RADA-trained Roland Young (1897-1953) acted on the British stage before working extensively on Broadway.
Young served with the US Army during the latter part of the First World War, then made his screen debut playing Watson to John Barrymore’s Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes (1922). He signed a contract with MGM in 1929, and was again opposite Barrymore in his first sound film, The Unholy Night (1929). Young was rarely top billed, but was a very effective character actor.
Young appeared in three musicals in quick succession in the early 30s: Madam Satan (hosting the crazed zeppelin party), New Moon (as a tramp) and The Prodigal (as a Russian Count).
After 1932, Young worked freelance, returning to Metro to play Uriah Heep in David Copperfield (1935). He was nominated for an Oscar for playing Topper (1937), a role he returned to in two sequels. The size of his roles was less during the 1940s, but he was always a reliable supporting player. He also performed on television in the early 50s.
Lillian Rutstein (1910-80) was a talented and charismatic performer who is probably, and unjustly, most remembered today for the alcoholism that was at the centre of the biopic I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955), in which she was played by Susan Hayward.
Roth made her debut on Broadway at the age of seven. After working in vaudeville in an act with her sister, she was back on Broadway. Roth lied about her age and, at 13, was cast in Artists and Models, a show famous for its nudity.
Roth’s stage career went into abeyance after Ernst Lubitsch cast her in a prominent role in The Love Parade (1930), teaming her with Lupino Lane. In the same year, she played Trixie in MGM’s Madam Satan. Roth expanded her range in 1933 in Barbara Stanwyck’s prison drama Ladies They Talk About.
Roth’s career went into decline owing to her alcoholism, but was revived by the film of her 1954 autobiography and she worked steadily, playing on Broadway and in touring shows and concerts. She made her last film in 1979.
A screen career that begins in 1915 at Famous Players-Lasky under the direction of Edwin S Porter, and ends playing Commodore Schmidlapp in the 1966 Batman picture, can be called a career. And such was the life of Reginald Leigh Dugmore (1891-1967).
Denny started out as a stage actor in the United Kingdom, travelling to America and elsewhere on theatrical tours. It has been suggested he may have appeared on screen as early as 1911, but no titles have been suggested. He played the leads in many silent films, including in Leather Pushers, a series of boxing shorts made in 1922-23. The makers of the series had a liking for punning titles like The Taming of the Shrewd (1922) and Barnaby’s Grudge (1923).
Denny transitioned to character roles in the 1930s, though he was the romantic lead in his two MGM musicals, Madam Satan and A Lady’s Morals. Later on, he played Algy in several Bulldog Drummond pictures, giving a more low-key performance than Claude Allister. He was also Maxim’s estate manager and friend in Rebecca (1940).
Reginald Denny was an aeroplane gunner during the First World War, and had a lifelong interest in aviation. This included not only flying full-size planes (he worked as a stunt pilot on at least one occasion), but also models. He designed a remote-controlled ‘drone’ which was used by the US Army in the Second World War, and also established Reginald Denny’s Hobby Shop on Hollywood Boulevard (where Marilyn Monroe worked as a teenager).
Catherine Townsend Johnson (1904-75) studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and starred in many Broadway productions, predominantly serious dramas, throughout the 1920s.
Following her marriage to director John Cromwell, Johnson moved to Los Angeles in 1928. She was brought to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Cecil B DeMille, who had himself only just moved to the studio, to star in Dynamite (1929), his first sound picture.
Johnson went on to make regular film appearances, including as the title character in DeMille’s Madam Satan, but only made 23 in total, most of them in the pre-code era. She also continued to appear on the stage, returning to Broadway in 1947 in the original production of State of the Union.
Johnson worked less in the 40s and 50s, devoting time to raising her sons, one of whom was the actor James Cromwell.
Socialite Angela Brooks asks her maid, Martha, if it is worthwhile for a wife to try and please her husband. They both agree it is impossible to please a husband.
Bob Brooks arrives home drunk after a night on the town with his friend Jimmy Wade. Angela reads in the paper that she, Bob and Jimmy were arrested during the night for drunk driving, but she was not out with Bob. Angela finds a card from Trixie in Bob’s pocket, but he tells a disbelieving Angela that Trixie is Jimmy’s new wife. Angela leaves, and Jimmy asks Bob why he runs around with Trixie when he has a wife like Angela.
Jimmy Wade (Roland Young), Bob Brooks (Reginald Denny) and, under the blanket, Angela Brooks (Kay Johnson)
That evening, Bob sleeps when he and Angela were supposed to be going to a concert. Angela tells Martha she is beaten. Martha’s advice is to make herself so attractive to Bob that he will not want to leave her [Live and Love Today]. But that does not meet Angela’s ideal of true love.
Bob complains that when Angela became his wife, she stopped being his pal and became cold:”Love can’t be kept in cold storage; it’s a battery that has to be recharged every day”. Bob walks out.
Angela asks Jimmy if she can spend the night with him and his ‘wife’. Jimmy tries to decline, suggesting instead that Angela come and make whoopee at a masked ball he is holding next week on the zeppelin. Angela remembers Martha’s advice [Live and Love Today] and follows Jimmy so she can fight for her happiness.
Trixie, a vaudeville performer, is rehearsing a new number in her apartment [Low Down]. Jimmy rushes in but, before he can explain, Angela arrives. Jimmy maintains the pretence that Trixie is his wife. Trixie goes along with it and Angela pretends to. Inviting herself into the guest room, Angela reveals that she has a gun. Jimmy locks Angela in the room and tries to sneak out, but is caught by the arriving Bob. Jimmy then barricades himself in Trixie’s room and Angela hears Bob trying to get in.
Trixie hides on the balcony. Angela finds a connecting door to the other bedroom and Jimmy hides her under a blanket. Bob believes it is Trixie under there, and only accepts it is not when the real Trixie shows herself.
Bob tells Jimmy and Trixie that he has left Angela, and he and Jimmy leave. Trixie mocks Angela for getting caught in her own trap. Trixie says she will keep Bob by giving him what he wants. Angela accepts that as a challenge, and says she will make Bob sick of vice.
On the night of Jimmy’s masked ball, guests arrive at the zeppelin moored over the city [The Cat Walk; Ballet Mécanique].Bob and Trixie arrive together in costume. At midnight everyone unmasks, and there is an auction of the most beautiful women in the room. The one who attracts the highest bid will be queen of the ball [song]. Just as men are wildly competing to buy Trixie, Angela enters in the guise of Madam Satan and draws them all away [Meet Madam].
Trixie (Lillian Roth) and Madam Satan eyeball each other
The newcomer joins the auction and Bob bids a huge amount to win her. Angela warns him that he will get burned [All I Know Is You’re in My Arms/Live and Love Today]. Trixie is furious that Bob is being taken away from her, but can do nothing to prevent it.
Angel-as-Madam Satan declares she wants the wickedest man there, and Bob replies that he could never think anything he did was a sin. Angela and Bob go to the chart room and engage in an extended flirtation. Finally, Angela admits that she is not the devil she seems, just a woman attempting to keep her self respect. Bob says he finds that even more attractive. A well-intentioned Jimmy separates them by telling Bob that Madam Satan is the woman who was under his blanket.
A storm begins, alarming the zeppelin’s captain. He suggests that Jimmy send his guests back to the ground. Angela and Trixie compete for Bob’s attention [Low Down]. Bob is angry at Angela, but still obsessed with her and ignores Trixie. Bob chases Angela and she unmasks: “You said I was below zero, so I raised my temperature”. Bob is angry at the deception.
Lightning strikes the zeppelin, which breaks its mooring. The captain orders everyone into parachutes. Bob gets a parachute for Angela, but she gives it to Trixie, on the understanding that she never sees Bob again. Bob finds another parachute, but she will not leave without him. Bob forces her to jump.
Bob forces the unmasked Angela to take the last parachute
The zeppelin breaks up and crashes to earth. Bob manages to jump into the reservoir at the last minute.
The next day, Angela and Bob are at home. He is still annoyed about her performance as Madam Satan, but she is winning him round [Meet Madam] when a bandaged Jimmy arrives (he landed in the lions’ enclosure at the zoo). Jimmy says he will marry Angela if Bob divorces her. Bob says there is no question of divorce and admits he has been a fool.
Cader Edwards Davis (1867?-1936) was an ordained minister who enjoyed the showmanship of pulpit oratory so much that he gave up the church and became an actor. (Although arrests for drunkenness and associating with loose characters may have been contributing factors.)
Davis wrote and performed in both vaudeville sketches and full-length plays. He wrote a tragedy which one newspaper described as “simply gross”, but which he performed around one thousand times.
Davis worked on Broadway and was respected enough by his colleagues to be elected president of the National Vaudeville Artists Association in 1919.
Edwards Davis made about 70 film appearances from 1915 to 1936, always in character parts. In 1926, he was third-billed to Harry Langdon and Joan Crawford in Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.
Davis’s parts in the 1930s were mostly uncredited, including in Love in the Rough and as Henry VIII in Madam Satan.
Readers of a certain (advanced) age will recall the voice, though not the stage name, of Harry Leonard Albershardt (1909-73) as that of the talking horse in Mr Ed (1961-66).
Before that, he had spent many years on top of horse in dozens of ‘B’ westerns, including 39 pictures in which he played Sheriff (or Marshal, or Lieutenant) Rocky Lane. He also gave flesh to the comic strip character Red Ryder in seven films.
Lane had made his debut in a leading man role for Fox in 1929, but his career quickly foundered, which led to him doing small parts in Love in the Rough and Madam Satan. Fortunately, a career in oaters lay ahead.
