Satan Met a Lady
Encyclopedia
Satan Met a Lady is a 1936
American
detective film directed by William Dieterle
and starring Bette Davis
.
The screenplay by Brown Holmes is a loose adaptation of the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
, which previously was filmed in 1931 under its original title
.
Valerie Purvis hires the detectives to locate a man called Farrow, and when both Ames and Farrow are found dead, Shane is suspected of both murders.
Shane finds his office and apartment have been ransacked and his secretary Miss Murgatroyd has been locked in a closet by Anthony Travers, who is in search of an 8th century ram's horn
rumored to be filled with jewels. Madame Barabbas is also searching for the treasure and sends a gunman to bring Shane to her.
Working all sides of the street, Shane makes deals with each of them to find the horn, and eventually winds up in possession of a package allegedly containing it, but it turns out to be full of sand instead of jewels.
The police round up all the suspects, but Shane and Valerie escape. He baits her into confessing to Ames's murder and tries to apprehend her for the $10,000 reward, but Valerie thwarts him by allowing a washroom attendant to turn her in to the police instead. Miss Murgatroyd then shows up and claims Shane for her own.
executives decided to film another version of the book and assigned contract writer Brown Holmes to pen the screenplay. Showing little regard for the original material, Holmes converted its object of desire - a jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon - into a ram's horn filled with precious gems, changed character names (Sam Spade
became "Ted Shane"), altered the gender of one of the criminal masterminds from male to female, and retitled the story, first to The Man in the Black Hat and then Men on Her Mind.
Filming began on December 1, 1935, although leading lady Bette Davis
, upset that she was being forced to film "junk" after completing a prestige project like The Petrified Forest
, failed to report to the set. "I was so distressed by the whole tone of the script and the vapidity of my part that I marched up to Mr. Warner's office and demanded that I be given work that was commensurate with my proven ability," she later recalled in her autobiography. "I was promised wonderful things if only I would do this film." She was suspended on December 3 and, angry and resentful but in need of her salary to cover living expenses for her mother and medical care for her sister, she reported to work three days later.
Upon completion of principal photography, art director
Max Parker
assembled a rough cut that so confused studio heads they assigned Warren Low to re-edit it. Retitled Satan Met a Lady, it was released on July 22, 1936. By then, Davis was in London
, having been placed on suspension for refusing to portray a lumberjack in God's Country and the Woman. In later years, she recalled insisting "I won't do it! Satan Met a Lady was bad enough, but this is absolute tripe."
of the New York Times called the film "a cynical farce of elaborate and sustained cheapness" that "deserves to be quoted as a classic of dullness" and observed, "Without taking sides in a controversy of such titanic proportions, it is no more than gallantry to observe that if Bette Davis had not effectually espoused her own cause against the Warners recently by quitting her job, the Federal Government eventually would have had to step in and do something about her. After viewing Satan Met a Lady . . . all thinking people must acknowledge that a Bette Davis Reclamation Project (BDRP) to prevent the waste of this gifted lady's talents would not be a too-drastic addition to our various programs for the conservation of natural resources." He concluded, "So disconnected and lunatic are the picture's incidents, so irrelevant and monstrous its people, that one lives through it in constant expectation of seeing a group of uniformed individuals appear suddenly from behind the furniture and take the entire cast into protective custody. There is no story, merely a farrago of nonsense representing a series of practical studio compromises with an unworkable script. It is the kind of mistake over which the considerate and discreet thing is to draw the veil of silence."
Varietys
1936 review was less vitriolic but hardly enthusiastic. "This is an inferior remake of [1931's] The Maltese Falcon.... Many changes have been made in story structure as well as title, but none is an improvement." It noted that both Davis's and William's credits were dropped "below the title" and that "Davis has much less to do than at least one other femme member of the cast." There were mixed impressions of William: while Ricardo Cortez's Sam Spade in the 1931 picture had been "natural and amusing, [William] and his satiric crime detection are now forced and unnatural." Yet at the same time, "his performance is all that keeps the picture moving in many lagging moments." In summary, the review said, "There's hardly any mystery in this version. The comedy isn't strong enough to fill the bill."
Time Out London noted that although the film can't compare to the 1941 screen adaptation of the Hammett novel, "Thanks to Dieterle's stylishly witty direction and excellent performances, it's nevertheless enjoyably and quirkily funny, at least until just before the end, when a whole wedge of undigested plot exposition suddenly catches up with the action."
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
detective film directed by William Dieterle
William Dieterle
William Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...
and starring Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
.
The screenplay by Brown Holmes is a loose adaptation of the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
, which previously was filmed in 1931 under its original title
The Maltese Falcon (1931 film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1931 American Warner Bros. Pre-Code crime film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The movie was directed by Roy Del Ruth and stars Bebe Daniels in the role of Ruth Wonderly and Ricardo Cortez as private detective Sam Spade.Maude Fulton, Brown Holmes,...
.
Plot
Private detective Ted Shane returns to work with his former partner Ames, who is not particularly happy about the situation because his wife Astrid dated Ted before they were wed.Valerie Purvis hires the detectives to locate a man called Farrow, and when both Ames and Farrow are found dead, Shane is suspected of both murders.
Shane finds his office and apartment have been ransacked and his secretary Miss Murgatroyd has been locked in a closet by Anthony Travers, who is in search of an 8th century ram's horn
Ram's horn
Ram’s horn can mean:* Shofar, a musical instrument used for religious purposes* Bukkehorn, a musical instrument used in Norwegian and other forms of Nordic traditional music* Proboscidea, a genus of plants...
rumored to be filled with jewels. Madame Barabbas is also searching for the treasure and sends a gunman to bring Shane to her.
Working all sides of the street, Shane makes deals with each of them to find the horn, and eventually winds up in possession of a package allegedly containing it, but it turns out to be full of sand instead of jewels.
The police round up all the suspects, but Shane and Valerie escape. He baits her into confessing to Ames's murder and tries to apprehend her for the $10,000 reward, but Valerie thwarts him by allowing a washroom attendant to turn her in to the police instead. Miss Murgatroyd then shows up and claims Shane for her own.
Production
Since they already owned the screen rights to the Dashiell Hammett novel The Maltese Falcon, economical Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
executives decided to film another version of the book and assigned contract writer Brown Holmes to pen the screenplay. Showing little regard for the original material, Holmes converted its object of desire - a jewel-encrusted statuette of a falcon - into a ram's horn filled with precious gems, changed character names (Sam Spade
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett....
became "Ted Shane"), altered the gender of one of the criminal masterminds from male to female, and retitled the story, first to The Man in the Black Hat and then Men on Her Mind.
Filming began on December 1, 1935, although leading lady Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, upset that she was being forced to film "junk" after completing a prestige project like The Petrified Forest
The Petrified Forest
The Petrified Forest is a 1936 American film, starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart. A precursor of film noir, it was adapted from Robert E. Sherwood's 1936 stage play of the same name...
, failed to report to the set. "I was so distressed by the whole tone of the script and the vapidity of my part that I marched up to Mr. Warner's office and demanded that I be given work that was commensurate with my proven ability," she later recalled in her autobiography. "I was promised wonderful things if only I would do this film." She was suspended on December 3 and, angry and resentful but in need of her salary to cover living expenses for her mother and medical care for her sister, she reported to work three days later.
Upon completion of principal photography, art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
Max Parker
Max Parker
Max Parker was an American art director. He was nominated for an Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction for the film George Washington Slept Here. He worked on 86 films between 1916 and 1947....
assembled a rough cut that so confused studio heads they assigned Warren Low to re-edit it. Retitled Satan Met a Lady, it was released on July 22, 1936. By then, Davis was in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, having been placed on suspension for refusing to portray a lumberjack in God's Country and the Woman. In later years, she recalled insisting "I won't do it! Satan Met a Lady was bad enough, but this is absolute tripe."
Cast
- Bette DavisBette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
..... Valerie Purvis - Warren WilliamWarren WilliamWarren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...
..... Ted Shane - Alison SkipworthAlison SkipworthAlison Skipworth was an English stage and screen actress. She was born Alison Mary Elliott Margaret Groom in London....
..... Madame Barabas - Arthur TreacherArthur TreacherArthur Veary Treacher was an English actor born in Brighton, East Sussex, England.Treacher was a veteran of World War I. After the war, he established a stage career and in 1928, he went to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations...
..... Anthony Travers - Winifred ShawWini ShawWini Shaw , sometimes credited as Winifred Shaw, was an American actress, dancer and singer. Although credited with a 1910 year of birth, she was actually born in 1907 as per the Social Security Death Index under her married name Wini O'Malley .-Early life:She was born as Winifred Lei Momi in San...
..... Astrid Ames - Marie WilsonMarie Wilson (American actress)Katherine Elisabeth Wilson , better known by her stage name, Marie Wilson, was an American radio, film, and television actress. She may be best remembered as the title character in My Friend Irma.-Career:...
..... Miss Murgatroyd - Porter HallPorter HallPorter Hall was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s...
..... Ames
Critical reception
Bosley CrowtherBosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
of the New York Times called the film "a cynical farce of elaborate and sustained cheapness" that "deserves to be quoted as a classic of dullness" and observed, "Without taking sides in a controversy of such titanic proportions, it is no more than gallantry to observe that if Bette Davis had not effectually espoused her own cause against the Warners recently by quitting her job, the Federal Government eventually would have had to step in and do something about her. After viewing Satan Met a Lady . . . all thinking people must acknowledge that a Bette Davis Reclamation Project (BDRP) to prevent the waste of this gifted lady's talents would not be a too-drastic addition to our various programs for the conservation of natural resources." He concluded, "So disconnected and lunatic are the picture's incidents, so irrelevant and monstrous its people, that one lives through it in constant expectation of seeing a group of uniformed individuals appear suddenly from behind the furniture and take the entire cast into protective custody. There is no story, merely a farrago of nonsense representing a series of practical studio compromises with an unworkable script. It is the kind of mistake over which the considerate and discreet thing is to draw the veil of silence."
Varietys
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
1936 review was less vitriolic but hardly enthusiastic. "This is an inferior remake of [1931's] The Maltese Falcon.... Many changes have been made in story structure as well as title, but none is an improvement." It noted that both Davis's and William's credits were dropped "below the title" and that "Davis has much less to do than at least one other femme member of the cast." There were mixed impressions of William: while Ricardo Cortez's Sam Spade in the 1931 picture had been "natural and amusing, [William] and his satiric crime detection are now forced and unnatural." Yet at the same time, "his performance is all that keeps the picture moving in many lagging moments." In summary, the review said, "There's hardly any mystery in this version. The comedy isn't strong enough to fill the bill."
Time Out London noted that although the film can't compare to the 1941 screen adaptation of the Hammett novel, "Thanks to Dieterle's stylishly witty direction and excellent performances, it's nevertheless enjoyably and quirkily funny, at least until just before the end, when a whole wedge of undigested plot exposition suddenly catches up with the action."