Sadie, Sadie Silent Lady

I was able to catch Film Forum's showing of Raoul Walsh's Sadie Thompson (1928) last night and I gotta say, if you get a chance to catch Gloria Swanson in a silent movie- Go! Go! Go! Swanson lights up the screen with her smile and plays the waylaid Sadie with gusto. It's easy to see why Swanson was the queen of the Paramount lot. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the director also act as Sergeant "Handsome" O'Hara. I knew Walsh was a successful director- but I had no idea he also acted in some of his films. Without that eyepatch he was quite a looker.

What I found most interesting, however, was how the experience of seeing Sadie Thompson as a silent film compared to the sound version, Rain, made only five years later. The two films script-wise are so similar that the differences are inconsequential. The two stars, Swanson and yesterday's birthday girl Joan Crawford, both give great performances in the lead roles- Swanson getting an Oscar nomination and Crawford getting panned by critics.

What really makes the two experiences different sounds ridiculously simple- Sound. A key element to the hypnotic/maddening quality of Pago Pago island is the rain. Its constant patter on the roof is enough to unhinge these characters. Add in the ceremonial drumming of the natives and you have an aural sensation of madness. It really helps us accept the stark changes that the two leads make- because the script alone explains little of why Sadie chooses redemption, and the Reverend chooses lust.

But unfortunately, the silent version doesn't have that. Sure you have a piano or organ player who can add some sense of drama, but it's not the same as the pounding of rain and drums. Normally I don't think silent films suffer from a lack of sound- but having the ability to see a sound version that is so like the silent one, in this case, Sadie Thompson's silence isn't enough.