Marlene Dietrich
- No Angel
Director:
Year: 1996
Rating: 5.5
I have never really been a fan of Dietrich - her face too hard, too angled
for me (but not for the camera lens which adored it), her eyes too cynical
and worldly - but what a fascinating woman she was. She was the most sexually
aggressive woman both on and off the screen in Hollywood history. She went
after everything in pants and sometimes in pant suits. A list of her lovers
would fill this page - a few well-known ones are Gary Cooper, John Wayne,
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John F. Kennedy, Jean Gabin, Frank Sinatra, David
Niven, George Raft, John Gavin and so on. Most of these affairs would last
as long as the making of the film would but a few such as with Gabin would
be longer. And she was married during all of this to a man she married and
stayed married to from her early days in Germany. Sex was simply her connection
with men. Like having a drink with them to get to know them better.
During WWII she basically gave up acting and devoted herself to the war effort
because her distaste for what Hitler had done to her country was so great.
She constantly performed at UFO shows right near the front - the closer the
better - she wanted to fight but they would not let her do that. She also
raised more money in War Bonds than anyone else. She also apparently sent
off a few soldiers to war with more than a kiss.
Berlin in the 1920's was perhaps the most sexually charged place ever in
history - check out the documentary Sin Cities to see just how much - and
this was the world that Dietrich grew up in, joining a cabaret act where
she often forgot her underpants. These attitudes towards sex stayed with
her all her life. One evening Josef von Sternberg went to see a show. He
was trying to cast actors who could speak both German and English in a film
he wanted to direct two versions of - The Blue Angel. In the show Dietrich
played an American and he sent for her and as they say a star was born.
Over the next few years he directed her (and lived with her) in a series
of classic films - Blue Angel, Morocco, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus and
The Scarlett Empress. During this time though she was still carrying on affairs
with all of her leading men which drove von Sternberg crazy - they finally
parted ways and she went into a film slump with one box office flop after
another. Just as Hollywood was about to write her off she reluctantly took
on a Western, Destry Rides Again, and it was a smash hit. And she seduced
good old Jimmy Stewart as well which just feels wrong!
Later in life when her film career began to slow down as she reached her
50's - though still with some classics that she appeared in such as Stage
Fright, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil and Rancho Notorious -
she went back to where she started - cabaret. She created her own cabaret
show with her singing in that husky voice and it became an enormous success
all over the world - even back in Berlin - for over a decade. But alcohol
and her life style took its toll as it always does and after a few stays
to dry out she spent the last 12 years of her life in her Paris apartment
and never left it. 1901 - 1992. Quite a life. 45 minutes. Fairly standard
made for TV documentary. Up on YouTube.
