Satan Met A Lady

1936 - Warner Brothers
Directed By William Dieterle

SYNOPSIS

A detective (Warren William) is a suspect in the death of his partner. While investigating the death, he’s pulled into the struggle for a rare horn from the days of Charlemagne. Meanwhile, he tries to romance one of the three parties questing for the jewel laden instrument (Bette Davis) as he’s trying to make it with his secretary(Marie Wilson.)

MY THOUGHTS

The Maltese Falcon is masquerading as a horn this time.
This was the second of Warner Brothers’ three takes on Dashiell Hammett’s classic novel The Maltese Falcon - the third time would definitely be the charm.

This version is totally played for laughs. Guns are pulled, shots are fired, people die but the script is never more than a second away from an attempt at a one-liner. Much of the humor falls flat. The film frequently has some truly bizarre humor that’s so abstract that it would be better suited on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup. This style of humor totally negates any realism and makes the film too cartoon-y.

Satan Met A Lady was made just 2 years after MGM made Dashiell Hammett’s other classic The Thin Man into a major hit. There’s no doubt as to why Warner’s went the comedy route, trying to cash in on the other film’s success. ‘Satan’ fails in every way The Thin Man succeeds.

Warren William tries to be as charming and whimsical as William Powell in The Thin Man, but it’s a pale impression and doesn’t suit the story. Much of the bizarre humor comes from his nonchalant (and very unreal) reactions to the dramatic situations around him. He’s accused of his partner’s murder that he didn’t commit, yet jokes to anyone (including the cops) about how he killed the guy.
Bette Davis is completely wasted. The other supporting parts, which would help to make the 3rd version so great (Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, Gladys George, Elisha Cook Jr., etc.) are completely unmemorable in the 2nd version.

The film flopped on its initial release and its easy to understand why. It only managed to make its DVD  release as a bonus feature in the 3-disc DVD set of The Maltese Falcon.