tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701560923428822706.post3236751253056783548..comments2022-02-20T05:29:08.445-08:00Comments on Pulp Culture: Swanson vs. Crawford; The Battle of the Sadie Thompsons for Cinematic Sluthood.Vera Ryzhikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05698083321068566175noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701560923428822706.post-77430106153004662682010-08-04T07:25:52.804-07:002010-08-04T07:25:52.804-07:00Yes, Rain is very erotic, though I find Crawford&#...Yes, Rain is very erotic, though I find Crawford's performance in it to be stilted, as if she is uncomfortable playing the slut... That awkwardness makes her conversion work better for me than it does on the page (or in the Swanson version). When I wrote about the movie a few years back, I said:<br /><br />Joan Crawford and Walter Huston, as the prostitute and preacher respectively, act out their roles with a peculiar brand of exaggerated energy that somehow transforms into genuine intensity somewhere along the way. Because Crawford is never quite convincing when she’s trying to be hard-edged, her eventual conversion is all the more affecting. Her Sadie Thompson doesn’t make us believe that she’s really a bad girl, and as a result, the pressures thrust upon her by Huston’s domineering Davidson feel more questionable, even if the full extent of her past sins are never made clear. This Sadie seems equally lost at every point during the movie, no matter what set of virtues she’s trying to achieve, and that only adds to her despairing aura, no matter what the desired effect of the performance might have been. In almost every scene, Crawford’s exceptionally technical approach to acting makes her an interloper among a cast of more naturalistic players. <br /><br />So, I agree that Crawford gives the better performance, to be sure, but I think that has more to do with the tension that her (poor? brilliant?) acting brings to character arc than any real sexiness that she achieves. It's a remarkably sympathetic performance, given that she's playing such a stock character. For me, though, she has a heart of gold first, and is only incidentally a hooker.Jeremy Heilmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11025198716777000854noreply@blogger.com