Not cheesy, but pretty much over the top is Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen's Seven Footprints to Satan, based on the popular novel by fantasist A. Merritt. Christensen was noted for his earlier films, including Haxan (1922), a classic horror essay film that looks at the historical roots and superstitions surrounding witchcraft. Christensen went to America in 1924 and began working for RKO; in 1927 he moved to Warner Brothers where he made four films, one of them Seven Footprints to Satan, which was co--written with an uncredited Cornell Woolrich. By this time, Christensen had had enough of Hollywood and moved back to Denmark. After a decade of directing for the stage, he went back to making films -- four of the, to be exact, all of them flops. Time. however, has rescued Christensen's reputation; he is now considered to be one of the great Danish silent film makers.
Seven Footprints to Satan is not a great movie, far from it. It is entertaining for those who approach it in the right mood. One who did not was Abraham Merritt, the author of the 1928 source novel. Merritt was at first "overjoyed" that the story would be turned into a film; his opinion changed when he "sat through the movie and wept. The only similarity between the book and the picture was the title. the picture likewise killed the booksale [...] for people who saw the picture felt no impulse to thereafter to read the book." Reviews of the film were not flattering, from "pure hokum" to "just a hodgepodge mystery story" to "one of the poorest" of the "so-called mystery-drama-thrillers yet released." One reviewer did say, "People will no doubt enjoy this picture provided they don't take it seriously. It is one of the wildest mystery trapdoor melodramas that has been produced in many a moon."
The film starred Thelma Todd, a former Miss Massachusetts who was gaining notoriety in Hollywood in the silents. In 1928 and 1929 alone she made twenty films, and, unlike many other silent film stars, easily bridged into the talkies and became one of the most bankable talents in Hollywood. She opened Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe, a nightclub/restaurant that catered to show-business people and unfortunately brought some underworld types. Reportedly, Todd and her boyfriend would not sell the restaurant to the gangsters, and on December 16, 1935, she was found dead in her car inn her garage, The case of death was listed as suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. She was 29. Needless to say the death of "Hot Toddy" was remained controversial to this day because of rumored corruption in the Los Angeles County's District Attorney's office.
Todd's co-star in Seven Footprints to Satan was Creighton Hale, who had recently starred in The Cat and the CSheldonanary, and was therefore considered bankable by Christensen. Bad publicity (a bitter divorce and abandonment of his children, who were later adopted by his ex-wife's second husband) helped his career go into sharp decline after the introduction of talkies and he ended up with mostly uncredited bit parts.
Before James Kirkham's (Creighton Hale) planned African expedition, his girlfriend (Eve Martin) Thelma Todd) is worried that one of her father's guests plan to steal a valuable ruby. At Eve's home, the jewel is exhibited but then mysteriously disappears. Jim and Eve are kidnapped and find themselves in an dark, eerie mansion ruled by a person who calls himself Satan. They are pursued and tormented by a host of strange characters, and are warned about "The Spider" (Sheldon Lewis), an evil force within the house. They find themselves at a masquerade ball people by mysterious strangers. Jim then finds the missing ruby in his pocket and he is accused of theft and of kidnapping Eve. Satan's minions try to get Jim to sign a confession, which he signs after they threaten to torture Eve in front of him. Jim and Eve are reunited as he must take the challenge of climbing the Seven Steps, which could lead to his death.
Aiding in this confusing plot are William V. Mong (as Professor Moriarty), Laska Winter (as Satan's Mistress), DeWitt Jennings (as Jim's Uncle Joe and Satan), Nora Cecil (as the Old Witch), Angelo Rossitto (as the Dwarf), Kalla Pasha (as Professor Von Veide), Cissy Fitsgerald (as the Old Lady), Harry Tenbrook (as Eve's Chauffeur), Sojin Kamiyama (as Sojin), Ivan Christy (as Jim's Valet), Thelma McNeil (as the Tall Girl), William A. Boardway (as Party Guest), Dan Crimmins (as Hair-Pulling Lunatic), Dora Dawson (as Satan's Chosen One), Charles Gamora (as the Gorilla), Dorothy Iving (as Girl), Inez Marion (as Maiden), Arthur Millett (as Guest at Party), Constantine Romanoff (as Guest in Room 13), Loretta Young (yes, THAT Loretta Young, as the uncredited Flailing Victim), and Symona Boniface, Tom Amandares, Edna Mae Cooper, Dorothy Irving, Adolf Faylauer, Louis Mercier, Julian Rivero, Edgar Sherrod, Louis Stern, Dick Sutherland, and Ellinor Vanderveer (as Satanists).
See if you can make sense of this film, and see if you (like me) will enjoy it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5UyhGmnnMg
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