The Plot:

Due to a cholera outbreak on their connecting ship, travelers among the islands of the South Pacific are stranded at the rustic hotel of Joe Horn on the island of Pago Pago (ca. 1920). The travelers include Reverend and Mrs. Davidson, Dr. and Mrs. McPhail, and a free-spirited good-time girl, Sadie Thompson (Jeanne Eagels). In no time, Sadie becomes friends with a trio of U.S Marines stationed on the island, and develops a mutual attraction with Sgt. O'Hara. Sadie entertains the Marines with liquor and music in her room, much to the annoyance of Mrs. Davidson. Reverend Davidson, whose business it is to convert native islanders to Christianity, and to keep colonials on their best behavior, grows more alarmed by Sadie's behavior. This leads to increasingly heated clashes between them. At first Sadie seems to have the upper hand, but Reverend Davidson conspires with the governor of Pago Pago to have Sadie sent back to San Francisco, where he has learned she is wanted by the police. When Davidson has Sgt. O'Hara imprisoned to prevent him from helping her, Sadie grows increasingly desparate and vulnerable, and she succumbs to Davidson's plans to "redeem her soul". When O'Hara is finally released, he attempts to help Sadie escape the island. But she has been converted by Davidson and now plans to return to the U.S. and do penance for her sins in jail. Later that night, Davidson is drawn to Sadie's room, and he rapes her. In the morning, Sadie emerges from her room more cynical than before. When O'Hara informs her that Davidson has committed suicide, her attitude softens, and she says "I'm sorry for everybody in the world." She prepares to sail for Sydney where O'Hara has friends who can help her and where he plans to settle down.

Contemporary Reviews


From NY Times critic John Corbin (Nov. 8, 1922):

"Miss Eagels, noted as a young actress of promise since her performance in [sic] "Daddy," rises to the requirements of this difficult role with a fine loyalty to the reality of the character and with an emotional power as fiery and unbridled in effect as it is artistically restrained...Among her sailor cronies she rollicks and drinks whisky with more than the swagger of the Bowery. Her conduct toward the gentle folk of the hotel party is a marvelous mingling of social awe and human arrogance. Her demeanor toward Davidson is subtly felt and inerrantly expressed in all the gamut of its tragic moods. The house, which missed the truth and fundamental understanding of the character of Davidson, fairly rose to Miss Eagels and acclaimed her...'Rain' is not a 'pleasant' play, especially for the conventionally minded, but it is strikingly original in theme, true in characterization, vigorous in drama and richly colored with the magic of the South Seas."


From NY theater critic Ward Morehouse:

"Rain came into the Maxine Elliott Theater on a November evening in 1922, and the opening brought forth an emotional demonstration never exceeded in the theater of this country and century. First-nighters stood and screamed when the curtain fell upon Sadie's denunciation of [Reverend] Davidson at the close of the second act; they were as wild as spectators at a football game...I occupied a seat in the rear of the balcony on that opening night and experienced one of the most genuinely stirring moments in all my theater going years in the final scene of the third act when Sadie's long-silent phonograph broke into the haunting strains of 'Wabash Blues' her gesture of complete disgust with all mankind."


Chicago Tribune review of the opening of "Rain" (October 7, 1925):

"This is, at midnight or any other time, no better way to open a report on Miss Jeanne Eagels in 'Rain' than to urge attendance thereon. Most persons who go much to or read much of the theater know a deal about the play (which is a good play) and about Miss Eagels' acting (which is a matter to see, to laud, and long to remember when you are thinking back over your adventures in the drama)...Explicitly and implicitly, Miss Eagels is all there is for Sadie Thompson to be in this capital theater-piece. I have but wooly remembrance for her previous activities in the drama; and I shall never forget her in this."


The Wall Street Journal:

"...Miss Jeanne Eagels, whose daring impersonation of the fugitive cyprian in 'Rain' has given her a brilliant place in the stellar map. Her truth to type is recognized by many who could have little personal knowledge of the class to which she belongs. It is real artistry to make people feel instinctively rather than through their knowledge that a creation is true to what it represents. To the more knowing who have encountered those ports of the Pacific, her reproduction is still more remarkable. And to the student of humanity who recognizes the truth of the pitiful weakness and fear she shows beneath her gayety and bravado, which is as false as the finery her kind affects, the impersonation touches nearly on greatness."