(Some spoilers) Getting stuck on the Somoan Island of Pago Pago because of an outbreak of cholera makes life a bit tenuous for the boat passenger stranded there but for fun loving and partying Sadie Tompson, Joan Crawford, it's the best thing that could have happened to her. Palying the phonograph high and loud and drinking whiskey and rum right out of the bottle as well as carousing and dancing with the US Marines stationed at the island made Sadie a target of one of the fellow passengers that's stuck there with her reformer and religious fanatic Alfred Davidson, Walter Huston. Davidson makes it his utmost duty to shame Sadie's wicked godless soul in what's she's doing, and save it even if it kills him.<br /><br />W. Somerset Maugham novel "Miss Thompson" released in 1932 as the movie "Rain" is about how a man can become so infatuated with sin in battling it that he in the end he becomes not only deranged but overcomes with guilt and shame, to the point of killing himself, just for thinking about it. Throughout the entire movie Davidson is totally committed in saving Sadie's soul from eternal damnation by driving the poor woman almost into having a nervous breakdown. Davidson in his probing of Sadie's past comes up with the information, that he psychologically beat out of her, that she was wanted back in the states for prostitution and is awaiting a three year sentence for it when she steps off the boat at the San Farncisco piers.<br /><br />Sadie is slowly broken down by Davidson's tactics and he really gets to her when he has the Governor of the island, Pago Pago, sign an order to ship her out and back to San Francisco where she awaits a prison cell. Trying to get a rock hard Davison to change his mind Sadie gives into every one of his demands that includes her becoming a bible thumping and church going Christian. Even Sadie's going along with him isn't good enough for the non-forgiving, which is the exact opposite of Christianity, Davidson. A triumphant and smug Davidson tells a now completely destroyed, in mind and body, Sadie that she'll have to pay for her sins in being put away behind bars back in the states even if she's guilty or not!<br /><br />The ending is a bit hazy with Sadie about to get away from Davidson and the law by shipping out with her new US Marine Corps boyfriend Sgt. Tim "Handsome" O'Hara, William Gargan, for Sidney Australia and then changing her mind when she's confronted by Davidson. Davidson playing what seems like a sadistic little cat and mouse game with Sadie tells her that she can leave for Sidney only to have Sadie, now suffering from what looks like a sever case of Stockhome Syndrome, chooses to go back to the states and face her punishment and have her soul cleansed.<br /><br />It's later that we see an obvious going insane Davidson as he gets a crazed look on his face and starts losing control of his feelings and emotions. With Davidson completely losing it we hear in the background the tempo of native drums and heavy monsoon rainfall starts to pick up. Davidson loses control of his ability to keep evil and sinful thoughts out of his mind as he finally snaps as he eventually loses his mind as well as his life. <br /><br />Your left up in the air to what caused Davidson to do himself in. I feel that W. Somerset Maugham was trying to tell us is that a religious nut like Davidson who put himself up on such a high pedestal of morality that when he as much as got a thought of what he would consider to be sinful that it burst his whole balloon of holy self-righteous. This rediscovery of himself caused,in Davidson thinking that he's a perfect Christian and human being, him to completely fall mentally as well as physically apart.