Tetrady not as good as all the hype

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Roger Lathbury Seeing "Satan Met a Lady" as a spoof of "The Maltese Falcon" is a desperate but futile effort to redeem it. It is a dreadful movie, full of unfunny, heavy handed jokes, with a garbled plot, and thin-to-the-point-of-vanishing dramatizations. The film appeared in 1936, two years after the sprightly blend of mystery and comedy of "The Thin Man." Probably the creators were trying for another singular conflation. In this film, however, the mixture fails. One reason is that the focus is blurred-at first the center of interest is the detective's affectless love life seen with elephantine facetiousness; then it switches to intent chasing after a valued object. The characters are both earnest and self-parodic. You can't have it both ways. Nick Charles (William Powell) is never earnest; he is always aware of himself as an absurd figure. Names are changed for no reason whatever: Shane is Spade; Purvis is Brigid O'Shaughnessy; Murgatroyd Effie; Madame Barabbas (a religious reference?) and Arthur Treacher split the role of Gutman; Kenneth is WIlmer; Farrell Thursby. The viewer keeps thinking how enjoyable the originals were as opposed to these inane cartoons. One has to feel sympathy for Treacher, forced to utter with a straight face cliché after cliché of British speech. The fabulous falcon becomes Roland's fabled horn from the French epic "La Chanson de Roland." The writers of "Satan Met a Lady" don't seem to know much about the epic, where the horn is a means to an end. In Hammett's story the falcon is appropriately an end in itself. It was plausible that the statuette be encrusted with gems in a wealth-oriented world. True, Roland's olifant was-as a sign of spiritual preciousness. Stupidly, here, the gems are supposed to be stuffed inside-a ridiculous notion in practical or historical terms. Finally, as any reader of this much-read work knows, Roland damages the object at the conclusion by attacking a Saracen soldier with it.The movie goes through the motions. Mercifully, after one hour and fifteen minutes it expires.

utgard14 Second film version of The Maltese Falcon is worth a look but pales by comparison to either the 1931 version or the 1941 classic. The problem is they cut so much of what makes the story great, particularly most of Dashiell Hammett's great dialogue. They also add a lot of unfunny comedy to things. Warren William is Ted Shane (not Sam Spade) and he spends the whole movie trying to be as annoying as possible. I think he was supposed to be roguishly charming but it just came across as smug and irritating. Marie Wilson, who I normally like, also gets on my nerves here. Worth seeing for the curiosity factor, as well as Bette Davis, who looks great and is the most interesting part of the movie.

spelvini Satan Met a Lady is a fascinating adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon into an unusual mixture of mystery and comedy and actually has several funny moments but veers so far from the source material that its effect is dissipated. In comparison to some recent comedy thrillers the film could be seen as ahead of its time. If John Huston had never made the quintessential Film Noir adaption of Hammet's novel The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart in the lead, Satan Met a Lady may have gained an entirely different stature.The film does have some funny moments as when Valerie Purvis catches Shayne searching her room and pulls a gun on him with the line "Do you mind very much, Mr. Shayne, taking off your hat in the presence of a lady with a gun?" There is also some very funny stuff with Warren William playing against Arthur Treacher's British character Anthony Travers. When Travers says he'll give Shayne 500 dollars for information and hands him a bill, the detective walks over to a lamp inspects the bill and summarily tears it up, getting a gentlemanly response from the Brit in an "Sorry" as he hands him another bill which the private dick inspects and pockets- it's a bit of visual business that is perfectly timed by the actors.

Terrell-4 If you believe that old movies don't make classic movies just because they're old, Satan Met a Lady will make your case. It's based more or less faithfully on The Maltese Falcon, the first movie of which was made in 1931. This version stars Warren William as Ted Shayne (Sam Spade), Bette Davis as Valerie Purvis (Ruth Wunderly), Alison Skipworth as Madame Barabbas (Caspar Gutman) and Arthur Treacher as Anthony Travers (Joel Cairo), with Maynard Holmes as Kenny (Wilmer Cook) and Marie Wilson as Miss Murgatroyd (Effie Perrine). The intent must have been to take the Dashiell Hammett story and turn it into a comedy murder mystery. The music under the opening credits is so jaunty you might expect a musical. Does it work? Sadly, no, not in my opinion. Of the characters, only Arthur Treacher comes off as genuinely interesting. If Treacher is remembered now it's probably only as one of the many stuffy English butlers he played. Here, he's remarkably good, dealing with fast dialogue and, in this movie, what passes for ironic and witty lines. He's a completely different type from Peter Lorre's Joel Cairo, but he's almost as vivid. The highlight of the film, in fact, is when we first meet him ransacking Shayne's apartment, then having some dueling dialogue with Shayne when Shayne unexpectedly appears. This scene is good stuff. For the rest, some of the actors are competent and some are mediocre. Bette Davis, surprisingly, doesn't make much of an impression; she's just too obviously intelligent and self-centered for the role. You watch her, but you're not much taken by her. Warren William probably comes off weakest, and some of this is not his fault. He had a profile as sharp as the prow of a yacht, a smooth, trained baritone, great diction and a sense of humor. Unfortunately, William is saddled with a trench coat that looks half a size to large for him; the collar gaps noticeably every time he leans over, sits down or is roughed up. He wears what appears to be a black Stetson. The combination makes him look almost silly at times. More damaging, we meet his version of Sam Spade being run out of town, then charming a large lady with jewels, then coming on very strong to Marie Wilson's ditzy, dumb blonde of a secretary, Miss Murgatroyd. The effect is less of a private eye who is a charming seducer than of a sleazy, middle-aged goat. He wears quite a bit of pomade on his hair. Satan Met a Lady is a curiosity piece, nothing more.