Madame Satan

Madame Satan

Director: Cecil B. DeMille Cast: Kay Johnson
Kay Johnson
, Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny
, Roland Young
Roland Young
, Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth
Cecil B. DeMille
Madame Satan

Madame Satan

Director: Cecil B. DeMille Cast: Kay Johnson
Kay Johnson
, Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny
, Roland Young
Roland Young
, Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth
Cecil B. DeMille

DVD (Remastered / B&W / Full Frame)

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Overview

The second of Cecil B. DeMille's talkies (as well as his second for MGM), Madam Satan is an exercise in incoherence, but this doesn't detract one iota from its entertainment value. Kay Johnson plays the sedate wife of philandering Reginald Denny, who is currently carrying on with "jazz baby" Lillian Roth. In a desperate effort to win back her husband, Johnson disguises herself as the alluring, provocatively clothed "Madame Satan." In this guise, she attends a lavish charity costume party being thrown by socialite Roland Young on a dirigible moored high above New York Harbor. Failing to recognize his mousey little wife, Denny arranges for a rendezvous with Madame Satan. When she reveals her true identity, Denny is outraged and threatens divorce. Suddenly, the dirigible is struck by lightning; it breaks loose from its moorings, tossing its terrified passengers around and about. Denny behaves heroically in shepherding the passengers into their parachutes; meanwhile, Johnson gives up her own parachute to save Roth. Coming to the mutual realization that each is worthy of the other's love, Johnson and Denny are reunited. Though when taken out of context, the dirigible sequence appears to be the ultimate in campy melodrama, this scene and all the scenes that built up to it are played for laughs: DeMille didn't take this farrago any more seriously in 1930 than we do today. Highlights include several unexpected and charmingly innapropriate musical numbers, including a bizarre "Ballet Mechanique" featuring dancer Theodore Kosloff. Though DeMille carefully threw in every ingredient that he hoped would appeal to a mass audience, Madam Satan was one of his few box office flops.

Product Details

Release Date: 11/09/2010
UPC: 0883316287651
Original Release: 1930
Rating: NR
Source: Warner Archives
Presentation: [Full Frame]
Sound: [Dolby Digital Mono]
Language: English
Time: 1:45:00
Sales rank: 28,581

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Kay Johnson Angela Brooks/Madam Satan
Reginald Denny Bob Brooks
Roland Young Jimmy Wade
Lillian Roth Trixie
Elsa Peterson Martha
Boyd Irwin Captain
Wallace MacDonald First Mate
Wilfred Lucas Roman Senator
Tyler Brooke Romeo
Lotus Thompson Eve
Vera Marsh Call of the Wild
Martha Sleeper Fish Girl
Doris McMahon Water
Marie Valli Confusion
Julanne Johnston Miss Conning Tower,Actor
Albert Conti Empire Officer
Earl Askam Pirate
Betty Francisco Little Rolls Riding Hood
Ynez Seabury Babo
Countess De Liguoro Spain
Katherine Irving Spider Girl
Aileen Ransom Victory
Theodore Kosloff Electricity
Jack King Herman
Eddie Prinz Riff
Henry Stockbridge Actor
June Nash Actor
Mary Carlisle Little Bo Peep
Mary McAllister Actor
Dorothy Dehn Actor
Louis Natheaux Arabian Prince
Ella Hall Actor
Edwards Davis Henry VIII
Kasha Haroldi Actor
Katherine DeMille Zeppelin Reveler
Vera Gordon Actor
Natalie Storm Actor
Elvira Lucianti Actor
Marguerita Swope Actor
Maine Geary Actor
Allan Lane Zeppelin Majordomo
Kenneth Gibson Actor
Youcca Troubetzkoy Actor
Dorothy Vernon Actor
Jack Byron Actor
Natalie Visart Actor
Else Petersen Martha
Clifford Grey Composer
Herbert Stothart Composer

Technical Credits
Cecil B. DeMille Producer,Director
Jeannie Macpherson Screenwriter
Elsie Janis Screenwriter
Gladys Unger Screenwriter
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