Sadie Thompson - Production Background

Production Background

In 1927, Swanson released her first independent film for United Artists, The Love of Sunya which was filmed on her terms in New York and was the opening night film of the Roxy Theatre. The production had been a disaster and Swanson felt it would perform mediocre at best. On the advice of Joseph Schenck she relented and returned to Hollywood to prepare for a new picture.

Feeling she would never have as much artistic freedom and independence as she had at that moment, Swanson decided she, "Wanted to make my Gold Rush." Schenck pleaded with her to do a commercially successful film like The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Swanson felt it too formulaic and decided to call upon director Raoul Walsh who was signed with Fox Film Corporation at the time.

Walsh had been known for bringing controversial material to film. At the first meeting, Swanson suggested a film based on the John Colton and Clemence Randolph play Rain (1923) which in turn was based on the story by W. Somerset Maugham titled Miss Thompson (1921). Swanson had seen Jeanne Eagels perform the role on stage twice and enjoyed it.

However, because of its content, the play was on the 'unofficial blacklist' and had quietly been banned from filmmaking a year earlier. To try and avoid issues with the code Swanson and Walsh decided to leave out profanity, rename 'Reverend Davidson' to 'Mr. Davidson', and claim it was in the sake of morality to produce the picture as Irving Thalberg had produced The Scarlet Letter (1926) at MGM.

Swanson invited Will Hays for lunch and summarized the plot, naming the author and the sticking points. According to Swanson, Hays made a verbal promise that he would have no problem with the making of such a film. Swanson set about getting the rights to the play by having Schenck pretend to buy it in the name of United Artists never to be used. Thus they were able to get the story rights for $60,000 instead of the original $100,000.

When news broke just what was intended with the play the three authors threatened to sue. However, Swanson later contacted Maugham about rights to a sequel and he offered to do so for $25,000. Maugham claimed Fox had asked about a sequel the same time Swanson had bought the original stories rights. The sequel would involve following what became of Sadie in Australia but was never made.

Swanson and Walsh set about writing the script, and discreetly placed an ad announcing the film thinking no one noticed as Charles Lindbergh had just made his historic flight. However, the press picked up on it and sensationalized the story. United Artists received a threatening two-page telegram from the MPAA signed by all its members including Fox (Walsh's studio) and Hays himself. In addition, the rest of the signors owned several thousand movies houses and if they refused to screen the film it could be a financial disaster. Ironically, this was the first time Swanson had heard the name of Joseph P. Kennedy, who she would later have an affair with and who would finance her next few pictures including Queen Kelly (1929).

Swanson was angered by the response as she felt those very studios had produced 'questionable' films themselves and were jealous at not having the chance to produce Rain. After another threatening telegram she decided to first appeal to MPAA, and then the newspapers. She only heard back from Marcus Loew who promised to appeal on her behalf, and since he had a chain of theatres this eased some of her concerns. Figuring the silence meant the matter had been dropped, Swanson began filming on Sadie Thompson, which already had a quarter of a million dollars invested in it.