Excellent but underrated film

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The back story of the substitute treasure being pursued here by all in lieu of the more famous black falcon is the historical horn of a knight named Roland. When this warrior attempted to use the fabled horn to summon reinforcements for his outnumbered band, the enemy killed him and FILLED THE HORN WITH JEWELS SO IT COULD NOT BE BLOWN AGAIN! You cannot help asking yourself, why didn't these guys just stomp the horn to pieces? Did they lug around so many jewels that they had run out of Zip-Locks in which to store them? Furthermore, since you cannot enamel such an unwieldy cornucopia, the suspense is taken out of the plot in that the horn cannot be dramatically scratched and proved to be a fake at the end, but rather turns out to be pretty ordinary and unlikely to have tricked anyone older than three. The pathos of the P.I. sending a woman he's half in love with to the gallows in the 1931 and 1941 versions turns into bathos here, as his partner's femme fatale lady of doom simply schemes at a way of cheating the P.I. of the reward money implausibly posted for the capture of the dead partner's killer. Sheesh!

Perhaps because Dashiell Hammett's movie cachet was enhanced by the success of the THIN MAN comedy/mystery movies in the 1930s and '40s, the folks behind Satan MET A LADY (SMaL) reworked Hammett's MALTESE FALCON (TMF) into the 1936 screwball comedy Satan MET A LADY (SMaL). Directed by William Dieterle and scripted by Brown Holmes, SMaL gave director of photography Arthur Edeson practice for his future stint as D.P. of the now-classic 1941 version. For that matter, it turns out SMaL and the early Ricardo Cortez/Bebe Daniels version of TMF have more in common than being inspired (however loosely) by the same novel. Cortez as Sam Spade is replaced in SMaL by Warren William as Ted Shane (or Shayne—the filmmakers can't seem to decide how to spell it), and Cortez and William each played Perry Mason in the movies! But it's a fresh young Bette Davis who gets top billing here as wily Valerie Purvis, who could be Brigid O'Shaughnessy's witty, bantering sister.William looks and acts like a fun-loving troublemaker and tomcat who's just had one drink too many no matter what time of day it is. William and Davis play off each other most enjoyably as they seek out, not the Maltese Falcon, but an ancient ram's horn rumored to be stuffed with jewels. They're aided and abetted by a rambunctious supporting cast. Joel Cairo has been turned into Travers, a bumbling English gentleman crook played by Arthur Treacher (yes, the one who brought the world Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips, "the meal you cannot make at home"). Casper Gutman has gotten a name change and a sex change in the form of Alison Skipworth as sly Madame Barabbas (love her Biblical name!), who has a friendly adversary relationship with Shane (there's a funny bit where each one proves too clever to let the other one slip them a mickey). Instead of gunsel Wilmer, Mme. Barabbas' sharpshooting right-hand man is her obnoxious, buffoonish, beret-wearing nephew Kenneth (or as Auntie calls him, "Kenny Boy"), played by an unjustly uncredited Maynard Holmes. The ill-fated Miles Archer and his restless wife Iva are now Mr. and Mrs. Ames, played briefly but entertainingly by Porter Hall (best known in our household as Macaulay in THE THIN MAN and Jackson, the "Medford man" from DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and Winifred Shaw. My fave was the pre-MY FRIEND IRMA Marie Wilson redoing trusty secretary/receptionist Effie Perine as cheerful blonde Über-ditz Miss Murgatroyd. Her cute little squeak of surprise/distress cracked me up! Zesty quips abound, like Valerie's "Do you mind very much, Mr. Shane, taking off your hat in the presence of a lady with a gun?" When Ames is found murdered in a cemetery, Shane remarks, "It's the first time he ever did anything in an appropriate place." My fave was Shane's dialogue with Murgatroyd when she's about to quit on account of Ames being unable to pay her: Shane (cheerfully): "Have you finished packing all your things?...And all the things that weren't yours, but that you thought you could use?" Murgatroyd (flustered): "Yes—um, I mean, I'm all packed." SMaL is unfairly maligned and misunderstood for not being a serious TMF adaptation. It was clear to me from the start that this one's played purely for laughs. Just approach SMaL as a wacky parody of TMF, and you'll be able to enjoy the flick as a pleasant, if forgettable, piece of fluff for a lazy afternoon.

This was the film that Bette Davis finally walked out of Warner Brothers because she'd had enough. Satan Met A Lady is a comic version of the Dashiell Hammett novel, The Maltese Falcon it in fact is the second of three versions of the story that was filmed, all by Warner Brothers. It was that third one with Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor that is the beloved classic come down to us.I wouldn't be surprised, but that Bette might have thought that this was a straight version of the story, that she'd be doing the part that Mary Astor made famous. Instead the version she got was something that might have worked with Joan Blondell doing the part, but Bette was clearly unhappy and just going through the motions.As for Warren William, his Ted Shayne is far different from the laconic and cynical Humphrey Bogart. He's one unapologetic rogue just breezing through the film as he did with so many others on charm and a Barrymore light profile.Instead of the loyal and efficient Effie that we all remember Lee Patrick for, we get the scatterbrained and clueless Marie Wilson doing her usual shtick. The parts that Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet made classic were done by Arthur Treacher and Allison Skipworth. I thought Arthur was going to offer some fish and chips to William at many points during the film.The famous Hitchcockian McGuffin is not a black bird allegedly crusted over to hide a jeweled coat, but an old ram's horn, purportedly the trumpet that French legendary hero Roland sounded as he covered Emperor Charlemagne's retreat. It too was stuffed with jewels according to legend.At the end of the film Warren William actually got a few notes out of the French horn. It blew well and some might say the film did also.

Just happened to view this film from the 1930's which I seemed to have missed with Bette Davis and many great character actors. It is something like the "Maltese Falcon", where everyone is involved with trying to find a TRUMPET filled with valuable gems. Bette Davis,(Valerie Purvis),"Madame Sin",'72, looks very young and attractive and lives up to her role as an evil lady who stops at nothing to charm her men and use them in every way possible and of course, sexually! Warren William, (Ted Shayne),"The Wolf Man",'41, looks like John Barrymore and even Basil Rathbone,(Sherlock Holmes series of the 1940's), Ted Shayne manages to take on the case of trying to find the valuable TRUMPET and has a dippy female assistant, Marie Wilson,(Miss Murgatroyd),"Waterfront", who has a crush on her boss Ted Shayne who simply goes head over heels for Valerie, who wraps him around her pinkie. Arthur Treacher,(Anthony Travers),"Mary Poppins",'64, famous for his, "Arthur Treacher Fish & Chips Food Chain years ago. Anthony Travers gives a great supporting role and always looks like the butler he use to play in most of his films. If you love Classic films with Bette Davis, this is definitely the film for you.