Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

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.

JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: A variant on Ferenc Molnar's 1924 play, "The Guardsman", this is DeMille's only musical and one of the few films he produced which failed to make a substantial profit. In fact, this one made a loss. Despite this initial set-back, M-G-M had such intrinsic faith in the story idea, that it was filmed again as The Guardsman (1931), The Chocolate Soldier (1941), and Two-Faced Woman (1941) — yes, twice in the same year!COMMENT: Despite a few bright comebacks from Roland Young, the first half of this movie — particularly everything that's set in the Brooks' demesne — is pretty terrible. Once the ultra-fetching Lillian Roth comes on, audience interest does perk up somewhat; but it's not until the zeppelin scenes that the movie really reaches its DeMillean stride. The director is at his peak of richly campy bad taste, with dozens of svelte extras parading around in Adrian costumes that have to be seen to be believed. The music hots up commensurately and it all ends in typical DeMille fashion with a spectacular break-up of the zeppelin and the parachuting of hundreds of weirdly-dressed masqueraders to earth.Once on board the zeppelin, the picture picks up not only pictorially, but in all departments. True, Kay Johnson overdoes the Mae West impersonating Mae West in Every Day's a Holiday impersonation (actually it's the other way around, as the West picture wasn't made until 1938), complete with thick French accent and giddy (rather than sexy)mannerisms, but the other players loosen up considerably, even including stiff-as-a-board Reginald Denny. The lovely Lillian Roth seems even more desirable, whilst Roland Young is in his element with wonderfully dead-pan delivery of such devilishly witty lines as "You can't take a married man to hell."It's the zep scenes too that are so thickly encrusted with cultishly 1930s songs and musical numbers, including LeRoy Prinz's fantastically-staged Electricity number — see the guy had talent after all, despite all that Jimmy Cagney and I said to the contrary. He just lost that visual inventiveness somewhere along the way in his journey from M-G-M to Paramount to Warner Bros. We also loved Lillian Roth's "Lowdown". In her first rendition, she's joined by the talented Edward Prinz as well as composer Jack King.Abetting the glamorously bizarre Adrian costumes are the typically super-lavish DeMille sets, designed here by the creative duo of Cedric Gibbons and art deco specialist Mitchell Leisen, surely the last word in flapper-era elegance.Contrary to its slow and uncertain, bored and boring, mistimed and mistreated start, the end of the picture is a triumph of clever plotting and playing, with Roland Young hobbling to a wonderful exit for a most pleasing fade-out. This picture is definitely one for the books — scaling from the unbelievably bad to the dazzlingly enjoyable, its initial script/acting/directing rags miraculously transformed to ditto riches.

Jeff Sultanof There are a few films that simply defy description. In the early days of sound, every movie seemed to be an experiment of some type. Some have held up quite well, but most are only of interest to historians and buffs. A few are simply unbelievable. Golden Dawn, for example, leaves audiences totally speechless (that Oscar Hammerstein II contributed to this disaster is fascinating).For many years, the three MGM films that Cecil B. DeMille were rarely seen nor discussed. When they were finally unearthed, "Dynamite" turned out to be rather good, particularly since it had great performances by Charles Bickford and Kay Johnson. "The Squaw Man" has its champions, but not many; it was clearly a hand-me-down from a different era. It was DeMille's second MGM film that is remembered more than the other two. As other reviews state, it is one of the strangest movies made by any director. The fact that it was made by DeMille makes it truly a cult item.First of all, what made DeMille think that a movie about infidelity among the rich would bring in audiences in the first wave of the depression? Clearly this was supposed to be a drawing-room comedy that had a lot of music and singing. The script is woefully unfunny and dated even for 1930, with everyone trying too hard (Roland Young and Reginald Denny are just plain embarrassing). Johnson was a good actress, but I can't imagine any actress of the time pulling off this role. Modern day audiences scream with laughter when the first song is sung by Johnson's maid, as it comes from out of nowhere, and then Johnson 'talks' the rest of the song. Lillian Roth does the best she can, and actually adds some energy to a rather staid first-half. This first sequence is long and ultimately boring, being neither funny nor ultimately interesting.The second half is the party sequence on the zeppelin, something only DeMille could come up with. It's a pity that this was not released in color, as the costumes and overall set design are impressive even in black and white. This sequence is spectacular, surreal and beyond indulgent, and once again, depression audiences could not have taken comfort in the sheer waste of money that certainly shows on the screen. I would love to have seen Louis B. Mayer's face after seeing this movie.This is certainly worth a look once.

sallyrob-1 When I first saw "Madam Satan," on Turner Classic Movies, Robert Osborne said it might be the strangest movie ever made by the great director Cecil B. DeMille. I tend to agree with him. This was one of three films he had made at MGM, during the only time he was away from Paramount. None of the three films were apparently very good. Not only was DeMille frustrated by studio chief Louis B. Mayer was disappointed and infuriated; little wonder that DeMille and Mayer soon parted company.In any case, "Madam Satan" is rather slow-moving, clumsy, and awkward, much as is the case with early sound films. It never makes up its mind either as it delves into melodrama, comedy, music, and even a little horror. Nevertheless, it has some garish, spectacular moments. The mechanical ballet on the moored dirigible is rather fascinating and certainly quite peculiar. It is the height of Hollywood kitsch. The best sequence is when the dirigible is struck by lightning during a ferocious thunderstorm and everyone on the airship must parachute to safety.We will always wonder what DeMille had in mind when he made the film. It was certainly risqué and daring for its time, but it actually didn't do very well at the box office and the critics were puzzled by it. It remains today as a curiosity at best.