie refuses. Later, while native drums beat at an uninhibited native dance, the repressed Davidson is overcome with lust for Sadie and enters her room, intent on raping her. Sadie's screams are drowned out by the beating drums. The next morning Davidson is found dead on the beach with his throat cut, an apparent suicide. Davidson's hypocrisy and weakness allow Sadie to return to her old self and she goes off to Sydney with Sergeant O'Hara to start a new life. This classic touches upon taboo subjects of the time and brings them into focus. Memorable performances from Joan Crawford and the great Walter Huston. (93 minutes - 1932 - Black & White - 4 3).

VCI is pleased to present RAIN, celebrating it's 90 Anniversary in a stunning new 4K restoration, produced from the original, uncut 94-minute version. It is a most important film in the history of the cinema, and one of the greatest films the 'Thirties' produced. The consummate dramatic and artistic achievement of both Miss Crawford and Walter Huston will give the picture life for many decades to come. W. Somerset Maugham's powerful story of Sadie Thompson has perhaps the most celebrated version, vividly capturing the lives of several very different human beings, thrown together on Pago Pago during a fierce monsoon. Brilliant performances are given by Crawford, as the cynical prostitute, and Huston, as the minister who tries to reform her. A 'tour de force' of camera work, style and direction of a film that caused controversy when first released, 'Rain' is one of the true classic dramas of film history.

Unsure of herself, two months pregnant and feeling trapped, Natalie Ravenna leaves her sleeping husband a note and drives away from her Long Island home one rainy morning to find herself. Natalie is the heroine of Francis Ford Coppola's intensely moving The Rain People. Ahead of its time from both filmmaking and feminist points of view, the film took Coppola and his eight-vehicle crew through 18 sattes, lending this poignant tale a real