Madam Satan
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Written Jeanie Macpherson, Gladys Unger, and Elsie Janis
1930/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Angela Brooks: I’ll get my husband back from you.
Trixie: Try and do it!
Angela Brooks: All right, I will! You made him sick of virtue, I’ll make him so sick of vice he’ll scream for decency! I’ll give him perfume and jazz until his head reels! He wants them hot, does he? All right, I’ll give him a volcano! They’ll have to call out the whole fire department to put me out!
This is one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen, and that’s saying something!
Angela (Kay Johnson) and Bob (Reginald Denny) Brooks are a wealthy, sophisticated couple. But Bob has tired of domesticity and is openly having an affair with vamp Trixie (Lillian Roth). Angela has no intention of letting Bob go.
The couple’s friend Jimmy (Roland Young) decides to help patch things up by hosting a lavish masquerade party on a blimp! Bob is enthralled by the alluring “Madam Satan”, who arrives to show everyone how bad a bad girl can be.
This movie moves from classic love triangle to musical disaster flick by the end! Everything is done with DeMille’s characteristic love for excess. I can’t describe it or exactly recommend it but certainly it is something unique that appeals to the good-bad movie lover in me.
Unreal
Lillian Roth. I had not been acquainted with Roth’s work when I saw Susan Hayward play her in I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955).
There’s more music and musical numbers than usual. The best is Wheeler and Lee’s “I Love You So Much” duet. The aviator/niece subplot slows down the proceedings but the aunt is pretty funny and has a good number with Woolsey. Not the duo’s best perhaps, but there are several laugh out loud moments.
