User reviews

This is Cecil B. DeMille's weirdest film, but it is not nearly as bad as film history would have you believe. It was his only musical comedy and it tanked at the box office, but I've always been fond of these early sound curios. Kay Johnson plays Angela Brooks, married to wealthy Bob Brooks (Reginald Denny) who spends his nights partying with his friend Jimmy (Roland Young). Bob "respects" his wife, but his passion goes to his mistress, Trixie (Lillian Roth).

When Angela finds out about Bob's mistress, she goes to have it out with her, and finds that Trixie could care less about being found out, and worse gives away all of her secrets about getting and keeping Bob, feeling that Angela wouldn't know how to use such tips anyways. . Later, Jimmy has a masked ball staged on a dirigible complete with bizarre musical numbers. It is visually interesting, but as with all of the music in this film, the numbers are completely forgettable. The only thing musically memorable is Lillian Roth doing a couple of numbers. If she hadn't had a tragic life right out of the gate there would have probably never been an Ethel Merman, because Roth would have had Merman's career. She has a spitfire presence and a booming sexy voice.

The men are bidding for dances with the women, with all attention and bidding going to Trixie until a stranger walks in - Madame Satan. She is supposed to be French but she sounds just like Greta Garbo and she is supposed to be dressed like Satan but she looks like Catwoman to me. In the meantime, the crew is getting concerned because a storm is brewing and threatening the dirigible.

Bob Brooks is a curious character. In spite of the fact that he is cheating on his wife he seems to have strong Puritanical standards for both his wife and his mistress. However, he doesn't mind abandoning Trixie for the promise of bigger better possibilities, even if Trixie is standing right there. Roland Young is always good as the friend with his dry one liners. Even though he has a small part in this film, he is the only one with a semblance of a film career just a few years later.

Recommended for the weirdness of it all, but I admit these early talkies are my weakness and YMMV.

MADAM Satan (MGM, 1930), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, marked the famed director's second of three features under the MGM banner, and one of his most unusual, or in the most common terms, bizarre. In spite of it not becoming a box office success in its initial release, MADAM Satan needs to be seen a few times in order to get the full concept of the continuity. Once getting through some dull stretches taking place during its initial 50 minutes, the movie delivers during its final portion to this 115 minute production with its one of the most oddest costume parties and inane production numbers ever captured on film.

The plot, which could very well be THE GUARDSMAN (1931, with Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne) or THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER (1941, with Nelson Eddy and Rise Stevens, which in turn is based on "The Guardsman") in reverse, focuses on Angela (Kay Johnson), a boring but cultured New York City society woman married to the prominent but fun loving Bob Brooks (Reginald Denny). Her casual evening at home stirs some excitement after reading in a newspaper that she, along with Bob and his best friend, Jim Wade (Roland Young) were taken to night court for speeding. Wanting to learn more about what her husband has been doing, and who the woman masquerading as her husband's wife is, Angela's suspicions are soon realized when she finds a calling card in Bob's pocket signed by a Trixie. Feeling her marriage dissolved because of Bob's lack of interest in her, Angela decides to follow the advice of Martha, her maid (Elsa Peterson) to go out and recapture her own husband by fascinating him. During Jim Wade's elaborate costume party, which takes place in a gigantic airship, Angela enters the social scene disguised as the masked woman who calls herself "Madam Satan."

Categorized as a musical, the production numbers set during the masquerade party are of more interest than the songs that accompany them. With the music and lyrics credited to Clifford Grey, Herbert Stothart, Elsie Janis and Jack Grey, the songs featured include: "Live and Love Today" (sung by Elsa Peterson); "Low Down" (sung by Lillian Roth); "We're Going Somewhere" (sung by party guests as they enter dirigible); "The Cat Walk" (performed by guests); "Ballet Electrique" (performed by Theodore Kosloff as Electricity, surrounded by costumed dancers in an electrical ballet stimulating everything from spark plugs to lightning bolts); "What Am I Bid?/Auction Number" (recited by Roland Young); "Madame" (sung by Kay Johnson); "All I Know is You Are in My Arms" (sung and danced by Reginald Denny and Kay Johnson); "Low Down" (reprise by Lillian Roth, later sung by Kay Johnson); and "Madame" (reprise by Kay Johnson).

Not the usual Cecil B. DeMillion dollar spectacle for which he is most famous, but like his better known Biblical epics, this modern-day story has enough costumes to go around, especially the ones worn at the masquerade party. After repeated viewing, MADAM Satan comes across like a typical Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery drawing room comedy or something directed by George Cukor. At other times it leaves to the imagination of an Ernst Lubitsch sex comedy, but nearly fails on all counts. What saves this from becoming a total disaster is the oddball costume party. Without seeing his name on the credits, it would be hard to imagine MADAM Satan directed by DeMille, best known for religious epics, but it should be known that DeMille did specialized in this sort of comedy in the silent era with those starring Gloria Swanson, some years before director Ernst Lubitsch set the standard.

MADAM Satan might have succeeded had the story been shortened and vocalizing dubbed for Kay Johnson. Because Johnson at times resembles or plays like a slightly mature Irene Dunne, a movie like MADAM SATIN would have called for the likeness of Dunne, both actress and singer, then under contract to RKO Radio. Lillian Roth's performance as the fun-loving other woman does spark some life into her character, which is no different from the roles she performed at her home lot of Paramount at the time. On the whole, the one who comes off best and memorably in MADAM Satan is Roland Young as Jim, who assumes some of the film's witty one liners (Tyler Brooke: "I've never repented a sin," Young: "I've never repeated one,") and funnier actions. First to try to pass off Trixie (Roth) as his wife to Angela, who knows her husband's friend is only making the pretense to cover up for her husband's infidelity. The pretense reaches an amusing climax when Jim has to undress and get in bed with "his wife," with Angela's constant intrusions. Following the airship disaster where all the party guests must parachute from the dirigible, all landing around Central Park ranging from inside a convertible with another couple smooching in the front seat to the reservoir. As for Young's character, he lands on a tree branch inside a lion's cage in the zoo. Below he watches the lions roaring up at him. He then observes a sign that reads when the next feeding time is for the lions will be. He then slowly looks at his watch. Regardless of slow pacing, the redeeming quality goes to Young, who even has the final closing rather than the leading players.

MADAM Satan was distributed on video cassette in the 1990s, and can be seen occasionally during the late night hours on Turner Classic Movies. Movies dealing with wives putting their unsuspecting husbands to the test are usually fun to see, but while MADAM Satan might be categorized as one of the weakest of the lot, it does propose some redeeming qualities that make this one of the most unusual production by either or both DeMille and MGM. (**)

Difficult times for affluent married couple when wife interrupts her organ playing to put drunk husband to bed with his chum for the afternoon. To condemn their wasteful leisure time may lead viewers to consider the waste of our own, until suddenly the invitation to a masked ball on a zeppelin transpires into a black and white hallucination. No, it doesn't explode at its launch tower, but the zeppelin does break loose in a storm and crash, and before doing so, instructs us how to parachute out. The movie is unforgettable. Sorry for the obscure reference, but the Kate Bush "Babooshka" song summarizes the Noel Coward-like script. The wife's costume, her singing at the drop of the hat, her performance, and her general display of dignity alert me to the possibility of enjoying other deMille films. I used to consider his flat direction of dialogue scenes stultifying (like watching skulls dry) while falling off the chair at the sight of his special effects. No, the entire film is mystical and I'm interested in seeing more. 1930!

The strangest thing in this film might be the morality of the plot. Folks today seem to think that films of the 30s were all stodgy and prudish. Well, this might be true of movies made AFTER mid-1934 when a toughened Production Code was adopted by the studios. But, before that, films were perhaps even wilder than they are today. Stuff like nudity, adultery, abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex and even bestiality were to be found in many of the Hollywood films. In fact, the films were becoming so family-unfriendly, that people stopped attending pictures and the studios started to worry about not surviving the Depression. So, in an effort spurred on far more by economics than morality, Hollywood adopted this very draconian code. Now, in the 'cleaned up Hollywood', you had wholesomeness and virtue...and it became just a bit boring at times. Now I LOVE films of the 1934-1950 era--but occasionally the morality in them seems silly--married couples weren't allowed to be in bed together at the same time, evil was ALWAYS punished by the end of the film (wow...wouldn't it be nice if real life was that way!) and women definitely did NOT enjoy sex...at least not decent women! And, as for the indecent women, as I said, in the end, evil is ALWAYS punished! But none of these Post-Code rules apply to films like "Madam Satan".

This Cecil B. DeMille* film begins with a lovely wife, Angela (Kay Johnson) waiting and waiting for her no-good husband, Bob (Reginald Denny) to return home. However, the guy has been out whooping it up with his friend--drinking (this is during Prohibition, by the way) and chasing other women. Surprisingly, Angela is rather good-natured about it--and seems to accept the age-old notion that 'boys will be boys'. However, Bob is a real jerk. Not only isn't he apologetic but blames Angela for being too boring. In fact, he later announces that he's leaving, as his mistress is much more of a woman than Angela will ever be! At this point you'd assume Angela would be ready to kill or divorce this worm--this WOULD be the case in the Post-Code world. Instead, after getting over her initial hurt and shock, she's decided to cook up a plan to get him back! After all, in this era, men must be excused their little...peccadilloes (a nice word used at the time to cover a multitude of sins...but mostly adultery).

What exactly is the plan? Well, it all unfolds during an insane society costume party--the most bizarre party EVER thrown on this planet--and not just because of its locale but because of the costumes and song and dance numbers! A bunch of rich philanderers rent out a zeppelin (you know, one of those massive airships like the Hindenburg) and invite all their mistresses for a rip-roaring good time. Naturally Bob and his floozy are there. However, just before this woman is crowned the Belle of the Ball, in steps Madam Satan--a very mysterious masked woman of the world. And Madam Satan is NOT there to make new friends or go for a zeppelin ride...nope. She's there to screw Bob...and she's not very subtle about it! Using her thick foreign accent, she vamps Bob and announces 'who wants to go to Hell with Madam Satan?'. Well, obviously Bob does, and he pursues this mystery woman like a dog chasing after a pork chop! Eventually, Bob discovers who this mystery woman is that he so wants to....um...get to know better. But, before he can deal with this, the zeppelin breaks loose from its mooring mast and goes careening through the clouds! Then, the costumed party-goers and crew jump from the airship and parachute to the ground...with a few comical (and one mildly racist) scenes as the folks land.

Does this sound completely crazy? Of course. But the craziest part are the costumes and sets. It must have cost a fortune to make the film and this was at the worst part of the Depression!! Just think of the millions of folks out of work and a film about Madam Satan vamping a rich no-goodnick like Bob! Crazy...but almost impossible to stop watching! If you want to see it, you can get a copy from Amazon, Turner Classic Movies' website or perhaps they'll show it again on TCM. You DEFINITELY ain't seen nothing' yet with this one!!

*If you are an old film nut, you'll probably recognize DeMille as the guy who brought us a long series of overblown religious epics like "The Ten Commandments".

This is a totally bizarre amalgam of at least three different films: a wisecracking sex-comedy, an unsuccessful operetta, and a bedroom-hopping farce. Add into that mix 'disaster movie' and 'fashion parade', and you get a film that's worth seeing just for its jaw-dropping novelty value alone.

It's actually pretty good: most of the humour is intentional, and some of the rest of it may well be. (I'm not sure quite how seriously the film takes itself: I got the impression that the heroine is pretty much in the know about what is going on, for example, and is simply playing innocent when it suits her... either to get the information she's after, or merely in order to watch her misbehaving husband squirm.) Farce isn't my thing, but those scenes are pretty slickly done, while a lot of the risqué dialogue sparkles.

Sadly the film suffers from primitive sound recording techniques, to the extent that most of the lyrics of the musical sections are incomprehensible -- not too much of a problem for the stand-alone numbers, but a big issue for the ensemble songs that are supposed to drive the later part of the plot. A lot of the verbal punchlines to the visual jokes at the masquerade disappeared into the background fuzz, as well: for example, I still don't know what on earth Bob's costume was supposed to be, because I missed the announcement as he entered.

As a musical "Madam Satan" is not very successful: it's a story of missed opportunities (Cole Porter, Rudolf Friml, Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Romberg and even Albert Ketelbey of "In a Monastery Garden" fame were all considered to write the musical numbers at one time or another, as were Jeanette MacDonald and Gloria Swanson for the lead). The operetta numbers are unmemorable -- the 'popular' numbers from Jack King and Elsie Janis have worn better in performance style, although you still won't find yourself whistling them as you leave.

There are lengthy ballet/costume sequences in the second half of the film that appear to be basically the equivalent of the gratuitous fashion parade colour reels that crop up in various 1930s films -- simply inserted into the story as an excuse to show off the spectacle. They are staggeringly extravagant, but to my taste the display dragged a bit after a while. (Watching all the revellers subsequently attempt to don parachute harnesses on top of these costumes, however, tends to confirm me in my suspicion that the film really doesn't take itself seriously!) And we learn, to my amazement at least, that on a dirigible the parachutes are not actually packed on the wearer's back but attached to casings in the hull itself -- no wonder the harnesses look weirdly skeletal. You can't simply jump free wearing a parachute: you have to be clipped on first...

The parachute sequence is another piece of disaster-comedy that has to be seen to be believed. On the whole I'd say that the film is at least 60% successful: MGM might have done better if they had ditched the musical elements altogether, since this is probably the weakest strand and the box office was saturated by musicals at this point, and gone flat out for shock value. It's certainly worth seeing for sheer bizarreness.

There are some directors who failed and faltered in the sound revolution. There are others who made a success of the new form and were even revitalised by it. Cecil B. DeMille is perhaps in a league of his own, who with Madam Satan created a work suffering from all the awkwardness of the worst early talkies, and yet one gloriously weird and wonderful in a way that only his pictures could be.

It's true; Madam Satan is incredibly stilted and static in its construction. I'm not referring to the anchored camera – DeMille didn't really rely on camera movement anyway. But like many early talkies it places too much importance on dialogue, and is structured like a stage play with very long and very wordy scenes. The sound recording is appalling and sometimes we can hear dialogue when characters are in long shot, which seems very unnatural. Like most early musicals the numbers are spoiled by indecipherable operatic vocals.

But never fear! Madam Satan was scripted by the delightfully barmy Jeanie Macpherson. What's more we find DeMille, ever with his finger to the wind, putting his own grandiose and unashamedly smutty spin on the bedroom-comedy musical genre that was making such a splash at his old stomping ground, Paramount. The result is one of the most unintentionally surreal pictures I have ever seen. We begin with some Lubitsch-esque bed-hopping comedy scenes, sprinkled with a few songs. We then decamp to a fancy-dress party on board a Zeppelin (why not?) for an extended musical sequence, which looks like the result of Fritz Lang hiring Busby Berkeley to direct a scene in Metropolis. Just as the characters' passions start to run away with them, it suddenly turns into a disaster movie – a bit of a DeMille-Macpherson trademark, that.

Madam Satan is also special in that it is perhaps the only DeMille comedy which is actually rather funny. The occasionally witty dialogue was probably Gladys Unger's contribution to the screenplay, but what really makes it work is the excellent comic timing and rapport of Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth and Roland Young. In comparison to these three very satisfying cast members, leading lady Kay Johnson seems rather bland, and has "poor-man's Jeanette MacDonald" written all over her.

Most of the songs are by Herbert Stothart, who would soon rise to become MGM's in-house composer. Musically they are fairly forgettable, although it's interesting how they are used to define character and drive the plot forward in a way that later became standard but was by no means a given in the very earliest musicals. DeMille, always a very rhythmic director, shoots some great dance numbers, and shows great musical sensitivity for the "All I Know Is You're in My Arms" number, tracking along with the silhouetted dancers, and putting in a wonderful slow tilt when they are still, corresponding to the swell in the music. It's a shame this was his only musical.

Madam Satan has got to be one of the weirdest film experiences I have ever had, and after my first viewing I wasn't quite sure if perhaps I dreamt it. It was (sniff) the last significant contribution to a DeMille picture by Jeanie Macpherson, and while all his work after this was filled with adventure and spectacle, they were missing a certain something that only she could bring. Madam Satan is however an appropriately daffy swansong – a boozy, art-deco, all-talking, all-dancing concotion that is worth watching for its sheer oddness.

The second of three films that Cecil B. DeMille did for MGM and in which he made his sound debut was Madam Satan and a lot of reviewers have said this is a strange movie. Strange that it is a bit weird, but not so strange in that DeMille made many silent screen comedies that all kinds of interesting and decadent settings. A high society masquerade ball in a dirigible would be right in keeping with those films. But after Madam Satan he never made another like this.

The plot of Madam Satan is kind of like The Guardsman with the shoe on the other foot. Wife Kay Johnson has discovered that her husband Reginald Denny has been stepping out with flapper girl Lillian Roth. She determines to win him back so if hot and sexy is what moves Reggie, Kay can be just as hot and sexy as Lil.

Their friend society playboy Roland Young is throwing a big masquerade ball on a dirigible and Kay goes as the mysterious and masked Madam Satan. She definitely turns a lot of heads including Denny's. But during a thunderstorm, lightning strikes the big balloon and loosens it from its moorings.

After that Madam Satan becomes a harbinger of the disaster movies of the Seventies. This is DeMille doing what he does best, big and gaudy spectacle. It's the main reason to see Madam Satan today.

The film tanked big time at the box office. It might have done better just a year earlier before the Stock Market crash, but in September of 1930 when it was released audiences in the Depression just couldn't get worked up for a bunch of high society people in big trouble. Those that could afford a ticket price probably cheered as the great blimp went down.

Still Madam Satan remains an interesting if dated piece of cinema.

"Madame Satan" is one of those movies that is not sure what it is but is having a grand time trying to figure it out. Part bedroom farce (where in pre code days couples sleep in the same bed), romantic comedy, musical and at its climax a disaster film. Its basic plot follows the misadventures of a married couple as they try to relight the spark in their marriage. The climax is a costume ball aboard a zeppelin (the musical production numbers here are pretty spectacular) that eventually ends in the zeppelin's crash in a storm. The effects are all done with miniatures and they really are quite impressive. The cast , especially Roland Young, are quite good though at times hesitant. You get the impression that in this early talkie the actors are not yet comfortable with sound but that is a minor quibble. All in all it is a fun over the top film that rarely has a dull moment.

Although Cecil B DeMille is associated with ponderous, pompous serious epics, as he showed with this, he had a sense of humour and could make a fun filled light comedy. This is a great little - well big spectacular - romantic comedy.

DeMille fans didn't like this because it wasn't what they expected from him. A lot of modern reviewers consider this over-blown and just weird but I honestly thought it was genuinely witty and entertaining. The majority of pictures from 1929/1930 are pretty awful - they're stagey, static affairs but this is clearly made by someone who knew exactly how to make a talking picture. If you're familiar with films from this time of transition, you'll find this a breed apart.

Besides The Marx Brothers and of course Laurel and Hardy, It takes an awful lot for me to find something so old funny but this actually did make me laugh. It's neither full of pitiful puerile slapstick and childish humour nor is it so sophisticated such as DINNER AT EIGHT that its description as being a comedy is baffling. Madam Satan is a mature, grown up amusing and eventually exciting comedy. It's not just some interesting old curio - it's something which can still be enjoyed.

The story however is most definitely not one which could be made today. We have a husband who tells his wife that she's boring and he doesn't try to hide the fact he has a young floozy mistress. So she hatches a plan to win him back, resulting at one point in him being outraged that she might have been seeing another man. That he is a blatant adulterer is seen as completely normal and actually celebrated by his friends. But that the slightest hint that she may have innocently met another man is viewed as utterly outrageous and disgracefully scandalous. Sounds like something written by man? No, this was written by women - we certainly all thought very differently back then!

The plot could only exist in a comedy, it's absolutely ridiculous but in the capable hands of Mr DeMille it all seems perfectly feasible when you're watching it - except if you think about it - but because it's so enthralling at the time, you don't have a moment to think about what nonsense it actually is.

Besides the archaic attitudes, some of the acting is a little 'silent movie' at times. Reginald Denny's acting style doesn't quite work, his over-theatrical delivery is like a mix between Robin Hood and Rick Mayall's Flasheart in BLACK ADDER. Fortunately he's tempered by the wonderfully natural persona of the ever witty and charming Roland Young. The floozy is Lillian Roth who's very amusing as an exaggerated caricature of herself. The genius piece of casting however is Kay Johnson.

The first part of the film is Miss Johnson introducing herself to us. We get to know her perfectly, she's a fairly plain looking but pleasant upper class sophisticated society lady. We understand that she's very refined, slightly repressed, prim and proper and above all respectable. When she subsequently becomes Madam Satan in that Rita Ora outfit we the audience are amazed, shocked and ecstatic for her. Because we know her so well, this transformation is incredibly sexy. We're with her cheering her on all the way and a hundred percent on her side - we're even hoping she wins back her pig of a husband!

Although it's a bit 1920s at times, if you love classic early thirties movies you'll like this. It feels newer than something that was made at the birth of the talkies.

A terrible, lavish, early talkie from Cecil B. DeMille, that I couldn't make heads or tails of until I saw his 1925 melodrama The Golden Bed. Madame Satan in reality was DeMille's last foray into domestic comedy-drama among the very rich, a theme he had been doing pretty consistently since 1918. Film buffs tend to overlook that genre—speaking for myself, it all seems too gauche and mediocre to take time evaluating—and look at the big epics. But there they are: gobs of money made titillating naïve Jazz Age audiences with supposed glimpses into the foibles and follies of spoiled wives, their mogul husbands, frivolous friends and treacherous roué-hangers-on. There is the fixation on overbuilt, ludicrous, luxury bathrooms and wild parties. Very hard to swallow for a contemporary viewer; this throwing onto the screen of high-living and consumer greed, redeemed by unctuous moralistic retribution, was a creature strictly of 1920s America.

Madame Satan was DeMille's attempt to extend this theme into the talkie period, but the extreme artificiality of this type of film only became intensified with the addition of sound. Normally I would say, as others have, to sit through the build-up, such as described above, to the thrilling disaster movie climax aboard the stricken party dirigible. But don't. If you can see the climax in a compilation film or fast forward to it at home, okay, but do not bother with any other part of Madame Satan at all. The talents of Denny, Johnson and Young, and the great MGM sets notwithstanding: it's just not worth it. You won't be able to get away from the silly, plodding, unfunny thud the first part of this movie makes as it shuffles through your mind.

I found Madam Satan a rather strange hybrid of melodrama and musical, with elements of sex farce thrown in for good measure. It is divided into two distinct halves: the first takes place at the home of Bob and Angela, and at Trixie's flat. Then, it's aboard a moored Zeppelin for the second half for the party and the bulk of the musical numbers. A few witty ripostes here and there, some occasionally charming musical numbers, but overall a rather tepid affair. I just don't think Reginald Denny and Kay Johnson have the onscreen charisma to do this story justice. Roland Young is always amusing with his befuddled manner, in a sort of warm up to his Topper movies, but with Denny and Johnson to play against, he becomes the most interesting character by default.

But the film is interesting in its moralizing about straying husbands and a wife's duty to spice up the marriage, considering DeMille's own unsatisfactory marriage and philandering ways. Setting the second half aboard a Zeppelin with its sinking ship analogies probably seemed very modern at the time, and it is interesting to note that even six years before the Hindenburg disaster, a Hollywood movie exploits the inherent danger to such a mode of transportation. Perhaps with a really sparkling script by a master screenwriter such as Robert Riskin, and more luminous leads, this could have been a major delight instead of a trifle.

a decent movie... some of the acting was a bit wooden. Reginald Denny as Bob was, well not very good. Not sure if he was there more for his voice and looks than his actual acting ability. The movie lagged a bit at the beginning as the story centered on Angela trying to spy on her husband Bob and his trysts with showgirl Trixie. There were some funny pieces and I did like some of Jimmy's one-liners. A bit strange in places. For instance what the heck was that whole dance number at the beginning of the ball scene? The masquerade scene as they introduced each character was very visual and the costumes on the each were amazing. And Kay Johnson looked stunning as Madam Satan. Though I could have done without her fake French accent It was interesting nonetheless , and I think overall a good effort. Though what did happen to Trixie at the end?

Bob (Reginald Deny) and Angela (Kay Johnson) are married...but not happily. Bob is cheating on his wife with Trixie (Lillian Roth). But Angela is determined to get him back. At a costume party held on a zeppelin (don't ask) she comes in disguise as Madam Satan to win him back.

The plot is conventional at first. It starts off as a very poor, unfunny comedy drama with Angela discovering Bob is cheating and confronting Trixie. This is the entire first hour--chock full on horrendous dialogue, bad acting (Roth SCREAMS every line) and some of the worst comedy ever captured on film.

I was ready to turn it off when the costume party started. It starts off with some VERY elaborate costumes (I wish this film had been made in color) and a strange musical number. Then Angela shows up as Satan and we get MORE wooden dialogue and silly lines between her Bob. It all ends with the zeppelin being hit by lightning and everybody having to parachute out.

Sounds fun--but it's not. There are musical numbers sprinkled throughout the film--and all of them are bad. And this party aboard a zeppelin??? Is that a joke or are we supposed to take it seriously? But, most of all, this movie is just plain dull.

The few good points are: a good performance by Johnson; Deny isn't bad either and he's tall, handsome and muscular; the costumes ARE incredible; the special effects aren't bad and this is one of the few films Lillian Roth made (too bad she's lousy).

Worth seeing for film buffs--but nobody else.

Directed by the one and only C.B. DeMille, this one was prior to the film code being enforced, so we are allowed to view mature themes. When Angela gets sick of her husband Bob staying out all night, she sets a trap to teach him a lesson. Reginal Denny and Kay Johnson star in this early talkie from MGM. Ann Sothern and Ann Dvorak are listed as extras on imdb. Sound and picture are both pretty ok. Parts of the film go on way too long, such as when Angela tries to trap the guys as they tell their lies about staying out all night. and again later, when two un-married people pretend to be getting ready for bed. it really drags on. both those scenes should have been edited shorter. One fun thing is when she and her maid sing to each other, while discussing the men in their lives. That's one talented maid!! And a really cute song and dance number when Lillian Roth (plays the other woman...) and Eddie Prinz do a rehearsal of "Low Down". When husband and wife attend a costume ball in a zeppelin, Angela tests her husband by dressing up as a satanic character during the ball. An ironic moment, when they sing "We're Going Somewhere", and the very next song is "Where do We Go From Here?". Shows on Turner Classic. Good for an early talkie, and certainly a little piece of history from DeMille. and even some special effects during the dance numbers in the dirigible. but didn't need to be 116 minutes long.

The first part is a bedroom farce, then it becomes a weird musical, before becoming a disaster movie. Mashed together it doesn't work as a whole at all and it's not only because of the early sound movie problems that all early 30's movies have. The only really must see part is the strange machinery dance number that's right out of a german expressionist movie.

It's almost two movies in one: the action before the airship, which pokes along and once onboard, when it goes a bit haywire.

The Madam Satan dress alone is worth the price of admission. With its flames and sequins and the "cut out" designs and its crazy spikes sleeves, it is just too much.

But even then, you may not be able to believe it's really as awful as what you are seeing.

The first 50 minutes of this movie is a standard 1930s melodrama: philandering husband cheats on wife, who discovers that there is "another woman" and confronts her. (If you've ever seen "The Women", you've seen this done much better.) It's best just skipped.

The rest of the movie takes place in a dirigible - yes, I'm not kidding - and goes from bizarre to whatever is past bizarre.

For most of the dirigible scene, Kay Johnson does a very good imitation/satire of Greta Garbo. Not just the accent, but the body movements and everything. You realize that Norma Shearer must have watched this movie before she made Idiot's Delight.

But then the dirigible breaks loose and starts to fall apart, and you suddenly realize that you are watching a 1930 predecessor to Poseiden Adventure - a very bad predecessor. People start jumping out of the dirigible with parachutes, and the dialogue, which had never been good, becomes awful.

It seems impossible to believe that this movie was released by a major studio, but it was. You have to see it to understand how awful it gets, but is it really worth your time to do that?

A desperate wife disguises herself as the mysterious MADAME Satan in order to entice the attentions of her wayward husband.

In 1928, movie magnet Cecil B. DeMille, usually associated with Paramount Studios, signed a three-picture contract with mighty MGM. The most exuberant result of this new association--the others were DYNAMITE (1929) and THE SQUAW MAN (1931)--was this bizarre, florid, highly unusual and very entertaining musical-comedy-soap opera which almost defies categorization in any other way than to simply say it is a 'DeMille Picture.'

It was also the only musical he attempted (1930 was a year replete with singing stars enjoying--or abusing--the new sound technology) and perhaps that is a good thing, as the tunes here don't warble too well and are a bit of an embarrassment. Although the tale of marital infidelity which dominates the film's first half grows rather mawkish, DeMille awakes the audience in the second half by staging a naughty masquerade ball in a luxurious dirigible, no less, harbored high above New York City. Never one to let bad taste stand in his way, DeMille invites the viewer to wallow in Pre-Code purulence, before ending on a more moralistic note.

Kay Johnson, a very talented & lovely actress who is now sadly forgotten, gives a lively performance as the abandoned wife determined to win back her fickle spouse. She deftly weaves between drama & spoofery, making her dynamically diabolic appearance as the title character at the airship ball both mysterious and alluring. As her husband, Reginald Denny comes across as much more one-dimensional and unsympathetic, but then his role is supposed to register as rather bland when compared to that of Miss Johnson.

Owlish Roland Young is humorous, as always, this time playing Denny's best friend; his meek persona must hide a streak of wildness, however, to be able to host the truly bizarre zeppelin party. As Denny's young lover, Lillian Roth is all shrill, uncultured brashness--if this is what the director wanted, she hits the bulls-eye.

Movie mavens will recognize DeMille's own voice as the radio announcer at the end of the film.

Well it's certainly a curiosity. The first forty-five minutes to an hour is pretty boring. Lots of handwringing melodrama and old-fashioned ideas about what a woman needs to do to keep her man and so on. The second hour is where the money is. DeMille eccentricity on full display with wild costumes and sets and an exciting climax involving a zeppelin crash. The songs are not great. The number where Madam Satan reveals herself is intriguing because of the costumes and stuff but her singing style (think of a bird trill) gave me the creeps. The best thing about this is that it's a nice-looking film.

This is an interesting film from a visual standpoint, but as a script, it is a mess from beginning to end. There are some funny cracks (no pun intended). But the primary plot of a wife trying to win back the affections of a wayward husband is an unacceptable PC situation for modern audiences. In an earlier sexist age, it may have been an acceptable premise, but in the 21st century, the heroine would have several affairs herself, and eventually just divorce the knucklehead. The humor is fine, but then it goes off the rails with bizarre fashion and catastrophic occurrences which really do not push the plot forward. Interesting because of the visuals.