Monthly Archives: January 2022

Madam Satan (1930)

Posted on January 5, 2022 | 4 comments

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).

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Posted in 1930, Pre-Code Reviews

The Cuckoos (1930)

Posted on January 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Cuckoos
Directed by Paul Sloane
Written by Cyrus Wood based on a musical play by Guy Bolton, Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar
1931/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Flapper: You’re Americans, aren’t you?
Professor Cunningham: Yes, yes, but we can’t lend you any money.

Back for another dose of Wheeler and Woolsey tom-foolery.

Sparrow (Bert Wheeler) and Professor Cunningham (Robert Woolsey) are fake fortune tellers who have somehow wound up in Mexico near a gypsy camp.  The camp is run by an expert knife thrower who covets young American Anita (Dorothy Lee) who has lived with the gypsies since she was four.  Sparrow and Anita instantly fall in love when they meet and the knife thrower is out for vengeance.

At the same time, a wealthy lady is trying to break up a romance between her niece and clean-cut American Billy and force her to marry a baron.   The lady has her niece kidnapped and Anita also is dragged back to the camp.  Fun and frolic ensue.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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hszjf_6gsgA&t=1s

 

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Posted in 1930, Pre-Code Reviews

M

Posted on January 3, 2022 | 2 comments

M
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang
1931/Germany
Nero Film Ag
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Beggar’s Union Member: Stop snoring! You’ll wake up the lice.

Masterpiece. Full stop.

Odd little man Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) blends easily into a crowd.  This is how he has managed to terrorize a city with a series of child murders.  He lures little girls into his powers by offering them sweets and gifts.  Mothers all over the city are terrified to allow their children to walk the streets alone.  The police are baffled.

Because they have no better ideas, the police repeatedly raid criminal enterprises throughout the town and round up the usual suspects.  This is putting quite a damper on business and the criminals decide to pursue the killer themselves, using inconspicuous members of the Beggar’s Union as spies.

Finally the criminals manage to corner Hans in an office building storage unit and drag him to their hide out for a trial.  Hans would rather be caught by the police, thank you very much.

This more than stands the test of time and people will probably still be watching with equal awe 100 years from now. Everything works: the script, the pre-noir cinematography, the social commentary.  Peter Lorre leaves an indelible impression in surprisingly little screen time. The definition of a movie you must see before you die.

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1931

People on Sunday (1930)

Posted on January 2, 2022 | 8 comments

People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag)
Directed by Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer
Written by Billy Wilder from reportage of Curt Siodmak
1930/Germany
Film Studio 1929/Film Studio Berlin
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. — Susan Ertz

Future Hollywood greats teamed up to make this silent film about young people enjoying a day of leisure in the fading glow of pre-Hitler Berlin.

Two friends, Edwin and Wolf, want to take a break from the everyday grind and decide to pick up a couple of girls for a day of fun.  Lothario Wolf picks up Cristl, who invites her best friend Brigitte to make up a foursome.  But Wolf decides he likes Brigitte best and seduces her.

As they tire of the two girls, the men starting flirting with new ones.  The girls not only don’t get the boyfriends they are looking for, they are left to pay for a paddle boat the two ingrates rented.  Monday morning dawns and all Berlin waits for Sunday to come around again.

This is a charming film made with amateur actors.  The amateur acting does not slow down the proceedings at all, perhaps because they don’t need to speak.  Aside from the main plot, we get delightful portraits of happy Berliners and the city they live in.

 

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Posted in 1930