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Without a doubt Marlene Dietrich, was and remains an iconic
actress, a great beauty who oozed sexuality from her every
pour. Born in Germany in 1901, she rose to her artistic power
in the nineteen thirties and forties, though she continued
to work until nineteen seventy-five. She finally passed away
in her sleep in nineteen ninety-two in Paris. She did a lot
of her early work with the legendary Josef von Sternberg.
The films on offer where made during times of great economic
depression or war, so escapism is the order of the day.
Rather
than repeat the same information over and over again, each
of the discs comes with English, and in some cases German,
mono audio track, with a choice of eleven European language
subtitles. For the most part the prints are pretty clean for
films of this age, sure there's a little noise on the audio
track and the picture can by a little soft, but considering
Morocco is not that short of being a hundred years
old, they still represent great quality.
Morocco
(1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg and co-starring Gary
Cooper, was an adaptation by Jules Furthamn of the play Amy
Jolly by Benno Vigny. In Mogador two powers are about
to clash: A company of horny foreign legion troops, with booze
and girls on their minds, and Amy Jolly, a nightclub entertainer
fresh from Paris. When the emotional bruised Tom Brown (Cooper)
meets the equally bruised Amy (Dietrich) only time will tell
if love will blossom in such an arid environment. It's the
old story of boy who has lost a girl finds another girl only
to loose her too. Only by watching the film will you find
out whether Cooper finally finds it in himself to get the
girl back. Great acting aside Marlene looks just stunning
in this film, even dressed as a man, which is worrying. Cooper
is very fresh faced in the film; he seems almost a different
person from the man whose grizzled face would adorn many a
cowboy film. The film was nominated for four Oscars
Dishonoured
(1930). Directed by Josef von Sternberg and co-starring Victor
Mclaglen, who would go on to star in Westerns such as Rio
Grande (1950) and Fort Apache (1948). It's 1915
and Dietrich plays the Mata Hari type character X-27, which
to honest sounds more like a submarine than a seductive spy.
There is a great shot early on in the film with Dietrich scantily
clad, one leg over a chair arm, smoking a cigarette, which
truly shows that these films are a product of another age
- but an age that is not so removed from our own. It is Dietrich's
ease with her own sexuality and the innate understanding of
that power which makes her the perfect man trap. Although
the story is not one of her strongest, Dietrich's acting is
a tour de force on high heals. Here is a woman that will chew
you up and spit you out without even stopping to clean the
gristle from her teeth.
Blond
Venus (1932). Directed by Josef von Sternberg and co-starring
Herbert Marshall, who you may recognise as the inspector from
The Fly (1958), and Cary Grant. You can tell that this
a European film at heart as the film opens with a group of
hikers coming across a bunch of naked bathing beauties. Of
course one of them is Dietrich, playing Helen who makes her
living as a nightclub singer, which of course gives Dietrich
a chance to sing. Her husband, Ned, is dying of radiation
poisoning, so she uses her talent to finance his treatment
by returning to the stage as Blond Venus. Personally speaking,
I thought Ned was a bit of a looser. His poor wife bounces
her buns for the public, and gets embroiled with a wealthy
Cary Grant, all to save his sorry life and his biggest sign
of gratitude is to try and take her son, after he has been
miraculously cured. The film is well set up, though the middle
section drags a little with the chase across the United States.
Grant is poorly used. But then it was early on in his career.
The
Song of Songs (1933) and Dietrich plays Lily Czepanek,
a German peasant girl. You can tell this as Beethoven's Ode
to Joy plays, rather heavily, as she jauntily walks off
to live with her dipsomaniac aunt Mrs Rasmussen (Alison Skipworth),
who looks like a man in a dress and seems to be obsessed with
sex. Still you can't blame her. It's not long before Lily
has caught the eye of the sculptor next door, Richard Waldow
played by Brian Aherne, who persuades her to get her kit off,
all in the name of art (must try that one myself sometime).
Unfortunately, for Richard, it's a case of be careful what
you wish for - as the two become lovers. When he introduces
his new lover to the Baron von Merzbach he determines to make
her his. What follows, is both Lily's education in life, and
her fall from grace, and her eventual resurrection into a
more worldly creature. The nude scenes, although very risqué
for the period, are very tastefully done, rather than show
you Dietrich naked, this is suggested by cuts between her
and the marble models. The story is an unapologetic melodrama,
complete with innocent girl, starving artist and an evil lecherous
baron.
The
Devil is a Woman (1934) represents the last collaboration
between Dietrich and Sternberg. Dietrich plays Concha Perez,
the sort of woman that all men want to possess. Although the
film is based on The Woman and the Puppet by Pierre
Louys, its whole central theme seems to have been stolen from
Bizet's Carmen, who was a woman who confesses that
if you're not interested in her she wants you, but, if you
want her she will destroy you. Maybe it's the way that, culturally,
French men view Spanish women. Maybe it can't be helped, as
both are set in Spain, that there are also internal links
between the two stories. The main difference is that in The
Devil is a Woman, neither of the lovers end up dead, in
fact Sternberg's ending suggests that Don Pasqual finally
rejects Concha which in turn opens up the possibility for
her to change.
Desire (1935) whose other title is the unfortunate
The Pearl Necklace and once you have that in your mind
the opening title sequence of Dietrich fondling with the aforementioned
pearls, before placing them round her neck, becomes unintentionally
funny. Directed by Frank Borzage, and co-starring Gary Cooper,
this sees Dietrich playing Madeleine de Beaupre, a sensual
jewel thief, who gets the unwanted attention of, Cooper's
innocent American abroad, Tom Bradley. The film is played
strictly for laughs and it's good to see both Dietrich and
Cooper stretching their respective funny bones. It's not deep
but it is funny, in the tradition of screwball comedies which
are making a comeback in films such as Shallow Hal.
Seven
Sinners (1940), directed by Tay Garnett and co-starring
John Wayne, is another light hearted comedy which was so well
received that Dietrich and Wayne would go on to star together
in a further two films. Bijou Blanche finds herself deported
from one island after another, mostly because her presence
usually sparks a riot in her male naval audiences. When she
is deported once more she washes up on the shores of Boni
Komba where a young Naval Lieutenant, Dan Brent (Wayne), falls
for her charms. But the path of love is never smooth and both
the Navy and a local thug conspire to keep the lovers apart.
Like in all her films, the camera just loves Dietrich's face,
though given my personal choice I would rather hear her sing
in German or French. In these languages she has a guttural
sexuality, much like the later Nico, but in English they both
sounded a little too much like blokes who smoked too much.
The
Flame of New Orleans (1941). Directed by Rene Clair and
co-starring Bruce Cabot as well as host of character actors,
it's a rather lightweight affair and I'd be surprised if Dietrich
wasn't starting to get a little sick of being typecast as
the femme fatal - always the object of men's romantic attentions.
In Flame she plays Lili, the self confessed Countess
Claire Ledoux who turns up in New Orleans and quickly gains
the attentions of both Charles Giraud (Roland Young), a wealthy
and sophisticated man, and Robert Latour (Bruce Cabot), a
swarthy ships captain. Initially you're thinking that the
film is going to be about whether she will choose to listen
to her heart or her purse when picking a suture, until the
unfortunate arrival of Zoltov (Mischa Auer), who remembers
her as a European courtesan (trollop to you). How can the
poor Lili get herself out of the situation and what has this
to do with the floating wedding dress shown at the start of
the film? Flame is not a great film but taken as a
lightweight comedy it does have charm.
Pittsburgh
(1942). Directed by Lewis Seiler and co-starring John Wayne
and Randolph Scott, this film had everything going for it
as far as acting talent was concerned. Given her previous
films you might think that Dietrich has taken on an odd role
here, but one must keep in mind that World War II had started
- which meant that Hollywood started to push out gung-ho films
which supported the war and which usually contained elements
of overt and covert propaganda. It most probably wasn't lost
on Dietrich that she was a German national and that staring
alongside Wayne, who came to represent America, in this period,
wouldn't hurt her career. It may also account for why her
name is placed in equal ranking with Scott and Wayne on the
titles. Wayne and Scott play a couple of miners who start
in the pits and work their way through the American dream
to become filthy rich industrialist. Charles 'Pittsburgh'
Markham (Wayne) and his friend John 'Cash' Evans (Scott) friendship
becomes increasingly strained, both through their success
and through Charles relationship with Josie 'Hunky' Winters
(Dietrich). Though Charles obtains the wealth and power he
desires he ends up a lonely and bitter man. However, this
is a product of the war so, of course, everybody ends up happy
and pulling together for the war effort.
Follow
the Boys (1944). Directed by A. Edward Sutherland isn't
really a Dietrich film, rather it is one of those shows that
were put on to boost moral during war time. It was a good
excuse to get all your studio stars together to do a turn.
There's little point in going into who is in the film as it's
pretty much a who's who of the greatest stars at the time.
It's all very lovey and schmaltzy and, although not strictly
a Dietrich vehicle, it's a nice inclusion to the box set.
Golden Earrings (1946) and with the war pretty much
over - it didn't legally stop until German unification - America
could churn out lots of 'how unpleasant the Nazi's were' films.
The film was directed by Mitchell Leisen and co-starred the
brilliant Ray Milland, who plays Colonel Ralph Deniston whose
friends all think he is suffering from some type of post traumatic
stress as he returned from the war a lot more relaxed and
with holes in his ears for earrings. He relates the story
of how he got the holes during a trip to Paris, seems the
poor lad had been captured due to a little bit of spying in
Germany. Breaking out he meet the beautiful gypsy maiden Lydia
(Dietrich) who teaches him a thing or too about love and relaxation.
With her help he completes his mission and promises to return
for her after the war. Truthfully, the film is much better
than the script would have you believe, everyone turns in
solid performances. It's a bit jingoistic, but considering
its subject matter, and the time it was made, this is to be
expected.
A
Foreign Affair (1947) and a return to Dietrich's comic
roots with a film directed by Billy Wilder. It's often the
little things in life that tell you that you may not be the
hottest property anymore, In the case of this film its that
Dietrich not only shares equal billing with Jean Arthur, but
that her name is below Arthur's effectively taking second
billing. Maybe the problem is that Dietrich plays Erika Von
Schluetow a former Nazi who is using her boyfriend as camouflage.
Another odd thing about the film is that Jean Arthur's character,
Phoebe Frost, is supposed to be unmarried, but still wears
a wedding ring; in the opening shots of the film she is waving
the thing all around the screen. The film is another love
triangle with John Lund (Captain John Pringle) who has to
choose between the sexy Erika (a nightclub singer obviously)
and the Congress woman who can't tell if she is married or
not. Not the best Wilder film, but still a nice movie.
Although this is not a complete set of her work it's a shame
that The Blue Angel and some of her more iconic films
were not included.
Here
in review land sometimes odd things happen. In the case of
this box set it was that not all the films were available
for review so, though I cannot comment on the quality of the
following films, they will be contained within the box set:
Shanghai
Express (1932). Two former lovers meet on a train journey,
directed by Sternberg and co-starring Clive Brook.
Scarlet
Empress (1934). A young princess is taken to Russia to
be married off, Directed by Sternberg and co-starring John
Lodge.
Angel
(1937). A romance about a married woman who has to confront
temptation whilst on holiday, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and
co-starring Herbert Marshall.
Destry
Rides Again (1939). A great comedy western co-starring
James Stewart and directed by George Marshall.
The
Spoilers (1942). Two friends try to save their livelihoods
from an unscrupulous commissioner. Directed by Ray Enright
and co-starring John Wayne and Randolf Scott. Famous for its
long drawn out fist fight.
Touch
of Evil (1958). A brilliant film about murder and corruption
in a border town, though to be honest this was a bit part
for Dietrich. Directed by Orson Wells and staring Charlton
Heston, Janet Leigh and Orson Wells.
What can you say? For any Dietrich fan this is the mother
lode. Most of these films have never had a DVD release and
have only been available as either American or French imports.
True, you get no extras, but what it misses out in extras
it makes up with sheer quality.
Charles
Packer
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