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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)

A Star is Born at Eighty Five

April 20, 1937 A Star is Born opened at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. And just in time for its eighty fifth anniversary, Warner Archive has released a wonderful new Blu ray disc of the film. Hugely successful on its release in 1937, there have been three remakes of the film since, in 1954, 1976 and 2018. But the original still holds its own against the newer versions.

 

David O. Selznick

Circa 1935, black and white studio portrait of David O. Selznick.

David O. Selznick, circa 1935. Image from wikipedia.

A Star is Born was the third release from Selznick International Pictures. An independent studio established in 1935 that distributed films through United Artists. Selznick, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1902, entered the film industry, working for his father in 1923. During the late 1910s Lewis J. Selznick was a major producer in the motion picture industry. And in the early 1920s his sons, Myron and David, started working for their father. The bankruptcy of Lewis Selznick’s studio and his reversal of fortune, emotionally affected both sons. Myron’s revenge took the form of a high power talent agent, making producer’s pay dearly for talent. And David, becoming one of the biggest producers in Hollywood.

 

1920s amber tinted Paramount Pictures logo.

1920s Paramount Pictures logo. Image from logosfandom.com.

Going to Hollywood in 1926, David Selznick’s career took off like a rocket. Starting as an assistant story editor at M-G-M, by 1928 he joined Paramount as an assistant to B. P. Schulberg, head of production at the west coast studio.

 

RKO logo.

R-K-O Radio Pictures Logo from the early 1930s.

In 1931 Selznick became head of production at R-K-O. During his two years there, he produced such films as A Bill of Divorcement (1932), The Animal Kingdom (1932) and King Kong (1933). One of his productions What Price Hollywood? (1932) would serve as a blue print for A Star is Born.

 

Early 1930s M-G-M logo.

M-G-M logo from the early 1930s.

In 1933, Selznick’s father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer, lured Selznick to M-G-M, where he would have semi-autonomy running a production unit. Between 1933 and 1935 Selznick’s string of hit films continued with Dinner at Eight (1933), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Anna Karenina (1935) and A Tale of Two Cities (1935).

But what Selznick really wanted was a studio of his own. As early as 1931 he tried to set up an independent studio in partnership with director Lewis Milestone. But at the last minute the deal fell through.

 

Selznick International Pictures

The Selznick International Pictures logo.

The Selznick International Pictures logo. Featuring the studio administration building in Culver City, California. Image from martinturnbull.com.

By the middle of 1935, Selznick was ready to take the plunge into independent production. Selznick finished his M-G-M career on a high note, producing A Tale of Two Cities. Once that film wrapped production, he moved down the street into the R-K-O Pathe studio. There he set up Selznick International Pictures. Millionaire John Hay “Jock” Whitney provided financial backing for Selznick. Whitney also invested in Pioneer Pictures, a studio created to produce films in the new three-color Technicolor process. Pioneer contracted with Technicolor to produce four films over two years. But their first two films, Becky Sharp (1935) and Dancing Pirate (1936) were disappointments at the box office.

 

Unlike Pioneer, Selznick’s first independent film, Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) was a box office success. Whitney saw Selznick as the way to honor Pioneer Pictures contract to Technicolor. As a result Selznick produced his next two films in color. The Garden of Allah (1936), mostly set in the Sahara Desert was a natural for color photography.

 

1936 poster for The Garden of Allah.

The Garden of Allah (1936), poster. Image from alamy.com

But the next Selznick International film, a behind the scenes look at Hollywood, would be just fine in black and white. However, the film would be the first three-color Technicolor film to take place in a modern urban setting.

A Star is Born

A Star is Born, main title.

A Star is Born, main title. Image from Warner Archive Blu-ray.

By the summer of 1936 David O. Selznick was very busy. Little Lord Fauntleroy was playing at theatres, The Garden of Allah began production, and Selznick started preparations for his next film. Director William A. Wellman working in collaboration with Robert Carson brought a story outline to Selznick. It was a movie about Hollywood.  Selznick did not care for the story, which at this point was titled It Happened in Hollywood. While at R-K-O Selznick produced What Price Hollywood? in 1932. He was never fully satisfied with this backstage look at the movie industry and he did want to do another Hollywood film. But he felt the Wellman / Carson script was too much of a caricature. Wellman took the script to Selznick’s wife, Irene Mayer Selznick. She was very excited by it and convinced Selznick to go ahead with the project.

On August 6, 1936, Ralph Walker’s Film Daily column “A ‘Little’ from ‘Lots'” ran the following article concerning Selznick’s new film –

 

Article from the August 6, 1936 Film Daily.

The Film Daily, August 6, 1936. Image from mediahistoryproject.org.

At this point,  Wellman and Carson finished their second draft and Selznick was possibly thinking of using British actress Merle Oberon for the lead.

 

William A. Wellman in the trailer for A Star is Born.

William A. Wellman (with arm over the Technicolor camera) and the camera crew pretending to direct A Star is Born from the trailer for the film. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Wellman, a director since the silent movie days, directed Wings the mega-hit that won the first Academy Award for best picture. He was a no nonsense man who brought films in on time. Other Wellman hits include, Beggars of Life (1928), The Public Enemy (1931) and Call of the Wild (1935). A Star is Born, would be Wellman’s forty fifth film and his first in Technicolor.

Just before signing with Selznick, Wellman directed Small Town Girl (1936) at M-G-M, starring Janet Gaynor. Wellman, suggested to Selznick that Gaynor would be great for the role of the aspiring actress, Esther Blodgett. In the late 1920s she was one of the most popular stars in Hollywood. And she was the recipient of the first best actress Academy Award for her work in 7th Heaven (1927), Sunrise (1927) and Street Angel (1928). But by 1936 Gaynor’s career was on the wane.

 

Janet Gaynor, color photograph, circa 1937.

Janet Gaynor, circa 1937. Image from mptvimages.com.

 

As the summer of 1936 turned into autumn, Selznick was under pressure to get started on the film. With only five Technicolor cameras in Hollywood, production had to begin no later than October 31st. By late September, Selznick hired Algonquin Round Table, alum, Dorothy Parker and her husband Alan Campbell to prepare the script.

 

Motion Picture Daily, September 28, 1936.

Motion Picture Daily, September 28, 1936, Pg. 12. Image from mediahistoryproject.org.

 

While Parker and Campbell worked on the screen play, Selznick signed Frederic March for the role of the alcoholic movie star, Norman Maine, in the now titled A Star is Born. In the late 1930s, March was one of the most popular stars in Hollywood.

 

Frederic March, circa 1932.

Frederic March, circa 1932. Image from pinterest.com.

Originally signed by Paramount in the late 1920s, during the conversion to talkies, March, with his stage training was a hit in films. In 1932 he won a best actor Academy Award for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). Going freelance at the expiration of his Paramount contract, March continued in a string of hits, that include Les Miserable (1935), Anna Karenina (1935) and Anthony Adverse (1936).

 

Film Daily, October 2, 1936. Image from mediahistoryproject.org.

 

With the October 31st start date looming, Selznick began to line up all the members of his production team, including art director Lyle Wheeler (1905 – 1990), a graduate of USC. After graduation Wheeler found employment as a magazine artist and industrial designer. Selznick hired Wheeler in 1936 which started him on his career as an movie art director.

 

Film Daily October 24, 1936. Selznick hires Lyle Wheeler.

Film Daily “A ‘Little’ from ‘Lots'” column, October 24, 1936. Image from mediahistoryproject.org.

 

A Star is Born, would be Wheeler’s first film. He would go on to create the sets for Gone With the Wind (1939), Laura (1944), All About Eve (1950) and The King and I (1956) among others.

 

Film Daily October 24, 1936. Selznick hires Lyle Wheeler.

Lyle Wheeler, 1939 with his sketches for the sets of Gone With the Wind. Image from imdb.com.

 

Filming started right on the October 31, 1936 deadline. It went smoothly and wrapped on December 28th, with only a few days of re-takes needed in mid-January, 1937.

 

William Wellman and Janet Gaynor.

William Wellman and Janet Gaynor having fun on the A Star is Born set. Image from alamy.com.

 

The Technicolor camera crew on location with William Wellman, Janet Gaynor, Adolphe Menjou and Fredric March.

On location with the Technicolor camera crew with Wellman, Janet Gaynor, Adolphe Menjou and Fredric March. This picture shows how enormous the Technicolor camera was in its sound-proof blimp. Image from alamy.com.

 

It was obvious that A Star is Born was a hit at its premiere at the Chinese Theatre and at its New York City opening at the Radio City Music Hall, on April 22, 1937. This film had everything going for it, it was only the seventh feature film to be released in the new three-color Technicolor process. The supporting cast, which included Andy Devine, May Robson, Lionel Stander and Adolphe Menjou, were all top notch. And the two main stars gave great performances, so much so that it briefly revived Janet Gaynor’s career.

 

Janet Gaynor and David O. Selznick after a screening of A Star is Born.

Janet Gaynor and David O. Selznick after a screening of A Star is Born (possibly the premiere) and obviously delighted by the audience’s reception of the film. Image from alamy.com.

The Set Design

Wheeler’s work on A Star is Born really displays the fine thought he gave to his set design. Even by the mid-1930s most Americans had not embraced the modern style sticking instead to traditional furnishings for their own homes. They considered modern design somewhat decadent and for the city slicker. Wheeler uses this dichotomy of taste in his set design. Ultra modern sets are used to represent the Hollywood personalities and the studio. But for the protagonists home, it is all traditional furnishings, to make them down to earth and relatable to the majority of the movie going audience. But let’s look at how Lyle Wheeler designed the various sets to invoke character of place.

The Blodgett Farm 

This North Dakota farmhouse is definitely 30 years behind the times. Everything about it is old fashioned. Janet Gaynor’s character of Esther, longs to break away for this place of Tiffany style lamps and cast iron heater in the living room.

 

The living room of the Blodgett farmhouse in North Dakota.

J. C. Nugent, A. W. Sweatt, Janet Gaynor and Clara Blandick in the living room of the Blodgett farmhouse. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Blodgett farmhouse dining room.

May Robson comes into the living through the dinning room, with the Tiffany style hanging light over the table. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

The Beach House

After Esther becomes a star and she marries Norman, they settle into their beach house out in Malibu. Unlike Norman’s bachelor home, director Casey Burke’s home and the studio, the beach house is restrained traditional in style. Here Wheeler blended Chippendale and colonial with some moderne lamps. There is exposed painted white brick and wallpaper. It is all lovely and a little dull and for the majority of 1930s audiences very relatable.

 

The Beverly Hills House

The audience never gets to see inside, Norman and Esther’s Beverly Hills house. This was one of the few location shoots used in the production of A Star is Born. The house is not moderne in style, it is typical of the Spanish style architecture in southern California, stucco with a tile roof. And being Hollywood, of course it has the obligatory swimming pool.

 

The backyard of the Beverly Hills house in A Star is Born.

The beautiful backyard of the Norman and Esther’s Beverly Hills house. Image from Warner Archive Blu ray.

A Hollywood swimming pool.

The typical Hollywood star’s swimming pool. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

Casey Burke House

The first taste of Hollywood glamour in the film comes when Esther is waitressing a party at the home of fictitious director Casey Burke. Burke is played by former silent film star and ex-husband of Mary Pickford, Owen Moore (1886-1939). For these sets, Wheeler went full out with then current moderne trends in decoration. 1936 was also a turning point in style going from streamline moderne to a more relaxed country club style. So while Burke’s house has rough hewn stone columns of the country club aesthetic, there is also blonde wood furniture (also a new trend in the mid-1930s) and lots of glass block.

 

The first glimpse of the Casey Burke home in A Star is Born.

First glimpse of the Casey Burke house. Notice the blonde wood, side table and herring bone pattern draperies. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

The living room of movie director Casey Burke.

Living room of Casey Burke’s house, with painted white rough hewn stone wall and columns. But note the great machine age bridge lamp in the corner. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Oliver Niles on phone next to staircase with a glass block wall.

Oliver Niles, played by Adolphe Menjou, on a gold telephone (only in the movies) with a moderne staircase featuring a glass block wall. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

More use of glass block in the Casey Burke home set.

Esther serving Norman Maine hors d’oeuvres. More use of glass block. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

The kitchen in the Casey Burke house.

A 1937 dream kitchen, modern metal cabinets, a sleek linoleum floors and a General Electric monitor top refrigerator. Also notice the Sunbeam coffee service on the counter down front. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Norman Maine’s Bachelor Bedroom

Norman Maine’s bachelor digs were quite different from the house he shared with Esther. There was nothing old fashioned or traditional about his bedroom, with its tufted head board and built into the ceiling lighting. Also notable in this set is the use of wood veneer on the curved wall behind the bed. Wheeler continues his use of blonde wood for the furniture in this set, too.

Norman Maine's bedroom.

Norman Maine’s bedroom, very befitting of a big Hollywood star. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Closer view of Norman Maine's bed.

Closer view of bed and veneer wall. Nice bedside lamp with looks to be a suede covered lampshade.. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Norman Maine reading the telephone directory that was on his bedroom dresser.

Fredric March as Norman Maine looking through a telephone directory at his bedroom dresser. Nice metal lamp with a great shade on the side table just in front of March. And in the background a Gilbert Rohde chair designed for the Heywood-Wakefield Company. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

Oliver Niles’ Bedroom

The one and only time that the audience sees this set is when Norman Maine (Fredric March) calls up his producer Oliver Niles (Adolphe Menjou) in the middle of the night. Niles, Casey Burke and Norman Maine must have used the same interior decorator, so many of the same furnishings and designs trends can be seen across all he sets. Like the same wall blonde wood side table from Casey Burke’s house, is Oliver Niles night stand. As well as the same gold telephone.

Oliver Niles's bedroom.

Oliver Niles (Adolphe Menjou) in a great set of purple and lavender striped pajamas. The night stand is the side table seen earlier in the Casey Burke set. Nice Telechron or General Electric clock on the night stand. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

The Studio

For the studio sets, here is where Lyle Wheeler went full blown moderne. And where he and Selznick had a big argument over the look of one particular set. Selznick wanted the film to be as realistic depiction of Hollywood as possible, but in one instance the reality just was not attractive as Wheeler pointed out –

David and I had an absolutely huge argument about the set for the studio commissary. He wanted the original MGM commissary to be used the way it used to be, a really junky place. I said that no one in the world really knows what it looks like; I said it’s a mistake to show that piece of junk that we ate our breakfast and lunch in. He said no, that was the feeling he wanted, and I wouldn’t give in, and he said “You do it the way I want it.”

So I did, and the day before we were to shoot he came down and said, “You’re right, build the other one.” So I had already designed it, it was based on the new one that Cedric Gibbons hand designed at MGM, so I used that as the model and used a lot of glass brick, which was just then coming in, and big circle windows so that you could see people going by . . . we tore the old one down in ten minutes and you’d never believe the number of people we had in the crew that built the new one. We worked all night but we had it up and dressed the next day, ready for shooting. 

            Lyle Wheeler quoted in David O. Selznick’s Hollywood, Ronald Haver, Borzoi Books, 1982.

The Commissary

The commissary as it appears in A Star is Born.

The commissary as rebuilt by Lyle Wheeler. Featuring the big round windows and moderne chrome tube furniture. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

The commissary counter.

The commissary counter. This shot shows off some great moderne hanging lights and a blonde wood cashier counter. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

The Dialogue Coach’s Studio

The dialogue coach's office.

Esther (Janet Gaynor) reciting from Shakespeare during elocution lessons for the dialogue coach (Edwin Maxwell). More chrome tube furniture and lamp with a great louvered shade. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

The dialogue coach's studio.

Another one of the nice lamps with the louvered shade behind the dialogue coach played by Edwin Maxwell. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

Oliver Niles’ Office

This set, probably depicts the office the David O. Selznick dreamed about. It is subdued, refined and very modern. The walls are the same wood paneling that was used behind Norman Maine’s bed. There is comfy looking green velvet covered chairs and a sofa. Uplighter torchieres around the room give it a warm glow that only indirect lighting can do. Niles’ desk, with its burled wood veneer, is what every big executive in the 1930s coveted. A wonderfully modern glass lamp with a frosted shade sits prominently on the desk. And along one wall is a brand new, 1936 Philco radio bar.

 

Oliver Niles at his office desk.

Oliver Niles signs Esther Blodgett to a contract. Great burled wood desk with a stylish glass lamp. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Oliver Niles and secretary at his desk.

Another shot of the desk in Oliver Niles’ office. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Exiting the office to the anteroom.

Secretary exiting to the front office with its glass block window. Notice the wall paneling. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Oliver Niles' office with his uplighter torchieres and a Philco Radio bar.

A torchiere stands down front, while against the wall in the back is the 1936 Philco Radio bar.

More of Oliver Niles' office.

Comfy looking green velvet furniture, a great uplighter torchiere and more glass block in Matt Libby’s (Lionel Stander) office. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

A Star is Born Opens

1937 A Star is Born lobby card.

A 1937 lobby card for A Star is Born. Image from imbd.com.

After opening at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Radio City Music Hall, A Star is Born went into general release on April 24, 1937. The film was a big hit with critics and the movie audience. At the Academy Awards it received seven nominations, including best actress, best actor, best director and best picture. It won two Oscars, one for best original story and an honorary award for color photography.

 

Re-issues and Public Domain

Costing $1,173,639 it earned over $2,000,000 by the end of 1939, giving the studio a profit of $181,000. Because of the huge amount of money earned by Gone With the Wind and Rebecca, David O. Selznick had to dissolve Selznick International Pictures in 1943 for tax reasons. And with this, the rights to A Star is Born as well as several other films reverted to Jock Whitney. Whitney then sold the rights to Film Classics, Inc. for re-issue.

Daily News story about Jock Whitney selling the rights of A Star is Born, 1943.

From Ed Sullivan’s “Little Old New York” column in the New York Daily News, July 21, 1943. Article from proquest.com.

Film Classics Inc. re-released  A Star is Born in September of 1943. And here’s is where the trouble with the visual quality of the film begins. To make the most money it could from a six year old film, Film Classics made new color prints in Cinecolor, a cheaper alternative to Technicolor.

 

Cinecolor was a two-color process vs. the three-color photography that Technicolor offered. Because Cinecolor only used red and blue color records, the color in the release prints was compromised. There were no greens or yellow in  Cinecolor prints. Another film sold by Jock Whitney to Film Classics, Inc. was Becky Sharp, which was also re-issued in Cinecolor prints. Below are examples from a Cinecolor two-color print vs. the Technicolor restoration done by the UCLA Film and Television Archive for a comparison the color between the two systems.

With declining revenue from A Star is Born, Film Classics sold the rights to producer Edward L. Alperson who intended to remake it. Then in 1953, Alperson sold the rights to the film to Warners Bros. And with this sale the original Technicolor negative went to Warner Bros. But in 1965 Warner Bros. did not renew the copyright registration and the original version of A Star is Born fell into public domain.

 

Home Video

Because, A Star is Born fell into public domain, it meant that it could be broadcast on TV without having to pay for the rights. And when the home video industry started in the late 1970s, any video company could put it out on tape again without having to pay for rights. So the market became flooded with different VHS tapes of the film. These tapes ranged in quality from good to down right awful. Here is an example of some of the companies releasing A Star is Born to the home market.

This is where I first made my acquaintance with the film. I purchased a VHS tape of A Star is Born in 1980 for $79.95 ($279.00 in 2022). And the quality was terrible. The image was so washed out that the actor’s faces were white blobs with two dark spots where their eyes were and an occasional third dark spot when they opened their mouths to talk. Through the years I would end up buying at least nine different copies of the film in every format. From VHS to laser disc, then back to VHS when Kino International released the film copied from David O. Selznick’s personal print.

The laser disc release of A Star is Born.

Image Entertainment laser disc release of A Star is Born. Image from etsy.com.

The Kino VHS tape.

The Kino VHS edition of A Star is Born.

In the early 2000s Kino released it on DVD. and finally in 2012 on Blu ray.

By then I thought I was finished buying the 1937 A Star is Born. But, never say never.

 

Warner Archive Blu ray

Warner Archive Blu ray.

Warner Archive Blu ray.

Now the Warner Archive has released a new Blu ray, made from the original three-color Technicolor negatives. The good news is A Star is Born has never looked this good on home video. Online there have been comparisons to Warner Archive’s version to the Kino Lorber release. These comparisons are unfair. Warner Archive has access to the original negatives while Kino made their discs from a vintage Technicolor print. Here is where I can speak with a bit more knowledge than most, I know the print that Kino used. I work in film preservation at the George Eastman Museum, where David O. Selznick’s print is held. Selznick’s print was not an original 1937 print, it was made for him in 1946. And it is on British Kodak stock, so it was probably made from duplicate negatives at Technicolor’s London laboratory. This print is darker and bluer than the original release prints. Kino lightened up the image for the video master.

Now, does this new Blu ray look the way the film did to audiences in 1937, probably not. There is a misconception about the look of Technicolor films from the 1930s. During the mid to late 1930s Technicolor feature films were not overly bright with overly saturated colors. For the most part they leaned to the brown side and featured a subdued color palette. And the image on the new Blu ray is very sharp. Technicolor’s method of printing films was similar to lithography, it layered dyes on a blank strip of film using matrices to create a full color image. While Technicolor’s registration was excellent, it still can’t compare to the computer registration used to create the digital master for the Blu ray.

 

I don’t know what the Warner Brother colorists used for a color reference (Technicolor negatives are black and white with latent color records), but the 1937 Technicolor print in the George Eastman Museum’s collection looks very different from the Blu ray. I also must point out the the quality and color of vintage Technicolor prints varied, so the 1937 print I inspected is very different from Selznick’s print from 1946. And it could be very different from what was used as reference at Warner Brothers. Here are comparison frames from the 1937 print vs. the Selznick print vs. the Warner Blu ray –

Studio Logo from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Studio Logo from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

Opening credits in the Warner Archive Blu ray disc.

Opening Credits from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

The Blodgett farmhouse, Warner Archive Blu ray.

Warner Archive Blu ray – The Blodgett farmhouse.

 

So here are some final thoughts about the Warner Archive Blu ray disc of A Star is Born. Like I said earlier in this post, this is definitely the best this film has ever looked on home video. Does it replicate the look of the film in 1937, well not really. If you are a fan of the film, should you upgrade to this new Blu ray, absolutely, not only does it look fantastic, the sound is excellent and the disc comes with many extras, including the original trailer and two Lux Radio Theatre broadcasts.

 

The final close up of A Star is Born.

“. . . this is Mrs. Norman Maine!” The final shot of A Star is Born. Image from the Warner Archive Blu ray.

The end credit on A Star is Born.

End credit for the 1937 A Star is Born. Image from Warner Archive Blu ray.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys).

 

Sources

Film Daily

Motion Picture Daily

The New York Daily News

David O. Selznick’s Hollywood