Runtime: 116 minutes
Directed by: Cecil B. DeMille
Starring: Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, Roland Young, Elsa Peterson
From: MGM
Where do I even begin with this movie?
I just mentioned how more variety was needed for my April movie viewings; this helped start off that trend. As several mutuals here mainly view movies of this vintage, about time I returned to that world. Via someone I follow on Letterboxd, this Cecil B. DeMille picture has been known about for several years. The main takeaway that me & everyone else has: what a bizarre motion picture, even by DeMille standards.
What a shame that (for me) the first 25 minutes or so are just dreary. It’s a bedroom farce involving the upper class where Kay Johnson is married to Reginald Denny, but he’s an obnoxious boor who hangs out with pal Roland Young and is seeing Lillian Roth, who randomly was in 1976’s Alice, Sweet Alice after not appearing in a film since 1939. The first 25 minutes were bad “comedy” and realizing what an ass Denny was. Business picks up once the quartet end up in Roth’s flat and farcical moments happened where she and Young pretend to be married. Even then, it wasn’t spectacular and Denny never becomes an appealing person. However, the movie then pivots…
After the 50th minute, the setting moves to a zeppelin where a masquerade mall occurs and Johnson is the titular Satan in a bid to woo Ol’ Reginald. Oh, I almost forgot… the movie is also a musical. A decent number happens in Roth’s flat but it really picks up in the zeppelin, complete with astoundingly over the top costuming, elaborate numbers and a vaguely French accent Johnson sports. Someone literally materializes out of thin air! In the final 20 minutes, the movie pivots in yet another direction, apropos completely out of nowhere.
Chaotic and disordered, Madam Satan certainly is. My lack of concern for the main relationship is an issue, definitely. That said, the general oddity of this production, how extravagant the film became and the final twenty minutes (which involved special effects) result in a passing grade.
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