Category Archives: Film

Madam Satan

Madan Satan - AFI Centennial Celebration

April 26, 2025

Recently, Anthony and I had the great honor of being asked by the Film Club of the Art Deco Society of Washington D.C. (ADSW) and the American Film Institute (AFI) to introduce the 1930 movie, Madam Satan, the final film in their series Art Deco on Screen: A Centennial Celebration.

Madam Satan

Title Card for our presentation

To say we were somewhat nervous to take on this assignment is an understatement. With a list of points to hit, and a 12-minute time limit, we set to work.

With a lot of writing, rewriting, editing, moving sections, more editing and reworking dialog almost to the very end, we finally came up with a streamlined, informative, at times humorous (we hoped) and mercifully short presentation.

And so, for those who were unable to attend our presentation, sit back and enjoy.

MGM Logo

The MGM Logo

Madan Satan is a pre-code, 1930 MGM movie.  This was Cecil B. DeMille’s 60th film and the second of a three-picture contract with MGM which included Dynamite in 1929 and his second re-make of The Squaw Man in 1931.

Madan Satan

Title Card of Madam Satan

Written by Jeanie MacPherson, Gladys Unger and Elsie Janis, Madam Satan is DeMille’s only musical.

DeMille wanted Cole Porter to write the music but, “he was busy”. His next choices – Oscar Hammerstein, Rudolf Friml, and Sigmund Romberg – all wanted a cut of the profits.

Madam Satan

Cast and Music Credits

So, Clifford Grey, Herbert Stothart, Elsie Janis and Jack King got the job.

Madam Satan

Director Title Card

Madam Satan isn’t quite sure what it wants to be, as it is a marriage of a bedroom farce and a disaster film.

Think the “Real Housewives” of (enter a city here).

Madam Satan

Preproduction Casting

Going into pre-production and casting in the fall of 1929, DeMille really wanted Gloria Swanson in the leading role but was unable to lure her away from United Artists and Joseph Kennedy – remember that name. Kennedy was Swanson’s paramour at the time.

DeMille previously worked with Kay Johnson in Dynamite and after a long search he settled on her for the lead.

However, in a press release, DeMille was quoted as saying she was his first choice and he couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role. Still, actually not his first choice, he was pleased with her performance and contribution to the film.

CECIL B. DeMILLE

Cecile B. DeMille

Cecile B. DeMille (photo form the web)

DeMille had been a fixture in Hollywood since his first silent film, The Squaw Man produced by The Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company in 1914.

The Squaw Man

DeMille’s three versions of The Squaw Man

By 1916 Lasky’s company merged with Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players in Famous Plays under the Paramount Pictures umbrella. In 1918, DeMille remade The Squaw Man for the first time, also a silent film.

The Ten Commandments

Ten Commandments (photo from britannica.com)

By the end of the teens, DeMille had become Paramount’s most successful director, producing their most expensive film to date, The Ten Commandments in 1923. It cost approximately $1.4 million dollars.

Concerned with the cost, Paramount reigned in DeMille’s budgets leading to a break with the studio.

Between 1925 and 1928, DeMille became an independent producer at his own studio, Producer Distributer Corporation, releasing through Pathé.

Pathé Logo

1927 Pathé Logo

The King of Kings

The King of Kings (photo from vintage-ads.livejournal.com)

 This is where he made his most successful silent film, the 1927, The King of Kings.

The following year, Joseph Kennedy – the same person who would not lend him Gloria Swanson – joined the board as president of Pathé.

DeMille did not want to work for him. Offered a three-picture deal with MGM, he accepted.

THE CAST

Kay Johnson in Madam Satan

Kay Johnson (Nov. 29, 1904 – Nov. 17, 1975)

Kay Johnson, an accomplished stage actress before her film career, was spotted by DeMille in a production of The Silver Cord in California.

Impressed with her performance, he offered her a contract with MGM with her first film being DeMille’s Dynamite.  Including Madam Satan, Johnson appeared in six movies in 1930; and worked steadily through 1944.

Her final stage appearance was in the 1945 production of State of the Union. And her final film appearance was in the 1954 British film Jivaro.

In 1928, Johnson married actor, director, producer John Cromwell (m. 1928; div. 1946) and had two children; Jonathan Thomas Cromwell adopted in 1938 and actor, James Cromwell, in 1940.

Johnson never achieved the heights of fame she could have had, choosing to provide a stable home for her children over a life of fame in front of the cameras.

Reginald Denny in Madam Satan

Reginald Denny (Nov. 20,1891 – June 16, 1967)

Before films, Reginal Denny appeared on Broadway and used his trained singing voice on the legitimate stage in operetta.

Denny worked with John Barrymore in a Broadway production of Richard III in 1920.  They became good friends, starring in several movies together including the 1922 Sherlock Holmes which feature another star in tonight’s feature – Roland Young.

Though he appeared in a few movies in 1911 and 1912, his career officially started in 1915.  In silent films, he was cast as a typical young suburban American. But unbeknownst to most film audiences, he was British. With the advent of talkies, this became obvious and his career momentarily stalled going from leading man to featured actor.

Denny was able to adapt, and his screen personae became – usually – upper class British, or urbane gentleman. Examples can be seen in such films as the drama, Rebecca and the comedy, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.

Roland Young in Madam Satan

Roland Young (Nov. 11 1887 – June 5, 1953)

English born; Roland Young began his career in 1908 on the London Stage. By 1912 he was appearing on Broadway and juggling a successful stage career between London and America.

His American film debut was in the 1922 Sherlock Holmes along side tonight’s leading man, Reginald Denny.

Usually cast as the comedic second banana, he made just three silent films, and five talking pictures before being cast in Madan Satan. He would work again with Cecil B DeMille in the 1931, all talking, and second remake of The Squaw Man.

Young is probably best remembered as the milquetoast businessman, Topper in the movie of the same name, or displaying his dry wit as the licentious Uncle Willy in The Philadelphia Story.

Lillian Roth in Madam Satan

Lillian Roth (Dec.13, 1910 – May 12, 1980)

Stage mother Katie Rutstein groomed Lillian, and her sister Ann, for stardom. Sometimes billed as “Lillian Roth and Co.” or “The Roth Kids”, they worked the Vaudeville circuits, did some extra work in films and in 1917, six-year-old Lillian made her Broadway debut.

She eventually signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. At age 19, Roth was loaned out to MGM for tonight’s feature.

She left Paramount in 1933, possibly due to her growing dependency on alcohol.

Her father had been an alcoholic so the propensity to drink was probably there. Then, the sudden death of David Lyons, her first fiancé, in the 1930s from tuberculosis appears to be the initial trigger. Drinking, she found, made her feel better. At least momentarily.

Roth actively sought to take back control of her life through the years but repeatedly returned to alcohol as a way to cope.

Married and divorced 6 times, husband number 6, T. Burt McGuire, Jr., a recovering alcoholic himself, helped her to overcome her addiction and rebuild her career.

She is best remembered today for her 1954 autobiography, I’ll Cry Tomorrow, co-written with Gerold Frank, and the 1955 movie of the same name. With the  release of her book and the biopic, and as an outspoken advocate for destigmatizing this terrible disease, there was renewed public interest in her.

Roth worked continuously in theatre, concerts, night clubs and tours until a year before her death in 1980.

Her gravestone incudes the inscription, “As bad as it was, it was good.”

COLOR SYSTEM

Madam Satan Color

LA Times – Feb. 21, 1930

It was announced in the winter of 1930 that the picture would be largely shot in Technicolor.

Madam Satan Color

Motion Picture News – March 1, 1930

A few weeks later, MGM planned to use a rival color system and it would be almost entirely shot in Multicolor. But by the time filming began, the use of color had been reduced to one or two sequences.

Madam Satan Color

Variety – March 12, 1930

While we believe some scenes were shot in Multicolor, there is no evidence this footage was used in domestic release. And no contemporary review – that we could find – mentions any sequence in color.

With one exception:

Photo (1940) courtesy of theprincesstheatre.com.au

In 1933, three years after its release, an Australian review for a showing at the New Princess Theatre, Queensland, mentions the many beautiful scenes in color.

Madam Satan Color

1933 Australian Review

It was not unusual for foreign release prints to use alternate takes of scenes – in this case, possibly one with the color sequences.

ACT I

Madam Satan Cast

The Principal Cast of Madam Satan

The first 50 minutes of Madam Satan sets up the relationships between the main characters.

Angela and Bob in Madam Satan

The confrontation

Angela Brooks awakens to find her husband Bob has not returned from a night out with his friend, Jimmy Wade and showgirl Trixie, Bob’s side piece.

Confronting him, she realizes he’s lost interest in their marriage, and specifically her. And they agree to move on without each other.

Madam Satan

The scorned wife has other plans.

But Angela has other plans.

Madam Satan

The bedroom farce begins.

What happens next is a bedroom farce of who is who, and who is where.

Madam Satan

When rivals meet

During the mix ups and mayhem Trixie taunts Angela about giving Bob what he wants – which isn’t a decent woman.

Angela, in a bit of foreshadowing, declares “If he wants hot, she’ll give him a volcano.”

VISUALS

Madam Satan

Invitation to the zeppelin party.

Sets designed by Cederic Gibbons and Mitchel Leisen use subtle touches of deco elements in the domestic scenes, Act II, situated on a Zeppelin – because everybody’s friend has access to one – is decedent, surreal, and over-the-top.

Why? Because DeMille could.

It opens with a miniature set of a Zeppelin moored at an imaginary Jersey City airfield against the New York skyline.

Madam Satan Mooring Mast

Singing “We’re Going Somewhere”.

Guests arrive at the mooring mast singing, “We’re Going Somewhere”. As you can see in the slide, the lyrics are – gripping?

Madam Satan catwalk

Entering via a catwalk.

The Cat Walk from Madam Satan

Singing and dancing the “Cat Walk”.

Entering the Zeppelin via a catwalk, they begin singing the “Cat Walk” escorted by stewardesses dressed like – well, cats.

CGI Cat

Just say no!

And thankfully, not CGI ones!

Madam Satan zeppelin set

Zeppelin interior set.

Chrysler Building inspiration

Top of the Chrysler Building

The symmetry of the multi-level set consisting of staircases, arches and guide-wires appear to loosely mimic the top of the Chrysler Building.

Madam Satan deco touches

The chart room and the band stand.

In the Chart Room, cushions on the modern furnishings are upholstered in Art Deco fabric. And note how the sweep of the girders create a deco backdrop for the band stand.

CHOREOGRAPHY

Theodore Kosloff

“Ballet Electric” or “Ballet Méchanique”

Guests are treated to a bizarre modernistic “Ballet Electric” or “Ballet Méchanique” – depending on the source – danced by Theodore Kosloff, a renowned dancer, and actor.

In a nod to the importance of electricity in modern times, he magically appears with lightning bolts on, and around him.

DeMille hired Kosloff to choreograph Madam Satan but MGM insisted on Leroy Prinz – primarily to cut costs.

Madan Satan Ballet

Living Machinery

Its generally accepted that Kosloff choreographed the ballet as it is in his style. And, it is in no small part, influenced by the robot scene in Metropolis with supporting dancers dressed as parts of living machinery.

The use of over-head photography was not new to films. However, Busby Berkeley redefined the technique. His use of tightly synchronized routines to form patterns was unparalleled, blowing other productions out of the water.

Berkeley’s first film, Whoopee!, released at the same time as Madam Satan was a hit.

Madam Satan

Deco inspiration

If you get a chance to see the film, look for a woman carried in wearing a fantastical sweeping headdress reminiscent of Rene Lalique’s Victoire or Maurice Guiraud’s La Cometé.

Zeppelin Bar Carts

Zeppelin Bar Carts

And adding to the over-the-top entertainment, libations are brought to guest via zeppelin shaped bar cars driven by women in futuristic garb.

At least DeMille seems amused.

COSTUMES

Adrian - Madam Satan

Adrian Adolph Greenburg

Costume designer Adrian was tasked with bringing DeMille’s jazzy, hedonistic vision to life.

Madam Satan - Censor

Colonel Jason Joy (Photo form Alamy.com)

But many had to be modified to satisfy Hollywood censor. Jason Joy.

Joy worked closely with DeMille adding body stockings, more sequins, and fishnets to ensure the women were not revealing too much.

Adrian original sketch for Madam Satan

Original sketch vs. end product

In the original costume sketch, Madam Satan’s gown has deeper cut panels with barely-there coverage.

No doubt, adjusted to be more modest.

Madam Satan Costumes

Buck Rogers inspired?

Costumes for the male crew appear to be influenced by the popular and futuristic Buck Rogers from Amazing Stories Magazine.

Madam Satan Costumes

Bob’s tame compared to Trixie

Bob’s costume is tame compared to the exciting life he craves. It contrasts with Trixie’s barely-there ensemble – surely with a few added sequins.

And the fantasy doesn’t end there:

Madam Satan Costumes

The Tic-toc zeppelin ladies

Time flies when you’re having fun. Or is this the march of time?

Madam Satan Costumes

Contrasting leading ladies

Adrian deftly reinforces the contrast between the female leads with Madam Satan’s gown regally seductive as opposed to Trixie’s vulgarly overt exuberance of sequins and plumage.

Madam Satan Costumes

Contrasting the two sides of Angela

He does the same with the two sides of Angela / Madam Satan.

THE DISASTER

When disaster strikes - Madam Satan

Lighting bolt ex-machina

The frivolity ends when a lightning bolt “ex machina”, sets the zeppelin loose…

Abandon ship!

Abandon ship!

and the guests into a panic; forcing them to abandon ship.

Remember the Shenandoah!

Remember the Shenandoah!

Remember the Shenandoah!

Disaster inspiration.

There is little doubt that the tragedy of the Shenandoah influenced the fictitious disaster in tonight’s film.

Audiences would remember the actual destruction of the Navy airship, just a few years earlier. On September 3, 1925, turbulence tore the airship apart and 14 of the 43 crew members lost their lives.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Pre-code special effects for Madam Satan

Before CGI special effects

In a world before CGI, studios needed a way to create special effects. Madam Satan used the Williams Process.

The Williams Process

The Williams Process

Patented in 1918, Frank D. Williams’ system allowed for integration of actors into moving backgrounds, It was first used in the 1922 Universal Film, Wild Honey.

DeMille also used it in 1922 for “Manslaughter”, and F.W. Murnau for Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans in 1927. The last film to use the Williams Process, or at least a version of it, was in 1964 for Mary Poppins.

The next part gets technical, but it’s interesting.

The Williams Process Step 1

The Williams Process Step 1

The Williams Process

The Williams Process Step 2

First, an actor in filmed in front of a black background. Two negatives are made, one is on regular film stock, and the other on high contrast stock.

The Hold-out and cover mattes for the Williams Process

The hold-out and cover mattes for the Williams Process

The latter is processed several times until it creates a solid black hold-out matte – a transparent background and a black foreground.

This is inverted to create a cover matte – with a black background and a transparent foreground.

The Williams Process

Hold-Out Mask overlayed on raw film stock & background filmed

The hold-out matte is overlayed onto raw film stock and the desired background photographed.

The masks in place for the Williams Process

Masks preventing exposure to the film

The hold-out matte was removed, the film rewound, and the cover matte is overlayed onto the newly filmed background preventing further exposure.

Williams Process

Original negative printed into negative space

The Williams Process

The final negative in the Williams Process

And the original negative is printed into the previously masked (unexposed) part of the film creating the final negative.

The Williams Process

The final product

While effective, it presented some technical issues, including light bleed which caused a halo effect around the actors.

PRODUCTION AND RELEASE

Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille (photo George Eastman Museum)

Production started on March 3rd, 1930 with a planned 70-day shoot, wrapping 11 days ahead of schedule on May 2nd.

It was MGM’s most expensive film of the year costing $980,000.

Out of town opening Madam Satan

Out of town opening Madam Satan

Suspecting audience’s waning interest in musicals, MGM opened it in Kansas City, September 12th, 1930; followed soon by other smaller markets before moving it to New York in early October.

In the end, it lost $390,000.

Released a year too late, public tastes had changed and musicals were on the decline. And the typical operetta convention of a mask and a fake French accent worked better on the stage where there is distance between the audience and the actors – less so in movies with close-ups.

REVIEWS

NYT Film Critic Mordaunt Hall in his, Oct. 6, 1930 review wrote:

Cecil B. De Mille’s latest audible film, ‘Madam Satan,’ is a strange conglomeration of unreal incidents that are set forth with no little technical skill.’ 

Robert Eber review Madam Satan

Robert Eber (Photo via X)

Robert Ebert stated:

I cannot believe that I have gone this long in life without basking in its total and heedless insanity. The film’s first half is a sparky romantic farce…slick, stylish and entertaining as can be but it is in the second half that it makes its grand leap towards genius/insanity… [It] could not possibly get any stranger … [Then] DeMille—comes in to transform it into a full-on disaster film…You have almost certainly never seen a film even remotely like “Madam Satan” before in your life.

A Song in the Dark

A Song in the Dark (photo via Amazon.com)

In his book about early musicals, A Song in the Dark, Richard Barrios, had this to say:

The Depression had begun to alter the national mood irretrievably while Madam Satan was still in production; by the time it reached theatres it was obsolete…How fitting that Madam Satan, the utmost example of the trend, winds up with a well staged blimp wreck; in one clean sweep this scene now seems to embody the end of the Jazz Age, the collapse of American prosperity, the death throes of early musicals, and, most literally, the flop of this last baroque gasp of twenties frivolity.

Cecil B. DeMille’s use of metaphor was usually painfully literal and obvious. This one, ironically, he never intended.

IN CLOSING

Madam Satan Posters

Just a few of the many graphics for Madam Satan

It’s been 95 years since its release. Is it a great movie? No. Is it worth the watch? We think so. And if you do see it, just go along for the ride and judge for yourself.

Thank you Madam Satan

Thank you for joining us!

Thank you!

 

Chris and Anthony (The Freakin’ ‘tiquen Guys)

Astaire & Rogers and the 1930s Aesthetic Part One: Flying Down to Rio

Daily News ad for Flying Down to Rio at Radio City Music Hall, December 20, 1933.

Advertisement for Flying Down to Rio, New York Daily News, December 20, 1933. From newspapers.com.

December 21, 2023 marked the 90th anniversary of the opening of Flying Down to Rio, the first film to team Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Over the next six years, Astaire and Rogers starred in eight more R-K-O films together. Not only did these films showcase their incredible dancing, they also a showcased 1930s design trends. Driving for Deco will take a look at all nine films.

Pre-History

Fred Astaire

By the time R-K-O teamed Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Flying Down to Rio, both were veterans of show business. Astaire, born on May 10, 1899 in Omaha Nebraska and his older sister, Adele began taking dancing lessons at a very early age. By the end of 1905 they started trouping in vaudeville.

Fred and Adele Astaire at the start of their vaudeville career, 1906.

Fred and Adele Astaire, 1906. Image from Wikipedia.

By the early 1920’s, they made the leap to Broadway headliners in such shows as Lady Be Good (1924), Funny Face (1927), Smiles (1930) and The Band Wagon (1931).

Adele and Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon, 1931.

The Band Wagon (1931), Adele Astaire’s last show. Photograph from the New York Public Library Digital Collections.

After achieving great success on both the Broadway and London stage, Adele retired in 1932 to marry Lord Charles Cavendish. For the first time in his life, Fred was now a solo performer. Astaire was nervous about performing without his sister. In The Gay Divorce, Astaire teamed with Claire Luce and the show was hit. Opening at the end of November, 1932 and closed in July 1933.

Fred Astaire and Claire Luce dancing in the stage production of The Gay Divorce.

Fred Astaire and Claire Luce in The Gay Divorce, 1932. Image from Pinterest.

It was during the run of The Gay Divorce that Astaire made a screen test for producer David O. Selznick, who at that time was head of production at R-K-O. While Astaire waited for R-K-O to cast him in a film, the studio loaned him to M-G-M where he made his motion picture debut in Dancing Lady, starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable.

Joan Crawford and Fred Astaire in his debut film, Dancing Lady (1933).

Joan Crawford with Fred Astaire in his motion picture debut, Dancing Lady (1933). Even in his first film Astaire is in top hat, white tie and tails. Frame grab from Warner Bros. DVD.

After filming Flying Down to Rio, Astaire went to London for the West End run of The Gay Divorce, closing after a respectable run of 180 performances. Astaire did not need to worry about continuing his career solo. Although Fred Astaire did not know it at the time, The Gay Divorce would be his last Broadway and West End show.

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers had only been a show business professional for only eight years when she was teamed with Astaire in Flying Down to Rio. Born on July 16, 1911 in Independence, Missouri, some of Rogers’ childhood was spent in Kansas CIty, before moving to Fort Worth, Texas in 1920.

Ginger Rogers at one year old.

Ginger Rogers at age one. Image from backlots.net.

Rogers’ mother Lela left her daughter in her parents care in 1915 when she went to Hollywood with an essay she had written in hopes of turning it into a film. This led to a job as a script writer at the Fox Film Corp. Lela eventually returned to her family and in the 1920s became theatre critic for a Forth Worth newspaper. This exposure to theatre at an early age led Rogers to pursue a career in show business.

Circa 1930 photo of Lela and Ginger Rogers.

Lela and Ginger Rogers, circa 1930. Photo from backlots.net.

Winning a Charleston contest in 1925, whose prize was a six month tour on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit, began Rogers’ show business career. At seventeen Rogers married vaudevillian Jack Pepper and they formed the team “Ginger and Pepper”, within a year their teaming and marriage was over and she went on touring as a solo again. When her tour reached New York City, she stayed. Landing jobs singing on the radio, led to her Broadway debut in the musical Top Speed.

Advertisement for Girl Crazy.

Advertisement for Girl Crazy. Image from Ebay.

Within two weeks of the shows opening, Rogers was offered the lead in Girl Crazy with music by George and Ira Gershwin.  In a bit of foreshadowing, Fred Astaire was hired to help with some of the choreography for the show. Girl Crazy catapulted Rogers to stardom at age 19.

Ginger Rogers and the male quartet in the 1930 Broadway production, Girl Crazy.

Ginger Rogers and male quartet in Girl Crazy (1930). Image from gershwin.com.

Making her screen debut in the 1929 short subject A Day of a Man of Affairs, Rogers made two more shorts in 1930 before signing a seven year contract with Paramount. While at Paramount, she made five films at their Astoria, New York studio before getting out of her contract and moving with her mother to Hollywood. In Hollywood, Rogers signed a three picture deal with Pathé then freelanced, making films for a number studios. Her movie breakthrough came at Warner Brothers with her roles in 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). After shooting Gold Diggers Rogers signed a long-term contract with R-K-O and was soon cast in Flying Down to Rio.

 

Hermes Pan

Hermes Pan, circa 1940.

Hermes Pan (1909 – 1990), circa 1940. Image from wikipedia.org.

There were many talented people who contributed to the success of the Astaire-Rogers films. But, arguably, the most important contributor was Hermes Pan. Born in 1909 to a Greek immigrant father and mother with English – Scot-Irish heritage in Memphis, Tennessee. The family moved to New York City in 1923 a year after his father’s death. At 19, Pan’s dancing career began professionally when he landed a job in the chorus of the Marx Brother’s Broadway show Animal Crackers. Pan worked with Ginger Rogers in Top Speed, in 1930. Soon Pan and his sister Vasso moved to Los Angeles. There he found work in the movies as an assistant dance director at R-K-O. In 1933 he met Fred Astaire (who Pan bore a strikingly similar appearance too) on the set of Flying Down to Rio. Astaire was trying to figure out a step for The Carioca and Pan was invited over to assist Astaire. From that point on a long professional relationship and friendship was born. Pan would assist Astaire in creating the choreography for a number of his future musicals. Pan would also learn Ginger Rogers’ steps and teach them to her while Astaire was working on his solo routines.

R-K-O Radio Pictures

1937 photo of the R-K-O Radio Pictures studio.

R-K-O Radio Pictures Studio, at the corner of Melrose Avneue and Gower Street in Hollywood, California, 1937. Image from calisphere.org.

In 1928, four fully vertically integrated movie studios dominated Hollywood. By the end of the year, a new player joined M-G-M, Paramount, Fox and Warner Bros., one whose parent company, R.C.A., created to exploit their new sound on film system, Photophone.

FBO Studio in Hollywood, 1926.

Aerial photograph of the FBO Studio in Hollywood, California, 1926. Photo from hollywoodphotographs.com.

In late 1927, with all the major film studios aligned with Western Electric’s Vitaphone or Movietone sound systems, David Sarnoff needed a foothold in Hollywood for R.C.A. Photophone. Sarnoff approached Joseph P. Kennedy to install Photophone in Film Booking Office of America’s studio (FBO). During negotiations R.C.A. acquired a substantial interest in FBO. A year later, Sarnoff merged the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) vaudeville circuit with FBO. And on October 23, 1928 announced the creation of Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO), the first Hollywood studio created specifically to produce talking pictures. Street Girl, R-K-O’s first official release hit the screen on July 30, 1929.

Street Girl (1929) lobby card.

Lobby card of R-K-O’s first official release, Street Girl, starring Betty Compson and Jack Oakie. Image from imdb.com.

R-K-O had its first mega-hit with the release the screen adaptation of the Ziegfeld musical Rio Rita in the fall of 1929.

Title card for the 1929 version of Rio Rita.

Title card for 1929’s Rio Rita. Frame grab from the Warner Archive DVD.

R-K-O would receive their only best picture Academy Award with the 1931 version of Cimarron.

Title card from 1931's Cimarron.

Title card of 1931’s Cimarron. Frame grab from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

After these early successes, R-K-O’s over spending on theatres and increased production, combined with the deepening Depression, caused the studio to fall on very shaky financial ground. After David O. Selznick took over as head of production in 1931 the studio began to regain some fiscal solvency. Selznick’s green lighting of Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack’s production of King Kong (1933) restored the studio’s financial health.

King Kong title card.

King Kong title card. Frame grab from Warner Bros. Blu ray.

Soon after the release of King Kong, Selznick left R-K-O for M-G-M, in his place Merian C. Cooper took over as head of the studio’s productions. And one of the first films made under Cooper’s tenure would be Flying Down to Rio.

Musical Films

With synchronized sound finally becoming successful in the late 1920s, the one genre that had alluded motion pictures, the musical, finally became a viable option. With the release of M-G-M’s Broadway Melody in February of 1929, the musical film took off.

Charles King and chorus in title number from The Broadway Melody.

Charles King and the chorus performing the title number in The Broadway Melody, 1929. Frame grab from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

All the Hollywood studios put musicals into production, and the public loved them. These films matched the giddy mood of the late 1920s. But by the summer of 1930 with the glut of musicals in release, combined with the deepening Depression, audiences began to reject them. From a high in 1930 with 79 musicals hitting theatres the number dropped to 7 in 1932, the darkest year of the Great Depression. When Franklin Roosevelt won the 1932 presidential election, optimism, if not actual economic prosperity, started to slowly return. In this atmosphere, Warner Bros. took a gamble and produced 42nd Street.

Main title for 1933's 42nd Street.

Main title of the Warner Bros. 1933 mega-hit 42nd Street. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Its enormous success made the other studios follow their lead and musicals once more were on movie screens. And R-K-O put into production their most expensive film of the 1933-1934 season.

Flying Down to Rio

R-K-O Radio Pictures Logo.

R-K-O Radio Pictures logo (1933). Frame capture from Warner Bros. DVD.

Flying Down to Rio main title card.

Main title card for Flying Down to Rio (Thorton Freeland, US 1933). Frame Capture from Warner Bros. DVD.

On August 23, 1933 production started on a musical film at the R-K-O studio that no-one  thought would create the most popular dancing team in movie history. Principal photography took only five weeks and wrapped up on October 6th. With an extra week or so of retakes shot between late October and November 7th.

 Dolores del Rio, Gene Raymond and Raul Roulien are the top three billed stars of the film.

The plot is typical of musicals of the early 1930s. Boy meets girl, girl is engaged to boy’s best friend,  how will it all end?

The other major plot point concerns Belinha’s father not being able to secure an entertainment permit for his new hotel in Rio de Janeiro. Without the permit the entertainment needs to take to the air, with dozens of chorus girls on the wings of airplanes. It sounds silly and it is. But it is also a lot of fun and entertaining.

Chorus girls take to the sky over Rio.

Chorus girls take to the sky to entertain the guests of the Hotel Atlantico. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Directed by Thorton Freeland and with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu and produced by Merian C. Cooper.

Art Direction

Like most R-K-O films of the 1930s Van Nest Ploglase and Carroll Clark are credited as Flying Down to Rio’s art directors.

The film opens up in Miami, Florida, where Roger Bond and his Yankee Clippers are performing at the fictitious Hotel Hibiscus.

The opening establishing shot of Miami in Flying Down to Rio.

Miami establishing shot at the opening of Flying Down to Rio. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

The Streamline Moderne style of architecture that one associates with Miami was still a few years away, with the opening of the Reef Apartment-Hotel in 1935. At the time of Flying Down to Rio, Spanish Colonial Revival architecture was the predominate style of Miami. And the sets of the Hotel Hibiscus, while having a few Art Deco touches, is mostly a weird amalgam of primarily Spanish style and some Venetian set pieces, including a canal and gondola. As  seen in the “Date Grove” where the Yankee Clippers are playing.

The Date Grove of the Hotel Hibiscus.

The Date Grove of the Hotel Hibiscus. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

The main lobby does have geometric Art Deco elevator doors. These can been seen in the background, as a very late-for-the-broadcast Roger Bond (Raymond) and Fred Ayres (Astaire) run through the lobby.

The Art Deco elevator doors can been seen in the background of the Hotel Hibiscus set.

The Art Deco elevator doors of the Hotel Hibiscus set. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

After the band gets fired from their Hotel Hibiscus gig, they land a job in Rio de Janeiro and the action shifts to South America. But much like the rest of the film, the art direction stays mostly Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean. Typical of early 1930s films, the audience is introduced to the new local through a series of stock shots of Rio de Janeiro.

Introduction shot of Rio de Janeiro.

Establishing aerial shot introducing the audience to Rio de Janeiro. Frame grab from Warner Bros. DVD.

Roger Bond’s house in Rio keeps with the Spanish Revival style. The only modern piece in it is a Manning-Bowman Carafon thermos set (1931-1940), seen in the background sitting on  a traditional cabinet.

The set of Roger Bond's house in Rio.

The set of Roger Bond’s house in Rio. A Manning-Bowman Carafon set is on the cabinet in front of the window. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

This Manning-Bowman thermos sold well in the 1930s and were used as props in many films of the decade. A complete set with tray and glasses can be found in the Yale University Art Museum.

Manning Bowman Carafon set in the Yale University Art Museum's collection.

Manning-Bowman Carafon set, with tray and glass. Photograph from the Yale University Art Museum.

Now the action shifts to the Carioca Casino. Carioca is a word that refers to the citizens of Rio de Janeiro. This is the moment that made Flying Down to Rio a sensation: the first, on-screen dance of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It also introduces something that would dominate in the next three Astaire-Rogers films, “the Big White Set”. These enormous, mostly white sets would be the setting for the films big production numbers, which in this film is “The Carioca”.

Establishing shot of the Carioca Casino.

The establishing shot of the Carioca Casino. A stock shot of Rio de Janeiro with an optically added sign for the Carioca Casino placed on a building. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Again, the set is inspired by Spanish style architecture with its tile and wood work. It is also has an open air garden look with trees and rough wood railings and a butterfly motif.

The interior of the Carioca Casino.

The establishing shot of the Carioca Casino, showing couples dancing the Carioca. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

The Carioca, as a dance, is a combination of samba, maxixe, fox trot and rhumba, all-the-while dancing with foreheads touching. Watching these couples, the Astaire and Rogers characters decide to give it a try and do so on the stage located just below the orchestra. Of course they’re a huge hit and in that one number they steal the film away from the three top billed leads.

After the solo dance by Astaire and Rogers, the number continues. First the white dance chorus, followed by Etta Moten (1901 – 2004) singing “The Carioca” then the Afro-Brazlian dance chorus comes in, before going back to Astaire and Rogers doing a tap version on the stage which now revolves and ending with a couple of semi-overhead shots of the all the performers in the number.

The white dancing chorus

Etta Moten singing “The Carioca”.

The Afro-Brazlian dance chorus’ turn at “The Carioca”.

Full chorus closing the number.

Full chorus closing the number. All frame grabs from the Warner Bros. DVD.

After a few more scenes playing up the the romantic plot triangle, the film gets to the Aviators Club, the only truly moderne set in the movie.

Spinning propeller toy introduces the audience to the Aviators Club in Flying Down to Rio.

Spinning propeller toy introduces the audience to the Aviators Club. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Of course here most of the set pieces are based on aviation themes. The table supports are made to look like the ropes holding the basket of a hot air balloon. Hanging over a section of the dining room are private tables inside a replica a dirigible gondola. The orchestra plays from a hot air balloon basket that lifts up and floats over the dance floor. There are chrome railings and a large compass rose on the dance floor.

Establishing shot of the Aviators Club's dining room and dance floor.

Establishing shot of the Aviators Club’s dining room and dance floor. Frame grab from Warner Bros. DVD.

Julio greets Fred as he arrives at the club and clearly seen in the background is a very iconic piece of furniture. A Biltmore chair designed by the famed KEM Weber for Albert Chase McArthur’s Arizona Biltmore in 1928.

Fred's arrival at the Aviators club gets upstaged by KEM Weber's Biltmore Chair in the background.

Julio greets Fred when he arrives at the Aviators Club. To the left of Fred is KEM Weber’s Biltmore Chair. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

A 1929 photograph of the Arizona Biltmore's lobby feature KEM Weber's chairs.

Lobby of the Arizona Biltmore, circa 1929. A number of the KEM Weber chairs can be in this photo. Photo from the Arizona Biltmore – a Waldorf Astoria Resort.

Soon after Fred arrives, the orchestra lifts up over the dance floor and plays a reprise of “When Orchids Bloom in the Moonlight”, first heard earlier in the film when Roger serenades  Belinha on a secluded beach.

The balloon basket bandstand.

The orchestra crammed into the balloon basket bandstand. Two wonderful modernist floor lamps are along the wall in the background. Image from the Warner Bros. DVD.

As the orchestra plays, the dancers emerge from the “airship” gondola and begin their tango.

Then the camera goes overhead, à la Busby Berkeley, showing the orchestra floating over the dance floor. The basket’s support ropes add geometric patterns to the shot.

During the number, Belinha gets up from the table, going out onto the terrace and is soon followed by Julio. Julio sings a chorus of “When Orchids Bloom in the Moonlight” to Belinha, while rear projected scenes change during the song behind them. And for the only time in any of the R-K-O Astaire / Rogers films, color is used. During this one moment the film employs tinted film stock, whose colors change with the shifting backgrounds.

Julio serenading Belinha on the terrace in pre-tinted color stock.

Roger comes upon Belinha and Julio and realizes for the first time that his best friend is his hitherto unnamed rival for Belinha. Belinha gets out of the awkward situation by dancing at tango with Fred concluding the number.

Belinha and Fred dancing a tango to bring the number to its end.

Belinha and Fred dancing a tango that brings the “When Orchids Bloom in the Moonlight” production number to a conclusion. All the above frame grabs are from the Warner Bros. DVD.

The sequence ends and it isn’t long that before we see the band and chorus girls rehearsing on the grounds of the hotel. To a reprise of “Music Makes Me”, Fred Astaire has his first on screen solo dance.

Fred’s solo to the reprise of “Music Makes Me”. Frame grabs from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Because Belinha’s father has still failed to obtain an entertainment  license for the hotel, no-one is allowed to perform anywhere on the grounds. So the chorus girls take to the skies for the “Flying Down to Rio” finale.

Skywriters announcing the Yankee Clippers to the hotel guests.

Skywriters announcing the Yankee Clippers to the hotel guests. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

The chorus Planes come into sight.

The chorus planes come into sight over the hotel. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

While on the ground Fred sings while the band plays “Flying Down to Rio”. Then Fred waves to Honey  to begin the aerial show.

Honey signals to the girls to begin the show.

Through the use of mock up planes suspended from the sound stage roof, wind machines and rear projection the illusion is created that the chorus is flying a few thousand feet above Rio de Janeiro.

Frame grabs from Flying Down to Rio are from the Warner Bros. DVD.

All the above frame grabs are from the Warner Bros. DVD.

The conclusion of the aerial show.

The delighted hotel guests at the conclusion of the aerial show. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Of course the show is a great success and the hotel is saved. Roger, not wanting to hurt his best friend, decides to take the Pan American Airways Yankee Clipper flying boat back to the States. The interior of the Sikorsky S-40 flying boat is the only other modern set piece in the film, but while modern does not really have any characteristics of Art Deco styling.

The Sikorsky S-40 flying boat ready to leave for the State at the end of Flying Down to Rio.

The Pan American Yankee Clipper flying boat (Sikorsky S-40) ready to depart for the States. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Julio, knowing Roger is on the plane and knowing that Belinha is in love with Roger, does the noble thing. He takes Belinha on board and sits her across from Roger.

Once airborne he asks the captain to marry Roger and Belinha, then parachutes out of the plane.

The film was a massive hit and helped bolster R-K-O out of financial difficulties. Of course what secured Flying Down to Rio’s place in film history was the teaming Astaire and Rogers. Their dancing of the “Carioca” started a craze that spread rapidly in 1934. And created a demand for another Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers teaming. It was no accident that the film’s last shot is on Astaire and Rogers and not the three top billed stars.

The Closing Shot of Flying Down to Rio.

Flying Down to Rio’s closing shot is on Fred and Ginger. Frame grab from the Warner Bros. DVD.

Before the end of 1934 Astaire and Rogers would be seen together on the screen again, this time in their first starring film with wonderful Art Deco sets. The Gay Divorcee will be the subject of part two in this series.

End Credit frame grabs from the Warner Bros. DVD.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen Guys)

 

Sources

Croce, Arlene. The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book. Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, New York, 1977

Jewell, Richard B. RKO Radio Pictures A Titan is Born. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 2012.

Lasky, Betty. RKO The Biggest Little Major of Them All. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1984.