The Devil's Cabaret

I think some of the best things on TCM are the vitaphone shorts. I try to catch them whenever I am watching a movie, especially the musicals. I have seen some great ones--this one is near the top. The short is shot in 2 strip Technicolor and comes off pretty well. The dance sequences must be from another film that perhaps was not released. The March of Time (1930) comes to mind. I have seen dance sequences from that unreleased film interpolated into others.

The jazzy title music is great---very typical for the period. All in all, very good little film.

TCM is the best thing going now---one can only hope it never goes the way of AMC, who once was just like TCM, but now has gobs of commercials which render watching AMC nearly impossible.

Gary

Here is an entertaining little 16 minute pre-code short that I got with my DVD of "Cimarron." As it was released in Dec., 1930 and "Cimarron" was released in Jan., 1931 the two are a good fit chronologically. This story is about Satan's worrying about too many souls being taken to Heaven instead of Hades, and he dispatches his minions to devise a flattering view of Hell to tempt the many candidates. This little show was filmed in two-color Technicolor, and it looks pretty good for an 80 year old film. The "Devil Ballet" was cribbed from the stockpiled musical numbers from MGM's aborted extravaganza, "The March of Time." Charles Middleton, A.K.A "Ming the Merciless" from the "Flash Gordon" serials plays Satan here with the same devilish glee he infused in the serials which would debut about five years hence. Eddie Buzzell and Mary Carlisle are also in this.

This short has everything music, dance, and humor. If you like puns there is tons of puns about Hell. By today's standards some of the jokes are politically incorrect but they are of the time. There is also many special effects that are sure to please. The music is lively early 30's jazz with plenty of scantily clad beautiful young women dancing their hearts and souls all the way to Hell.

I've watched this several times, and although the comedy is often just bad, it's pretty interesting because of the way hell's minions are portrayed as the protagonists, and because there's just something very odd about watching dozens of pretty girls in very skimpy outfits dancing around a giant devil head. It was filmed in color, which looks very poor.

The acting is of a vaudeville quality, and not exactly of the highest. I can't say a lot of invention went into this peice, but it is pretty fun to watch, and something that would never have been allowed just a few short years later. A novelty, not worth the price of admission, but worth five minutes of anyone's time.

This astonishing musical short was created around a shelved musical number from THE MARCH OF TIME a 1929 musical extravaganza that had all the dance numbers filmed but not the story. In mid 1930 the uncompleted film was scrapped and its massive and spectacular musical sequences then used in other films, some features and some as here in a 15 minute mini musical. To say this must have offended any religious person or organization is an understatement: THE DEVIL'S CABARET (like WONDERBAR a few years later) seems created to defy all morality and offer the viewer a 'fun look' at the enjoyment to be had in Hell, as run by Mr Satan in his snazzy nightclub. Very effectively filmed in red/brown 2 color Technicolor by MGM and utilizing the Satan Chrous from TIME, the deco splendor of the office and the fun-park of the cabaret still shock today: you enter by sliding down the Devil's tongue into the pit of the dance floor where Chorus girls clad in Puritan outfits then wildly rip them off and jiggle about in their skimpy underwear. Our maitre'd crooner hands out cards dominoes and any sinful gambling device to have all the wicked fun you could desire, then the floor show commences of the edited TIME sequence: this consists of a jaw-dropping scene of ballet chorus girls wearing reddish sheer/lace outfits who dance around this gigantic Devil's head. Other shockers are: the rude jokes to a fat woman which are are just cruel, Satan's desk has a massive fat phallus near the edge behind which stands an assistant in a black suit... the whole thing positioned exactly in front of his pants.... all in hilariously vulgar offensive fun. THE DEVIL'S CABARET is a censorship-free time capsule of exactly why the Hays code was firmly enforce from may 1934. See it and show it to your friends so they scream and look shocked.