Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Antonius Block The first part of this movie is just awful, and I think everyone but the most forgiving of viewers will find themselves rolling their eyes, cringing, or maybe even snoozing. The acting is poor, the cadence of the dialogue awkward, and character motivations often nonsensical. All I can say is, stick with it. There is silliness throughout the movie, but it gets much more entertaining as it develops, and there are some pretty wild scenes that ultimately made me like it, somewhat to my surprise.The premise of the movie is an age-old theme; a wife (Kay Johnson) does not like her husband's late nights boozing it up and philandering (he's played by Reginald Denny), while he doesn't like her coolness and lack of passion. "Don't you understand? Love can't be kept in cold storage. It's a battery that has to be recharged every day," he says, with clear sexual overtones. However, she's aware that he's having an affair, having found a note from his mistress (Lillian Roth) after he comes home drunk with a buddy (Roland Young). As a little indication of the silliness, the two men are sloppy to the point that they're showering with one another with their clothes on. Husband and wife argue and separate, even though it's clear they still love one another. Lillian Roth really lights up the screen and gives the movie its first real spark with her short musical number, "Low Down", shaking her hips and twirling about with a top hat (Google this one for a treat). When Johnson confronts Roth at the end of a mostly insufferable scene where all four principals are in her apartment, Roth points out that men, including Johnson's husband, appreciate her spiciness and fun. "What do I give him? I laugh when he does. I drink when he does! I give him a pal with lips to kiss and shoulders to hug. I give him a dream made out of perfume and soft lights. I jazz all the dullness out of his soul for him!" she says, warbling with a voice that sounds like pure 1930. Johnson vows to "raise her temperature" to win her husband back, and storms out.It's at this point that the movie gets good. Cut to a masquerade ball on a dirigible (of course!). The outfits (designed by Adrian) are wild, and the opening musical number is as well. Roth is getting a lot of attention from the men until Kay Johnson makes her dramatic appearance. Her transformation into 'Madame Satan' is excellent, and she really pulls off dressing up as a vixen, slinking around in a sexy outfit. Her husband finds himself attracted without knowing who she is, and things get crazy when the weather gets stormy. Suddenly we find ourselves in a disaster movie, and seven years before the Hindenburg. Director Cecil B. DeMille botched the first half of the movie, but really makes up for it in the second, with lots of nice moments, drama mixed with comedy, and risqué dialogue. The male performances from Denny and Young are pretty poor, but Roth and Johnson (when she's Madame Satan) make up for it. I may be rounding up a bit, but weirdly, I wound up liking it, and would watch it again.

dougdoepke Somehow this goofy movie seemed to invite a different kind of approach. So what follows is my highly subjective review of Madam Satan. Ten minutes into this supremely unfunny sex farce and I'm ready to chuck the cassette. First, there's Roland Young who's supposed to be an amusing drunk but is more like a ten day hangover, and second, there's Reginald Denny who's spent too many nights opening refrigerator doors because his face looks completely frozen. Then up pops this really zaftig little number named Lillian Roth, who's also a dead-ringer for Shirley Temple's older sister, so I ease up on the remote. But another thirty minutes of Denny and Young and not even Roth's wiggling and warbling can compensate. Then just as I go for the off-button, somebody in Hollywood mixes up the reels and out of nowhere I'm looking at long lines of happy people singing and dancing and snaking their way into this big balloon, the likes of which no one has seen in 60 years. Must be a free meal, I figure, since this is 1930 and it is the Big Depression. But no, on the inside is an x-rated version of Flash Gordon in the royal court of Ming the Merciless, except these pagans are marching around to the clatter of trash can lids banging together like it's pick-up day on Mars. It's really wild, all the girls trying to see whose outfit is the weirdest and slinkiest, and dancing around like it's the last night of a fertility rite, while all the guys are going absolutely crazy. Right then I'm wishing I was born a lot sooner, especially when the mysterious Madam Satan appears, looking like the slithery serpent from the Garden of Eden. Right away I know she's one of the director's favorites because he keeps angling his camera toward her chest area. So what do I care that this second movie has no plot, what with these lunatics in charge, who knows what'll happen next. Then, just as I'm really into all the drunken revelry, up pops Denny and Young again, and I know the Hollywood bigshots aren't as smart as people say, otherwise these two lunkheads would not be allowed to ruin another few reels. But there's Young anyway, yukking it up like he's really funny, and there's Denny still trying to get his face unstuck. And, sure enough, there's Roth, looking as cute and dimpled as ever, except this time they've stuck weird feathers in her at all angles like she's been plucked by a blind guy. But she doesn't care, because she keeps on singing her little heart out and I think I'm in love. Anyway, everyone knows that with all this sinning going on and a character like Madam Satan in charge, the wrath of God can't be far behind. And sure enough, just as they auction off the girl with six arms, down comes this bolt of lightning and there goes the balloon spinning up toward the heavens. But then God gets his bearings back, and back down goes the balloon, with all the pagans screaming and yelling and becoming instant converts. I don't want to give away the ending, except to say miracles do happen, since the outside of this balloon suddenly sprouts more parachute drops than the jump schools at 82nd Airborne. Ordinarily, I would figure I dreamed all this weird stuff, but even with an empty 12-pack my dreams are never, never this weird. I know there is a moral to this movie, which must be that sin shouldn't look like too much fun, otherwise the killjoys and fussbudgets among us will make sure movies show only good things like twin-beds, closed-mouth kissing, and dreary couples named Rock and Doris. And that will be the end of really wacko movies like this one.

hdemaio Some things are so awful they are fascinating. This movie is right up there with the best of the worst. I am not a Cecil B. DeMille fan but I have to wonder whether the epic meister was just having everyone on. I truly hope he wasn't being serious. But who knows? If your taste runs to the truly inept on a grand scale as only DeMille can do grand scale, the film is for you. I was especially enthralled by the idea of a dirigible being the setting for a 1930's brand of orgy. Not exactly the Hindenburg disaster but close enough for government work. Don't look for logic, consistency or any kind of rationality. Just sit back and chortle. The acting is as bad as the plot which is as bad as the singing which is as bad as the dancing. The dirigible is so bizarre it's a classic unto itself. Do you realize how few movies are based in dirigibles? This may be the reason why! See it to establish firmly in your mind the true meaning of the word - bad.

rsyung 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.