April 21 – SADIE THOMPSON [silent film accompaniment]

When: Sunday, April 21st @ 1:15PM
What: SADIE THOMPSON
http://silver.afi.com/Browsing/Movies/Details/f-0100002406
1928. Dir. Raoul Walsh, 97 min., USA. With Gloria Swanson.

San Francisco prostitute Sadie Thompson (Gloria Swanson, Oscar®-nominated in the award’s inaugural year) leaves the City by the Bay to start a new life on an island in the South Pacific. Independent and high-spirited, Sadie unapologetically enjoys the company of men, including “entertaining” a Marine detachment stationed nearby, eventually falling in love with Sgt. Tim O’Hara (director Raoul Walsh, in his final acting performance). But sanctimonious missionary worker Alfred Davidson (Lionel Barrymore) can’t abide Sadie’s unrepentant hedonism, and under the threat of exposure to the law, coerces her conversion. But Davidson’s no saint himself. Adapted from W. Somerset Maugham’s short story “Miss Sadie Thompson,” scandalously and successfully adapted on Broadway as “Rain,” also the title of the 1932 sound version starring Joan Crawford.

Where: AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center | American Film Institute
8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Directions: http://afi.com/silver/about/directions.aspx

Admission: $13; $10 Seniors (65+), students and military (with valid ID); $9.50 AFI Members (2-Star level and higher); $8 Children (12 and under)
http://afi.com/silver/films/tickets.aspx