I’m loaning Rain to a coworker, so I popped into into the VCR (yeah, yeah, it’s not a DVD, laugh away) and rewatched it–golly, I’d forgotten what a powerful film it is! It’s like Dracula, but instead of being a vampire, he’s a Christian! There is no way this could be filmed today, there’d be boycotts and protests and all kinds of hell to pay. Or at least they’d change the ending.
Has anyone seen it, or a stage version (again, hard to stage today)? Anyone who doubts Joan Crawford could be a terrific actress, catch her in this. Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi give very stagy performances, but Joannie acts them right off the screen; she knows how to act for films (a tip of the hat to costar Guy Kibbee and cinemtographer Oliver Marsh, too, for sterling work).