The ending

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I haven't seen the movie, but in the Maugham story, it's implied that he rapes her, then kills himself out of guilt. After seeing the hypocrisy, Sadie just goes back to her old ways because as she says, men are all the same.

^^(spoilers)
Yeah, a man so against immorality and sin and then he goes and rapes a woman!
After watching the version with Rita Hayworth where Jose Ferrer clearly does rape Sadie near the end, I think it happened in this one too.

"I promise you, before I die I'll surely come to your doorstep"

I do detest that sort of holier-than-thou attitude and really really dislike Mr Davidson for his patronizing, morally superior and biased (at times to the point of social discrimination) character. Sorry to sound harsh and maybe sadistic, but I am glad that he died at the end.

If you watch the scenes just before Davidson turns around and heads back to Sadie's room, you will see him working himself into a lather. ( Even the jungle rhythms overcome him. ) Whether he actually rapes her, or simply makes an attempt at seduction, really doesn't matter all that much. The holy veil of piety comes down, and the result is Sadie's total disillutionment. This explains the transformation that follows. It also accounts for her surprise at his subsequent death. IMO, in no way was she leading him on.

The question that intrigues me is; would Sadie's conversion have gone on to it's conclusion if Davidson hadn't proved to be corrupt? I'd like to think that it wouldn't, but I fear that it would. Men like Davidson - and his wife - are evil, and it appears that Maugham felt this way too.

Just watched this for the first time last night, having dvr'd it last week off of TCM, and what a revelation!

Anyway, part of what I loved about the film is the ending, and the somewhat open interpretations available.

Did Sadie kill Davidson? She had a motive and opportunity, but two things argue against it. One is concededly problematic, and that is that the swift conclusion reached that Davidson killed himself may have been in error. But this is a "real life" objection. The filmmakers (and the Maugham story?) tell us he did kill himself. Why that conclusion was reached is not a plot hole. It is merely not shown or told. So I think that conclusion should be given deference.

The second reason referred to by others and noted by me when viewing the film is Sadie's surprise on hearing of his death, and even appearing to expect she would continue to San Francisco as he wanted. But what if she were merely acting surprised? In fact another alternative explanation is that she was acting as a convert when she really was not.

So I do not think this second reason is persuasive enough to disprove Sadie's possibly being a killer. But I do think the first reason added to the second is enough to leave me concluding she did not do it. She would in any event have had difficulty moving his body out to the water, and would not have been able to lead him out there and kill him off like the pier or something. She was in fact much smaller than him. No, she did not kill him despite having motive.

This leaves the two alternatives that she was playing him all along, pretending to be a convert, or really was a convert. In both cases I think at least a sexual advance by Davidson occurred, which triggered his self revulsion and resulting suicide. Having seen the film only once, how closely did I look at Crawford's protrayal of her interactions with Davidson leading up to her apparent breaking down and converting?

Perhaps my own beliefs come into play here. As a Christian myself I know full well that Christianity is very much based on the belief that one cannot be forced to become a believer, so there is that. Objectively Davidson in fact was doing things that amounted to forcing Sadie to at least consider becoming a convert, even if only to "accept" going to jail as her penance. But Davidson himself was so far gone into unreality that he may not have perceived that the force he was using was inconsistent with Christian theology.

And how about Sadie? I think the film at least plays with the notion that Sadie may have gone beyond any objections to Davidson and his methods, and may have seen a path to accepting the penance of going to jail.

But... in the end I find it more persuasive, which is really subversive, that Sadie's perception that all men have a sexual appetite (all men are dogs), and even Davidson would find someone who looked and acted like Joan Crawford in 1932 at some point irresistable.

The point that I concede could be played both ways is where Sadie plays up her fear of not being able to rely on Davidson, which she strongly implies to him means she will "miss" his physical presence. She implies she is already blissful in his presence, which becomes the basis for his perception that she might be available sexually to him. Yes, it is somewhat masked as bliss based on religious faith. But in the end a woman as sexually knowledgeable as Sadie could simply not be unaware that her actions and statements would be sexually appealing, even to a man like Davidson.

So, I think in effect Sadie was acting all along. Did this mean she intended his death? No. And I therefore think despite the acting before that she was in fact genuinely surprised when she heard he had killed himself. I think this is also supported by her somewhat confused behavior after hearing the news, indicating she was getting her bearings after having to cogitate about the news.

This would seem to leave the question whether she had been raped or merely been subjected to a sexual advance. It may not matter all that much, but Davidson would have been more likely to have killed himself if he had raped her, and once a sexual advance had been made, and if Sadie had planned on leading him on, she really had a motive to "let" him rape her.

No need to get into the legal issues of consent and all that here, but I am aware of them.

So I think Sadie pretended to be converted, led Davidson on, a sexual advance and probably intercourse occurred, Davidson afterwards was revolted by his own behavior and killed himself.

The only remaining issue is why had Sadie reverted to her regular self before hearing that Davidson had killed himself, if she had not known about it. Hm. I guess once he had sex with her she may have taunted him for his hypocracy to egg him on, which certainly would have been in keeping with her personality. At that point it served no purpose to continue playing the convert. Even if he did not kill himself she could bank on him finally recognizing he was really being heavy handed and unfair.

So I don't think that leaves any remaining issues. Great ending. And it really is subversive, although to my mind today, even as a Christian, I don't think Sadie deserves moral condemnation for what she did. She in fact was a victim who fought back as best she could. But despite that, i am sure this is the kind of film that led to adoption of the Code in 1934. What a revelation.