Cheap Madam Satan (Video) (Reginald Denny, Kay Johnson) Price

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Customer Reviews of Madam Satan

Early Talkie Experiment
I think most reviewers of this film are missing the point of this bedroom farce, namely that during the early years of the <
>talkie, the studios were desperate to hold onto their audiences; <
>plus they were all experimenting with the new media. Many stars <
>that one doesn't associate with the musical genre took part in the musical mania of the era, such as George Raft, John Wayne, <
>etc. <
> <
>Plus this was the era of experimental color, the two-strip technicolor process, with added hand tinting. So one will see <
>some unusual to us now, pairings of stars and genres not "nor- <
>mally" together. <
> <
>One has to also get used to the transitional phase of acting on camera to the new technology of sound, and in 1930, this was a <
>bare three years old!!!!!!!!!!!! Acting techniques used on the <
>stage were heavily borrowed from, and to us in 2004 seem a trifle odd, possibly even stilted. <
> <
>Having said this, I think this plot borrowed from Johann Strauss Jr's Die Fledermaus is also of interest, it having it's <
>premier during the financial collapse of 1873, and both items <
>seem to be less than successful as a result. <
> <
>But stick with this fascinating flick, you will see innovative <
>camera techniques in use, new techno (to 1930) featured as star- <
>ring centerpieces, such as a very creative ELectricity ballet a <
>la an Aztec priest as the centerpiece, the dirigible, and the latest in fabrics used to create some of the wildest pre-Mackie <
>costumes ever seen. Erte's influence is seen in them, and they <
>are quite daring for the era. Mesh and tulle never had it so good!!!!!!!! <
> <
>The dialogue is quite snappy, and very daring for the time, and <
>one can readily see why the Code came down on Hollywood just a <
>few years later. One simply did not discuss such up-front sub- <
>jects in middle America! It was considered shocking to do so <
>back then, and films like this garnered a lot of criticism, that <
>soon engendered the Code, local Boards of Review, Leagues of Moral Decency, etc. <
> <
>Bear with the funky to us now quirks of this film, and enjoy the <
>upfront discussion of mistress, heart-broken wife, and a really <
>jerk of a husband(what a jerk, throwing over a gorgeous wife for <
>a slut like Trixie!!!). The snappy dialogue is great fun, and <
>it's ending is also fun. Divorces were a great scandal then, and the frank repartee is a blast. <
> <
>I liked this movie, and too bad it hasn't come over on DVD!

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Wacko
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 nuimber 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.

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BIZARRE EARLY TALKIE.
This bizarre hodgepodge directed by Cecil B. DeMille has to been seen to be believed! A woman diguises herself as an exotic seductress in order to win her roving husband back, and the story takes place during an extravagant costume ball - aboard a dirigible....There are lots of songs and dances (even a ballet) in the dirigible scenes and Lillian Roth is memorable as the energetic, buxom and dimpled showgirl Trixie. Years later, she would stop boozing, repent and write I'LL CRY TOMORROW...Kay Johnson plays the elusively exotic title role, and Reginald Denny - her hubby - literally jumps to safety - in a parachute - into a Central Park Reservoir - after the blimp explodes!!... The famous climax -i.e. when the airship blows up - comes so late in the picture that you're too exhausted to enjoy the unique lunacy of it all. With Roland Young and the immortal (kidding) Martha Sleeper. Written for the screen by Jeanie MacPherson, this is a good example of DeMille's experimental insanity in the early talkie era.