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180 C H a p t e r 1 2 Let It Rain for Her twenty-eigHtH BirtHday, tHe gift swanson wanted most was a juicy part in a great story. She hoped to show her fans and detractors alike the kind of picture she was capable of making. If The Love of฀Sunya had not been an adventurous choice, now she would err in the opposite direction. Swanson’s salary for her first UA picture was a hefty $150,000: if she had stayed with Paramount, however, she would have made twice that amount during the nine months she spent on Sunya, even at her former rate of $7,000 a week. Never mind how much more she would have pulled in at the tripled weekly salary the studio had offered. Paramount had also routinely paid for many of Swanson’s additional expenses: cars, travel, hotels, assistants, and so forth, costs she now had to shoulder herself . As an independent, Swanson could keep whatever profits her films made. In practical terms, however, her revenues depended in part on how long she spent on each picture. With her income now tied directly to her productivity, she needed to have her next project ready to go. Yet she vacillated over her second film. She considered—and rejected —Cash฀Customers, June฀Brides, The฀Spendthrift, The฀Big฀Chance, Widow’s฀ Intentions, and Rich฀Relatives, as well as a Greenwich Village-themed picture along the lines of The฀Humming฀Bird. The฀Women’s฀Battalion฀of฀ Death was still kicking around, too. She bought an original story by Ouida Bergère: Desert Love was a female version of The฀Sheik, complete with kidnappings, desert hideaways, and villainous suitors challenging the maiden’s one true love for her hand. (A vendor immediately offered to supply Gloria with exotic animals: camels, tigers, even the world’s smallest elephant.)1 As title followed title, a frustrated publicist requested a name to use as a placeholder—something, anything that could stand in for the next Gloria Swanson picture so that the papers could talk about it. l e t i t r a i n 181 Joe Schenck liked The฀Last฀of฀Mrs.฀Cheyney and thought he could get Allan Dwan to direct. After she went with Doug and Mary to see it staged, however, Gloria wasn’t sure it was right for her. She asked Schenck to buy The฀Woman฀and฀the฀Puppet, in which a femme fatale works her erotic magic during Carnival in Seville.2 In early May, Swanson’s office announced her next three pictures: first she would play the “fascinating, emotional, impulsive senorita” in The฀Woman฀and฀the฀Puppet. Then there would be a lavish version of Cleopatra, “the most fascinating charmer of all ages.” Third up would be Battalion฀of฀Death. Publicist Lance Heath proclaimed by wire that these would be “three strikingly different characterizations . . . first story being beautiful romance second flaming love third heroic drama.”3 None of the announced productions reflected Swanson’s real plans. She was secretly pursuing a much more radical course: to purchase the rights to Rain, the controversial Broadway play the major Hollywood studios had agreed to keep off the screen. Rain dramatized the battle between Sadie Thompson, a jazz-loving young prostitute, and the selfrighteous Christian missionary determined to save her soul. Set in sultry Pago Pago after Sadie arrives to conquer the local enlisted men, the contest between the young woman and the married Reverend Davidson heats up after Davidson gets the governor to order Sadie off the island. Sadie is willing to repent her sins but not to take the boat back to San Francisco, where she faces jail. Davidson, however, is unrelenting: Sadie must show her penitence by accepting her punishment. They struggle and pray together, Davidson committing suicide when he realizes he is as lustful as any other man. Sadie’s gramophone starts up again, louder than ever, and she goes back to her old ways. It was dynamite, a story full of sex and religion set to the ceaseless drumming of the tropical rain. The only problem was the ban. By 1927 the studios had been working with Will Hays for five years toward shared goals: preventing federal film censorship and keeping state, local, and church groups from cutting or banning their films. They had recently hammered out a list of “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” to guide the selection and treatment of movie material. The “Don’ts” were subjects to...

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