Sadie Thompson

Pago Pago. A woman named Sadie Thompson comes off the steamer from San Francisco and decides to stay on the island. Mr Davidson is on the same boat: a churchman who takes himself to be charged with correcting other people's morals. Sadie grows close to O'Hara, a marine who does not care about her past. Davidson does care. In the name of saving her he petitions the authorities to have her sent back to San Francisco. Then what his preaching actually is comes out. Raoul Walsh directs the silent film; ninety-seven minutes, with Gloria Swanson as Sadie and Swanson producing it herself. It is adapted from a Somerset Maugham story; the story and the play made from it were on the censors' list at the time. Walsh played O'Hara himself, his last acting role. The final reel decomposed, and prints shown today fill that stretch with stills.