SATAN MET A LADY
US, 1936, 74 minutes, Black and white.
Bette Davis, Warren William, Alison Skipworth, Arthur Treacher, Marie Wilson, Porter Hall.
Directed by William Dieterle.
Satan Met A Lady is based on Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. However, it is an oddball presentation. Warren William plays Shane (the Spade character) as if he were drunk: perpetually smiling, continually ironic, womanising. It is an odd interpretation. Bette Davis is Valerie Purvis, the femme fatale. Miles Archer is changed to Ames. The secretary is Murgatroyd, played by Marie Wilson in her daffy blonde style that was to lead, over a decade later, to My Friend Irma. British butler Arthur Treacher portrays Travers, the English crook, in an over-the-top style. Alison Skipworth is also Madame, a crook in the Florence Bates style.
Those familiar with the Maltese Falcon plot will recognise the parallels: Roland's horn with jewels inside, the characters to correspond to the better-known Maltese Falcon characters ~ epsecially Madame as the Sidney Greenstreet character, with her nephew Kenneth, the Elisha Cook character. Peter Lorre is the Arthur Treacher character. And Mary Astor, in The Maltese Falcon, gives Bette Davis a run for her money.
The film was directed by William Dieterle. The plot is there, but the ironies are laid on, and the performance by Warren William and the tone of ironic self-laughter makes it an odd experience.
1. A Warner Bros. '30s thriller? Based on Dashiell Hammett? The Maltese Falcon? Audiences recognising the similar characters and points of plot?
2. Warner Bros. values: black and white photography, studio sets, stars, musical score?
3. The title - Shane as Satan? Valerie Purvis as a lady? The irony of their encounter?
4. The basic plot of The Maltese Falcon: the private eye, his friend and his death, the set-up by the mysterious woman, her committing the murders, the horn of Roland, the various gangs after it? Double-crosses, complications and murders? The gathering of the characters together on the waterfront and their arrest? The mysterious lady and her almost getting away?
5. Warren William’s interpretation of Shane (Sam Spade)? Debonair, run out of town, callous, always smiling ironically? Arties and his wife, charming the woman on the train and the job? Ames's death and his seeming not to care? His being under suspicion? His relationship with Murgatroyd and getting her to communicate to Ames's wife? Do all the arrangements? The encounter with Valerie Purvis, trusting her or not, their verbal sparring, the meetings, the payments? His studying up the horn of Roland? The encounter with Travers, the ruining of his room? With Madame and Kenneth following him? The complications of the set-up, his unravelling them, setting each group against the other? The fake horn? Going away with Valerie, getting her confession, handing her over to the police?
6. Bette Davis as Valerie, the mysterious woman, overhearing the conversation, going to Shane for protection, paying him, the lies that she told, their encounters, sparring, the violence? The murder in the cemetery? her seeming innocence, the train ride, her confession? Her anger at Shane at the end?
7. Ames and his wife, the job, his death, his wife's grief, relationship with Shane?
8. Murgatroyd and her devotion, efficiency, the daffy blonde? The end?
9. Travers and his English background, on the job, the ruining of Shane's room? The violence at the wharf? Madame and Kenneth, their greed, the gang, the connection with the wharf? The murder? Their arrest?
10. The elements of the private eye film - a 30s interpretation?
