IMDb plot summary: Angela and Bob Brooks are an upper-class couple. Unfortunately, Bob is an unfaithful husband, but Angela has a plan to win back her husband's affections. An elaborate masquerade ball is to be held aboard a magnificent dirigible. Angela will attend and disguise herself as a mysterious devil woman.
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Starring Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, and Lillian Roth.
Madam Satan stars Kay Johnson as a woman who learns her husband is cheating on her and she determines to win him back. This is an early Cecil B. DeMille film, and it did make me wish I had a better film version of it, as the one I was able to find was pretty grainy, and DeMille's elaborate visuals are on display here in a way I could admire even through the subpar digital transfer. Johnson is spectacularly likable in this -- even when the film leans had into "decent woman versus indecent woman" slutshaming tropes, her character still comes across as a real woman being devastated and ashamed at the loss of her husband. The second half of the movie gets wild in a truly delightful way, jumping from the tragic melodrama of the first half to a silly mistaken identities farce, to, abruptly, a disaster film. It's not at all the way I would have envisioned this kind of movie playing out, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and the lengths to which the story went. Well worth a watch.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Madam Satan > Hairspray (1988)
Madam Satan > Anna Karenina
Madam Satan < Secretary
Madam Satan < Onward
Madam Satan < City Lights
Madam Satan > The Blue Angel
Madam Satan < A Boy and His Dog
Madam Satan > Censor
Madam Satan > The Impostors
Madam Satan > Twins
Madam Satan > The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Madam Satan < Sisters
Final spot: #840 out of 3701, or 77%.
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