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.
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.