A mysterious woman, Valerie Purvis (Davis) hires Ted Shayne (Warren William), a private detective to locate a certain Mrs. Barrabas (Alison Skipworth) but she won't tell him why....I finally watched this obscure little flick out of sheer curiousity: it really isn't very good. This is the second filming of Dashiell Hammett's classic detective story THE MALTESE FALCON which was filmed priorly in 1931 with Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. It was a good adaptation, but certainly not up to par with the 1941 classic with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet. This middle version is the bad apple of the bunch which is played largely for laughs: it concerns a ram's horn filled with valuable jewels. As an interesting footnote, Davis had just finished her role in the critically approved THE PETRIFIED FOREST when Jack Warner thrust this ill-scripted mess at her. Davis was adamant that the part was an inconsequential one and that she needed a rest. Warner had a doctor examine her, and Davis was forced to relent as she couldn't afford to take a suspension due to piling bills and increasing debt. Davis was correct about the film however: it never found an audience, and it was thoroughly dismissed as trash by the critics upon its initial release in 1936.

This is a MUST for the total fan of Bette Davis. Her entrance is just great--in trenchcoat and spectacles. You can't miss her as she slinks into her chair. The movie itself is rather uneven, but well worth watching. Were these people all drunk while making the film? Warren William surely was. And really, he looked much more like Sam Spade from the original book "The Maltese Falcon" than Bogie did. Personally, I think this film has a more West Coast feel than the later movie, with all the unstable characters. Don't get me wrong, I think the Bogart/Astor version is definitely superior, but this movie is a lot of wacko fun.

Something went very, very wrong when Warner Brothers decided to do this version of the Maltese Falcon. It appears they decided to lighten it up, although I'm not sure if they were going for full out comedy. The result is a strange mess that succeeds neither as comedy or as detective mystery. Warren William overplays the detective hired by various people to locate a horn full of jewels. Bette Davis overplays the femme fatale, and various character actors overplay the rest of the gang looking for the horn. The mystery is a bit confusing, despite the fact I have read the book and seen the superior 1941 version. I guess you could kindly say this version is offbeat. It was too offbeat for me!

I have tried to watch "Satan Met a Lady" quite a few times now, because I have seen some good performances by the lead, Warren William, but this is one bad movie. I don't know what happened, but William just weirded out on this awful version of "The Maltese Falcon". Bette isn't much help, Arthur Treacher slightly better than Bette. Those who made this picture must have had some vision in mind, but the message remains arcane. I don't understand why Warren William is directed in this bizarre way--it seemed a suicide mission in terms of outlandish histrionics. I don't think I shall ever sit through this in its entirety, so one star is the best it can get from me.

"Satan Met a Lady" is based on "The Maltese Falcon," which is probably going to come as a surprise to a lot of people watching this 1936 film directed by William Dieterle. Warners had made "The Maltese Falcon" in 1931 and would again in 1941. "Satan Met a Lady" is more of a screwball detective story, where the object of desire is a ram's horn encrusted with precious gems that is supposedly the horn from the Song of Roland (nice literary touch). On a train to San Francisco, eccentric private detective Ted Shayne (William Warren) meets up with shapely blonde Valerie Purvis (Bette Davis), who hires him to locate Madame Barabbas (Alison Skipworth), who in turn sends one of her agents (Maynard Holms) to find out why Shayne is snooping around. The Madame makes a counteroffer for Shayne, claiming Valerie was one of her agents who has made off with the valuable ram's horn. The story should be starting to sound somewhat familiar to you by now, and there is certainly something to be said for turning Gaspar Gutman into Madame Barabbas.

There is every reason to believe that "Satan Met a Lady" is intended to be a spoof of detective films, at least in part. The only other reasonable explanation is that everyone just through up their hands trying to make sense of the convoluted plot and the cartoonish characters. Davis is fine as the femme fatale and certainly William is no Bogart, but if you want to really judge the gap between "Satan Met a Lady" and the classic "The Maltese Falcon," just compare this film's scatterbrained secretary Miss Murgatroyd (Marie Wilson), with Effie Perine (Lee Patrick). This film is an interesting curiosity, more of interest to fans of Bette Davis than of Dashiell Hammett.