Madam Satan - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Madam Satan or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Madam Satan

[fred]

The airship exterior sequences were planned to have been shot in Technicolor, but the film was not sensitive enough for the high-speed photography required for the miniatures.

[steve]

Film debut of director Cecil B. DeMille's daughter Katherine DeMille as one of Henry VIII's wives in the airship's costume party.

[jessie]

Assuming its copyright has not lapsed already, this film and all others produced in 1930 enter the U.S. public domain in 2026.

[aaron]

Clips from Madam Satan are used in the music video for "From The Pinnacle To The Pit" by the Swedish rock band Ghost.

[ella]

Snippets are used in the 1984 film "Electric Dreams" where the computer, Edgar, entertains himself by creating his own "party" during the "Let it Run" sequence. Trixie yelling, " Play Lowdown and make it hot!" starts off the scene.

[albert]

As things begin to go awry on board, one of the crew comments "Remember the the Shenandoah." This refers to the tragic crash in a sudden thunderstorm of the USS Shenandoah airship on September 3, 1925 in southeastern Ohio, which would have been a widely known event.

[phyllis]

During the Ballet Mécanique, when a masked person adorned in lightning bolts appears, Morse code is heard. It seems to be intended to repeat the word 'POWER' although the first time it says 'WOWEL' - apparently due to a misplaced 'dot' in the coded message.

[willard]

This film failed at the box office, resulting in a loss to MGM of $390,000 (>$6M in 2020) according to studio records.

[eli]

Two songs not used in the film: "This Is Love" - music by Herbert Stothart and lyrics by Clifford Grey; and "Satan's Song" - music by Jack King and lyrics by Elsie Janis.

[javier]

Director Cecil B. DeMille had left Paramount in 1929 in pursuit of better financial arrangements for his films. He signed a three picture deal with MGM. This was the second of those three films, the first being Dynamite (1929). After this film flopped at the box office, DeMille finished the deal with The Squaw Man (1931), another bust, and he then returned to Paramount.

[steve]

This was the most expensive film that MGM made in 1930 and its costliest musical until The Merry Widow (1934).

[sylvia]

Lillian Roth was borrowed from Paramount for this film.

[lynn]

This film received one of its first, and early, television broadcasts in San Francisco Monday 27 October 1958 on KGO-TV (Channel 7). Although occasional telecasts in less prominent markets did take place, there is no reliable documentation that it was ever televised in New York City, Los Angeles, or Philadelphia at this time.

[ray]

The party's "Ballet Mechanique" scenes were shot in Technicolor's 2-strip process and required extra-intensive lighting. No print containing the color sequence is known to survive.