Cinewhores: "Miss Sadie Thompson" October 29, 2007

CINEWHORES presents:
Rita Hayworth (and a whole lot of soldiers) in
MISS SADIE THOMPSON

with a scintillating introduction by
San Francisco's own most famous redheaded whore
SADIE LUNE

Screened for your edification & whoreification
by
WHORE! magazine
to benefit
St. James Infirmary

Cinewhores! (or, "Scandalous sex on the silver screen!") is a monthly salon devoted to cinematic portrayals of sex, money, power, and the goodness in going bad. Thematic costumes and hors d'oeuvres open the evening at 6:30pm, with a pre-show followed by our feature presentation at 7:30pm. A post-show salon conversation follows in a bastardized style of James Lipton's deployment of the French "Pivot questionnaire" with gifts (sex toys! smut! panties!) offered for the best questions from the assembled audience.

Plus, your $5-$20 donation gets you a spirited beverage of your choice, and goes to benefit sex worker health care & community at San Francisco's only free clinic for sex workers and their partners.

From your co-curatrix, Melissa Gira:
I first came upon this film while taking a few days out of the world to hide out on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, leaving the confines of my hotel only once, for the Egyptian Theatre. Tropical splendor! Redheads! Morality vs. dancing & beer! I was smitten. Also, the girl can DANCE.

The American Cinematheque offers this description:

MISS SADIE THOMPSON, 1953, Sony Repertory, 91 min. Dir. Curtis Bernhardt (POSSESSED). After having to leave Hawaii when her Honolulu singing job goes kaput, hard-luck dame Sadie Thompson (Rita Hayworth) is stranded on the isle of Samoa which is home to a U.S. Army base. She’s befriended by well-meaning, lovable GI hunk Aldo Ray as well as his soldier pals (including a young Charles Bronson). But dirty-minded lay minister and self-righteous gadabout Jose Ferrer, laying over with his wife on a trip, believes she is nothing more than a common prostitute and is offended by her presence. He takes it upon himself to make Sadie’s life a living hell until he can get her deported back to the States. Although Rita’s singing voice was dubbed by Jo Ann Greer, you would never know it during the musical numbers – she is positively dynamite performing "Hear No Evil," "The Heat Is On," and "Blue Pacific Blues." Originally shot in 3-D, this is a terrific color remake of W. Somerset Maugham’s classic tale Miss Thompson, first filmed in 1932 as RAIN by director Lewis Milestone with Joan Crawford.

Official Website: http://whoremagazine.net