SILVER

Better known for his serious-minded historical epics, Cecil B. DeMille made his first and only foray into the musical genre with this peerless pre-code sex comedy/romance/disaster movie/Art-Deco rhapsody for MGM. Wealthy socialite Angela Brooks (Kay Johnson) is dismayed to discover that her husband Bob (Reginald Denny) has seemingly lost interest in their icy marriage in favor of a hot-blooded young showgirl named Trixie (Lillian Roth). To win him back and prove her feminine wiles, Angela adopts the persona of "Madam Satan," an alluring masked temptress — in a fabulous costume — who puts her skills to the test at an elaborate masquerade ball held aboard a zeppelin (floating above Central Park). Angela succeeds in wowing the room — until the Deco dirigible is struck by lightning, and love must win the day. The film's spectacular central set piece features an unforgettable dance sequence — complete with the Deco-tastic "Spirit of Electricity" as danced by Theodore Kosloff, a veteran of the Ballets Russes — alongside the sublime production design of Cedric Gibbons and Mitchell Leisen (heavily inspired by Parisian Art Deco) and sensational costumes by Gilbert Adrian. DIR/PROD Cecil B. DeMille; SCR Jeanie Macpherson, Gladys Unger, Elsie Janis. U.S., 1930, b&w, 116 min. NOT RATED

35mm print courtesy of the George Eastman Museum, lent by an anonymous collector.