They all end up staying in the same hotel, where the Davidsons plot to teach the natives about sin and Sadie entertains a bunch of Marines.

Sadie begins to fall in love with Sergeant Timothy O'Hara (Raoul Walsh), who is not fazed by her past.

He tricks her into telling him about her past in San Francisco, and once she refuses to repent, he declares that he will go to the governor and have her deported.

She eventually confesses that, if she goes back to San Francisco, there is "a man there who won't let her go straight", which is what she wants to do.

The sound version featured a theme song entitled “Good Time Sadie” by Seymour Simons.

[5] 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," referring to a recent film by Charlie Chaplin, which became perhaps his most celebrated work.

Swanson felt it too formulaic and decided to call upon director Raoul Walsh, who was signed with Fox Film Corporation at the time.

[8] To try to avoid issues with the code, Swanson and Walsh decided to leave out profanity, rename 'Reverend Davidson' to 'Mr.

[9] Swanson invited Will Hays for lunch and summarized the plot, naming the author and the sticking points.

[11] Swanson and Walsh set about writing the script,[12] and discreetly placed an ad announcing the film, thinking no one noticed, as Charles Lindbergh had just made his historic flight.

[8] United Artists received a threatening two-page telegram from the MPAA, signed by all its members including Fox (Walsh's studio) and Hays himself.

[2] In addition, the rest of the signers owned several thousand movies houses and if they refused to screen the film, it could be a financial disaster.

[13] It was the first time Swanson had heard the name of Joseph P. Kennedy, with whom she later had an affair and who financed her next few pictures, including Queen Kelly (1929).

[16] She only heard back from Marcus Loew, who promised to appeal on her behalf, and his owning a chain of theatres eased some of her concerns.

Figuring the silence meant the matter had been dropped, Swanson began filming on Sadie Thompson, which already had $250,000 invested in it.

[18] Lionel Barrymore, picked first to play Davidson, was thought to be too ill at the time but ended up winning the role.

Swanson took ill shortly after and met a doctor who started her lifelong love of macrobiotic diets.

Not wanting to let a hundred extras sit around for days, Swanson and Walsh tried to hire two other cameramen, but both were unsatisfactory.

Mary Pickford offered the services of Charles Rosher, her favorite cameraman, but despite doing a decent job, he could not match Barnes' work.

[23] Despite reports that dirty words can be read on the characters' lips, Swanson claims the censors went over everything meticulously.

[24] However, Swanson admitted one line while she was shouting at Davidson went "You'd rip the wings off of a butterfly, you son of a bitch!, when recounting a conversation with Walsh later in life.

While on location for that film a jackrabbit jumped through the windshield of his car, and he lost his right eye in the resulting crash.

After Swanson's death in 1983, the sole known surviving print of the film was discovered by her estate; it had been stored in Mary Pickford's personal archive.

[34] The film was bought by Kino International, which hired Dennis Doros to reconstruct the final reel.

[35] Kino's version has been issued on DVD and online via Netflix, as well as shown on Turner Classic Movies.