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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Marlene Dietrich's marriage with Hollywood (Movie: Morocco)

This is a 1930 movie when film industry was just transitioning from silent movies into sound films, and it was at this time when Marlene Dietrich made her way into Hollywood working with some of the best directors like, Josef von Sternberg and Billy Wilder. Although this is not her best, but she went on to make other great movies in collaboration with Sternberg; The Blue Angel (1930) and Blonde Venus (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Devil Is a Woman (1935); and "A Foreign Affair" directed Billy Wilder.

The French foreign Legion marches into Morocco as singer Amy Jolly (Marlene Dietrich) arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto's cabaret. Legionnaire Tom Brown (Gary Cooper) who happens to be at the club catches her seductive tuxedo-clad act. Both become attracted to each other but bruised by their past lives, they walk cautiously into a romantic relationship while being pursued by others. A wealthy French businessman Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolph Menjou) loves Amy dearly but she couldn't careless for him. Tom Brown has on going affair with Madame Caesar (Eve Southern), wife of one of the officers at his post. The two lovers fight incessantly and make up, but when Brown is sent to a dangerous mission, everyone at the post including Amy and Monsieur La Bessiere concludes that he will never return. Amy decides to follow him like a teenage girl smitten by love and tracks him down at a tavern near the front. Then she starts following him, non-stop, first on high heels, then on naked feet, with a handful of native women, donkeys and goats through the deserts of Spanish Sahara. She never looks back. It is a stunning ending, but nevertheless beautiful. Anyone who is a fan of Marlene Dietrich loves her films. She is adorable, elegant, graceful, poised in rendering her intense sexuality.

Reference: Morocco [VHS], starring Marlene Dietrich

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