jshaffer-6

Back to the 30's, folks. I was there, I know. It wasn't that you saw Coke everywhere, it was the only soft drink you saw. There were no machines with a choice. There was a big red Coke cooler sitting at the service station, another outside the grocery. Some of them were serviced by the local ice company, that is; no motor, just ice. A lot of times they had a padlock on them, in other places you just lifted the lid, helped yourself and left your nickel. Later they graduated to some with slots where you could put your nickel. No point in showing people in this movie drinking anything else, except maybe iced tea. No one else had the coolers, and so all you saw was Coke. Add to that the amount of fountain coke we drank. And it took Robert Altman to make us all think about it.

I found this movie to be suspenseful almost from the get-go. When Miss Stanwyck starts her narration it's only a few minutes until you realize that trouble is coming. The deserted area, the lock on the deserted gas station door, everything sets you up to wait for it...here it comes. At first you think it will be about the little boy, but all too soon you start holding your breath watching the tide coming in. I found this movie to be really stressful, even though I had watched it before and was prepared for the denouement. Now a movie that can keep you in suspense even when you have seen it before deserves some sort of special rating, maybe a white knuckles award?

I have seen the Joan Crawford version of this story, called Rain, and also Gloria Swanson's version, called Sadie Thompson. They are both well worth seeing still, in spite of their age. But even the color and Rita couldn't save this one. This one just made me want to cry, all that waste. Gloria's face is so beautiful in the silent version that it takes your breath away. And Joan Crawford acted the hell out of the part when she did it. Poor Rita, she had one good musical number and that was pretty much it. There was great pathos in the two original movies, but this one was just pitiful. You want to see Mr. Davidson, the missionary? Take a look at what Walter Houston did to that part.Anyway, the scenery was beautiful and the technicolor was bright, and that's about as much as I can say for this movie.