Just caught this film on TCM and WOW! Anyone who thinks they did not make some bonkers entertainment in the 1930s needs to reassess. I thought it was going to be a standard MGM musical, but it genre skips throughout its run time.
Kay Johnson is perfectly cast as a classy society wife, who stoically tolerates the philandering and foolishness of her immature cad husband Reginald Denny, who has been carrying an adulterous affair with brassy brunette Lillian Roth (whose tragic life story can be seen as I'll Cry Tomorrow starring Susan Hayward). Johnson gives him plenty of time to come clean and apologize, but Denny is a jerk of the first order. Not only does he take his wife for granted and consistently stands her up, but then lays the blame for it all at her door by claiming she is too stodgy and cold for a man like him before storming out. Even Denny's buffoonish friend and co-hort Roland Young (pre-Topper) finds his treatment of Johnson outlandish.
Johnson decides to take matters into her own hands. She pretends to believe Denny's lies about Roth actually being Young's new wife and shows up on their doorstep and demands to stay the night, causing the floozy and the friend great consternation. Only exacerbated when Denny shows up to seek solace in Roth's arms.
Just when we think that the film is a marital comedy and some version of Private Lives, the film takes a sudden turn south of sanity in the second half. Young holds a lavish debauched masquerade party for rich philanderers and a gaggle of nubile young things aboard a zeppelin. The costumes are amazing. While there had been some standard song and dance numbers sprinkled throughout previously, we now get some of the strangest numbers I have ever seen. Including one where the guests make like the mechanized workings of the zeppelin.
There is a wacko auction of the women and right when Roth is set to take center stage, her limelight is stolen by the arrival of the mysterious masked Madam Satan (Johnson), sporting a barely there dress and a French accent. She struts and purrs and vamps - capturing the wandering eye of her faithless husband and playing him for a fool by demonstrating that the fire he sought was there all along, while Roth fumes from the sidelines.
The whole thing culminates in a violent storm that tears the zeppelin from its moorings and suddenly we are in a wacko disaster movie. The scantily clad women and and masked buffoons are forced to parachute from the disintegrating zeppelin to save their lives in a creepily prescient sequence that foreshadows the upcoming Hindenberg disaster.
Its weird, its tonally all over the place, but it is impossible to tear your eyes away from it. The film definitely has laughs and a few thrills. Johnson is actually quite marvelous moving her character from a lovely but tolerant dishrag to a feisty sex bomb. Young is a lot of fun as the friend who keeps trying to do the right thing and often coming out the worse for it. Roth sings well and has good comic timing.
Unfortunately the weak link in the cast is Denny. The character is written and played as a total unrepentant jerk and later a laughable hypocrite. We never get any kind of idea what occupation he holds since he only uses his work as an excuse to his wife so he can drink and cheat. He is not particularly charming or charismatic. While pleasant looking, he certainly does not exude the sex appeal to sell why either Johnson or Roth would find him worth so much effort.
While one must take in the view of the times, it becomes apparent early on that Johnson is too good for him. Her lot would actually improve by leaving him to Roth, who in turn would probably get tired of him quickly. He offers nothing to make one understand why these women are fighting over him, when he should be kicked to the curb.
That said, the attitude in other areas of the film is eye-opening for anyone who thinks the times were staid. Johnson is able to demonstrate that she can be both a demure society wife and a hot-blooded temptress. Also interesting is that Roth's character is as unrepentant in her own way as Denny and suffers no comeuppance for her behavior. Post-code films would have demanded she suffer, be brought down a peg or offed in the disaster portion of the film, but this film takes a different track altogether.
Definitely a wild ride. I would agree with some of the other reviewers that the second half really makes the film memorable. It may not be great art, but you darn well would be hard-pressed to forget it any time soon.
Kay Johnson is perfectly cast as a classy society wife, who stoically tolerates the philandering and foolishness of her immature cad husband Reginald Denny, who has been carrying an adulterous affair with brassy brunette Lillian Roth (whose tragic life story can be seen as I'll Cry Tomorrow starring Susan Hayward). Johnson gives him plenty of time to come clean and apologize, but Denny is a jerk of the first order. Not only does he take his wife for granted and consistently stands her up, but then lays the blame for it all at her door by claiming she is too stodgy and cold for a man like him before storming out. Even Denny's buffoonish friend and co-hort Roland Young (pre-Topper) finds his treatment of Johnson outlandish.
Johnson decides to take matters into her own hands. She pretends to believe Denny's lies about Roth actually being Young's new wife and shows up on their doorstep and demands to stay the night, causing the floozy and the friend great consternation. Only exacerbated when Denny shows up to seek solace in Roth's arms.
Just when we think that the film is a marital comedy and some version of Private Lives, the film takes a sudden turn south of sanity in the second half. Young holds a lavish debauched masquerade party for rich philanderers and a gaggle of nubile young things aboard a zeppelin. The costumes are amazing. While there had been some standard song and dance numbers sprinkled throughout previously, we now get some of the strangest numbers I have ever seen. Including one where the guests make like the mechanized workings of the zeppelin.
There is a wacko auction of the women and right when Roth is set to take center stage, her limelight is stolen by the arrival of the mysterious masked Madam Satan (Johnson), sporting a barely there dress and a French accent. She struts and purrs and vamps - capturing the wandering eye of her faithless husband and playing him for a fool by demonstrating that the fire he sought was there all along, while Roth fumes from the sidelines.
The whole thing culminates in a violent storm that tears the zeppelin from its moorings and suddenly we are in a wacko disaster movie. The scantily clad women and and masked buffoons are forced to parachute from the disintegrating zeppelin to save their lives in a creepily prescient sequence that foreshadows the upcoming Hindenberg disaster.
Its weird, its tonally all over the place, but it is impossible to tear your eyes away from it. The film definitely has laughs and a few thrills. Johnson is actually quite marvelous moving her character from a lovely but tolerant dishrag to a feisty sex bomb. Young is a lot of fun as the friend who keeps trying to do the right thing and often coming out the worse for it. Roth sings well and has good comic timing.
Unfortunately the weak link in the cast is Denny. The character is written and played as a total unrepentant jerk and later a laughable hypocrite. We never get any kind of idea what occupation he holds since he only uses his work as an excuse to his wife so he can drink and cheat. He is not particularly charming or charismatic. While pleasant looking, he certainly does not exude the sex appeal to sell why either Johnson or Roth would find him worth so much effort.
While one must take in the view of the times, it becomes apparent early on that Johnson is too good for him. Her lot would actually improve by leaving him to Roth, who in turn would probably get tired of him quickly. He offers nothing to make one understand why these women are fighting over him, when he should be kicked to the curb.
That said, the attitude in other areas of the film is eye-opening for anyone who thinks the times were staid. Johnson is able to demonstrate that she can be both a demure society wife and a hot-blooded temptress. Also interesting is that Roth's character is as unrepentant in her own way as Denny and suffers no comeuppance for her behavior. Post-code films would have demanded she suffer, be brought down a peg or offed in the disaster portion of the film, but this film takes a different track altogether.
Definitely a wild ride. I would agree with some of the other reviewers that the second half really makes the film memorable. It may not be great art, but you darn well would be hard-pressed to forget it any time soon.