Light, Shadow and Synergy ~ von Sternberg and Dietrich, Part III

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaddiQJ9_NAT8zWS3qg5tty2-JtQRNztxu20ONGXZ4WAeLQx-ch42uwaJenpQ5bXZA1rI2bkXObj_Dc2CPxTcOLFRUOV7U_qau_dDY-ZlEeK9soAJ8cDqaxlpXh28ltYeMR9IUxCeYE4nN/s1600/devil+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaddiQJ9_NAT8zWS3qg5tty2-JtQRNztxu20ONGXZ4WAeLQx-ch42uwaJenpQ5bXZA1rI2bkXObj_Dc2CPxTcOLFRUOV7U_qau_dDY-ZlEeK9soAJ8cDqaxlpXh28ltYeMR9IUxCeYE4nN/s400/devil+poster.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><b>Scroll down for Parts I and II of <i>Light, Shadow and Synergy</i>...</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">In 1933, during a hiatus between studio contracts and filmmaking, Josef von Sternberg traveled to Germany to explore establishing Marlene Dietrich and himself at UFA, the studio where the two had made <b>The Blue Angel </b>three years earlier. Just as the director was returning to the U.S., recently appointed Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler suspended the German constitution and soon began revoking the citizenship of Jewish artists and scholars; not much later came the burning of books. Back in America, von Sternberg, an Austrian Jew, and his star signed on once more with Paramount where the director's new contract gave him almost complete autonomy over his films.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">He later wryly reflected on his next (and last) two productions with Dietrich, “I completely subjugated my bird of paradise to my peculiar tendency to prove that a film might well be an art medium…”</span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Of the first of these, <b>The Scarlet Empress </b>(1934),<b> </b>von Sternberg recalled, “The film was, of course, a relentless excursion into style…the tapestry of the Russia of Catherine the Great was evoked in all its grandeur, though it was a re-creation not a replica…” </span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8mijMqT6AluVW_IR5Uvwzn5k80FgJ01nKk-VYc2V2WCHsa6q6qy_PIaH0BquzuA02iDJ27m0b0A2Jugac1p2OdiFTe4wG8LChO78B0w69FkHqFL853R8Q7dPyyMOoG4lzasuqrUNL3wya/s1600/scarlet+with+horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8mijMqT6AluVW_IR5Uvwzn5k80FgJ01nKk-VYc2V2WCHsa6q6qy_PIaH0BquzuA02iDJ27m0b0A2Jugac1p2OdiFTe4wG8LChO78B0w69FkHqFL853R8Q7dPyyMOoG4lzasuqrUNL3wya/s320/scarlet+with+horse.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Scarlet Empress</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">"Based on a diary of Catherine II," von Sternberg’s re-creation follows the life of innocent young princess Sophia of Germany who is summoned to the Russian court to wed Grand Duke Peter (Sam Jaffe), a lunatic. Eventually adept at palace politics, the disillusioned royal wife (now called Catherine) becomes increasingly detached and power-obsessed, ultimately and victoriously seizing the throne in a coup. Along the way, she also becomes a powerful seductress whose countless lovers include a great number of soldiers in the Russian Army.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Von Sternberg’s re-imagining of events was so opulent and unusual that audiences and critics may have been put off by its byzantine iconography, Grimm’s Fairytale-esque characters and overt eroticism. <b>The Scarlet Empress</b> was unlike any of the many other Hollywood-produced historical spectacles of the era. </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Critic Robin Wood suspected that "ironic tragedy and a kind of macabre farce" were so closely bound within the tone of the film that audiences and critics simply weren't ready for it.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>The Devil is a Woman</b> (1935), reveals von Sternberg and Dietrich at the pinnacle of their partnership, though it, too, failed to connect. Von Sternberg, uncompromisingly expressive, produced a masterwork - audiences and critics and foreign governments be damned...</span><br />  <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVXwGOevBxjUnaWxE0uspl_CgvoHRpGkRX_9GUiOWkgbdKWZzO5vWyN-AMaws4NEPlDv35qt__G4b180ksWWqN4K1pw6MhSNf617OCNIpehLIAcgSE009wfk-4WSx-qrik8UXiuKvD2G7O/s1600/the+devil+is+a+woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; height: 171px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 211px;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVXwGOevBxjUnaWxE0uspl_CgvoHRpGkRX_9GUiOWkgbdKWZzO5vWyN-AMaws4NEPlDv35qt__G4b180ksWWqN4K1pw6MhSNf617OCNIpehLIAcgSE009wfk-4WSx-qrik8UXiuKvD2G7O/s200/the+devil+is+a+woman.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Devil is a Woman</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The film begins in turn-of-the-century Spain at the outset of a carnival. Arriving on the scene is exiled freedom fighter Antonio Galvan (Cesar Romero) who flirts with Concha Perez (Dietrich), the local femme fatale. A tryst is arranged but before they meet Galvan encounters old friend Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill) who relates in humiliating detail, told in flashback, how his enchantment with Concha ruined him. Pasqual makes the younger man promise not to see Concha again but Galvan and the woman do meet and this sparks a duel between the two men. Concha and Galvan run away together but Concha proves to be...capricious.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>The Devil is a Woman</b> is a visual carnival. Von Sternberg saturates the screen in every scene with layer upon layer of filigree and texture (streamers, confetti, balloons, masks, scarves, veils, mantillas, sequins, bouquets, shutters, screens, baskets, stairways, archways, ironwork, birds, horses, sheep, trees, rain, mist, plumes of smoke). It is also a witty flamenco demonstrating the futility and absurdity of enslavement to superficial beauty and romantic ideals. Strains of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol" punctuate this cruel and ironic tableau...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dietrich portrays Concha, the spoiled and wily coquette, with an operatic flamboyance reflected in every gesture and inflection, in her makeup, costumes and coiffures. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Lionel Atwill is at his best, and most notice that his performance as Pasqual is an artful take on von Sternberg himself. Cesar Romero is charming as the younger fool; Edward Everett Horton is a droll choice as the local governor.</span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">As the production was ending, von Sternberg wrote a note to Dietrich about their final film, "My parting gift to you will be the greatest "Dietrich film" yet. In it, I give you all my talent. You will see the ultimate Dietrich and it will be your favorite of our seven films."</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span><br /><br /><div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In the end, it was Dietrich's favorite film, not just among those she made with von Sternberg but of all her films; she felt it contained her best performance and showcased her at her most beautiful. But, she also remembered, “Josef von Sternberg’s decision, against my will, to terminate our collaboration – to which the studio executives probably also contributed – marked for me the beginning of a long series of mediocre films.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi73dFewu-1NGTo4OYFSHb0nLvz3TB0h-6Cwww8NY1g_lJDyupKBKkGfrBM11yKf594IdKptVIIi9ZKJ-tlQCyqjl7isgHXOxkNJ_QbvO6V09muPFGCzl_wX2akoITluegw6cF7O0vANozC/s1600/destry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi73dFewu-1NGTo4OYFSHb0nLvz3TB0h-6Cwww8NY1g_lJDyupKBKkGfrBM11yKf594IdKptVIIi9ZKJ-tlQCyqjl7isgHXOxkNJ_QbvO6V09muPFGCzl_wX2akoITluegw6cF7O0vANozC/s200/destry.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Destry Rides Again</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dietrich, whose screen goddess persona became more fixed and formal (her daughter observed that her mother's image was no longer recreated but simply perpetuated), managed to rebound. I</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">n her autobiography Dietrich wrote that, in 1939, producer Joe Pasternak called her to say he was willing to take a risk and make a picture with her (she was by now "box office poison"). When told it was a Western, her instinctive reaction was to turn it down. However, she wrote, “Josef von Sternberg advised me to take the offer.” Her comeback in <b>Destry Rides Again</b> (1939) <b></b>was one of the most dramatic in Hollywood history and she went on to become an enduring legend.</span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaXmY0rY3zrNDyrl6zmdywtbCUkLA9eFfMJCP-qsWtGU21AYa0XC_bY4jbJwPXBtoA_yM2F26t0m8qMnJBY4KurO3O0jDoxH39ipcbd7pnDUnhytCH_QcQoOkHY-It5aY47K2bw0ZCd_o0/s1600/shanghai+gesture.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaXmY0rY3zrNDyrl6zmdywtbCUkLA9eFfMJCP-qsWtGU21AYa0XC_bY4jbJwPXBtoA_yM2F26t0m8qMnJBY4KurO3O0jDoxH39ipcbd7pnDUnhytCH_QcQoOkHY-It5aY47K2bw0ZCd_o0/s200/shanghai+gesture.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Shanghai Gesture</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial;">Von Sternberg directed only a handful of films in his remaining career. Though a 1937 production of <b>I, Claudius</b>, starring Charles Laughton and Merle Oberon was promising, it was never completed; <b>The Shanghai Gesture</b> (1941) is the best known of his post-Dietrich films. The director's final film, <b>Ana-ta-han </b>(1953) was made in Japan, in Japanese with the director's own voice providing English narration.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Josef von Sternberg was fortunate enough to be "rediscovered" during his lifetime. <b>The Devil is a Woman </b>had become a "lost film." Pulled from circulation in 1935 under pressure from the government of Spain, all prints were thought to have been destroyed. But in 1959 the Venice Film Festival screened von Sternberg's own print; both film and filmmaker were showered with accolades. He became the subject of documentaries, wrote his idiosyncratic autobiography, <u>Fun in a Chinese Laundry</u>, and lectured on film at UCLA. Today his work is regularly studied in film programs and screened at festivals and retrospectives around the world.</span><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dietrich would always give von Sternberg full credit for her success, “I was nothing but pliable material on the infinitely rich palette of his ideas and imaginative faculties.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Von Sternberg's assessment was slightly different, “I did not endow her with a personality that was not her own…I gave her nothing that she did not already have. What I did was to dramatize her attributes and make them visible for all to see...”</span><br /> </div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcQ8q_MZh2bv0_lHHnQdXW4ksCYrRFsi33J0eYmlTIQaGpx5kj59eLPjoHCEthvq8Z-DRDE7UyjXt565sZXvsY8C2eT3fcmsuUX1f-50I0JR1TURDbUiB6oeY6xd4CDz_x5XWudscD_o2/s1600/von+sternberg+oberon+laughton%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcQ8q_MZh2bv0_lHHnQdXW4ksCYrRFsi33J0eYmlTIQaGpx5kj59eLPjoHCEthvq8Z-DRDE7UyjXt565sZXvsY8C2eT3fcmsuUX1f-50I0JR1TURDbUiB6oeY6xd4CDz_x5XWudscD_o2/s400/von+sternberg+oberon+laughton%5B1%5D.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">von Sternberg, Oberon and Laughton</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Released this August by Criterion,</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <b>3 Silents by Josef von Sternberg</b>  - the set includes his signature work of the late silent era - <b>Underworld</b> (1927), <b>The Last Command</b> (1928) and <b>Docks of New York</b> (1928).</span></i></div></div><div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>

Cesar Romero Charles Laughton Joe Pasternak Josef von Sternberg Light Shadow and Synergy Lionel Atwill Marlene Dietrich Merle Oberon Sam Jaffe The Lady Eve (author) Light, Shadow and Synergy ~ von Sternberg and Dietrich, Part III

Scroll down for Parts I and II of Light, Shadow and Synergy... In 1933, during a hiatus between studio contracts and filmmaking, Josef von Sternberg traveled to Germany to explore establishing Marlene Dietrich and himself at UFA, the studio where the…

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Light, Shadow and Synergy ~ von Sternberg and Dietrich, Part II

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7CD-Lcu24JpwoULazkyVEML8Zp42bCCI-MVfw7mBIJ_eq2u6rrpTQBjsjehJucYUT1szvkltKTbjbsWwp1i9gnsKU5L-6Uf4H2vAa3_T8BB82Zil2gwMXzEK1YtixFjJiiV_coujaqECK/s1600/Dietrich+beautiful+2+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7CD-Lcu24JpwoULazkyVEML8Zp42bCCI-MVfw7mBIJ_eq2u6rrpTQBjsjehJucYUT1szvkltKTbjbsWwp1i9gnsKU5L-6Uf4H2vAa3_T8BB82Zil2gwMXzEK1YtixFjJiiV_coujaqECK/s320/Dietrich+beautiful+2+a.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">1931 began spectacularly for director Josef von Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich. Their first two films together, <b>Morocco</b> and the English language version of <b>The Blue Angel</b>, had both just opened in the U.S., creating a sensation...and big box office.</span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div><div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">The 36-year-old von Sternberg, who during the silent era had been called "the young Austrian with a streak of genius," came into his own. Dietrich, at 29, finally achieved the fame that had eluded her during long years of lukewarm success in German films and cabarets. The two rushed into their next Paramount collaboration only weeks after <b>Morocco </b>wrapped.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><b>Dishonored</b> (1931) is a variation on the story of Mata Hari, a courtesan/spy of the World War I era. The film demonstrated von Sternberg's many talents; he directed and edited, wrote the story and composed original music for the film. More obvious to audiences gazing up from their theater seats, it showcased Dietrich's dazzling starpower.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">As her screen persona assumed more irony and nuance, Dietrich the actress continued to evolve. Incredibly, she also seemed to grow ever more beautiful. The "painterly" von Sternberg, master of <i>mise en scene</i>, offers</span> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">two particularly fine renderings in <b>Dishonored</b>: a Viennese streamer-and-balloon festooned masked ball and the film's final moments when Dietrich makes her way from a prison cell to a firing squad (<i>see sidebar at right to watch</i>).</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">By the time their fourth film was in production, Dietrich was becoming what Paramount had hoped for and MGM had feared, a formidable alternative to Garbo. <b>Shanghai Express</b> (1932), would become the most successful of the seven von Sternberg/Dietrich films.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><b>Shanghai Express</b> has been called "a vertible <b>Grand Hotel</b> on rails," the story of a group of passengers traveling through dangerous, war-torn China. Within this tale, the film is a fatalistic meditation on love, illusion and betrayal, and is one of von Sternberg's finest. The director overlooks no detail in the expression of his cinematic vision, with every shadow, texture, gesture and sound meshing precisely. The focal point of this deeply atmospheric excursion is, of course, Dietrich...in veils, feathers, ruffles, silk, chiffon and fur...mocking, sensual and other-worldly at the same time.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><div> <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDAzEoGlfCw2Z-eq2Z6F8d3ZW148JnSLWiaGgEJCjDOhztwY6vW7OTna6TcekiDXXKuLQOVGBmPeUrEVahifNqmJWAD9Z9omnE8LR_fQonNxzHOqln94ZDlrLYB-qbPKKplhiKeLR2HEL_/s1600/Shanghai+Express2%5B1%5D.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525016913032429218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDAzEoGlfCw2Z-eq2Z6F8d3ZW148JnSLWiaGgEJCjDOhztwY6vW7OTna6TcekiDXXKuLQOVGBmPeUrEVahifNqmJWAD9Z9omnE8LR_fQonNxzHOqln94ZDlrLYB-qbPKKplhiKeLR2HEL_/s320/Shanghai+Express2%5B1%5D.jpg" style="float: left; height: 206px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 303px;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shanghai Express, on the set</td></tr></tbody></table> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br />Thirty years later the director looked back and reflected that he didn't visit China until after he had made <b>Shanghai Express</b>.<b> </b>He mused, "The actual Shanghai Express, which I...took out of Peking, was thoroughly unlike the train I had invented, except that it, too, carried a protecting complement of armed military. I was more than pleased that I had delineated a China before being confronted with its vast and variegated reality. There is quite a difference between fact and fancy." He added, "I became more and more partial to fancy as I proceeded to make a fifth film with my fair lady..."</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">That film was <b>Blonde Venus</b> (1932). Though it has been called "a picaresque potboiler," it is, like all the films of the auteur and the legend, visually intoxicating. Among its charms are Dietrich in a fantastical and iconic musical number, "Hot Voodoo," and a young Cary Grant in one of his early major roles (months before <b>She Done Him Wrong</b> was released). Grant was well-matched with Dietrich, closer to Gary Cooper in <b>Morocco</b> than Victor McLaglen <b>(Dishonored</b>) or Clive Brook (<b>Shanghai Express</b>).</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">By 1932 the Great Depression had deepened, Paramount was in bankruptcy and von Sternberg's champion, studio head B.P. Schulberg, was no longer in power. The director, with his and Dietrich's studio contracts ending, announced that he would retire - to paint and read and build a house designed by architect Richard Neutra. But...he was also meeting privately with Jesse Lasky, who had moved from Paramount to Fox, and Charles Chaplin of United Artists.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">For her part, Dietrich stated that she would never make pictures in the U.S. with anyone but Jo. If he retired she intended to return to Europe and the stage, she said, but she scoffed at charges that von Sternberg was her <i>Svengali</i>..."People have said he casts a spell over me. That is ridiculous...Can you think of anyone casting a spell over me?"</span></div><br /><br /><div><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525016336371536002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzE4B7UW8M1OhoGYIFJBnN3-CE_FZSZrf9zBUS9AHVvEeBgFLcrUy6SQpaUJOIL-mTrIHLGEhAMzi-VTy6NDSxRwDpoKzeptFXeWrBE7qI8nYR3pLiiiXy7szlu1z9vF48rTbib6ekX2w/s320/jvs.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 265px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 282px;" /> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><i>Part III to follow...scroll down for Part I...</i></span></div></div></div>

B.P. Schulberg Blonde Venus Dishonored Josef von Sternberg Light Shadow and Synergy Marlene Dietrich Morocco Richard Neutra Shanghai Express The Blue Angel The Lady Eve (author) Light, Shadow and Synergy ~ von Sternberg and Dietrich, Part II

1931 began spectacularly for director Josef von Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich. Their first two films together, Morocco and the English language version of The Blue Angel, had both just opened in the U.S., creating a sensation...and big box o…

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Light, Shadow and Synergy - von Sternberg and Dietrich, Part I

<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzfZ4xQRJjREVNiQSdODF2WCNfrWqdHh19gxc_JTh-_qRCbBgQmhjIyDcRknuNrVad5zypmE2IV-NADtQBxezaWDrxjUSqkm6uC6iHIp9hvsK6sZY-1qU_Zq1hFgNbKcpEQdHZ84mGiVls/s1600/Marlene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520294341038125314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzfZ4xQRJjREVNiQSdODF2WCNfrWqdHh19gxc_JTh-_qRCbBgQmhjIyDcRknuNrVad5zypmE2IV-NADtQBxezaWDrxjUSqkm6uC6iHIp9hvsK6sZY-1qU_Zq1hFgNbKcpEQdHZ84mGiVls/s400/Marlene.jpg" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="400" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Josef von Sternberg is recalled first and foremost as the filmmaker who, 80 years ago, introduced the cinematic persona adopted by Marlene Dietrich as her own, on screen and off, for most of the rest of her life. It is less well known that before their fabled association von Sternberg had already earned a name for himself as an accomplished, if temperamental, director. His artistic reputation peaked during the years 1930 - 1935, when he directed seven films starring Dietrich.</span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_w-h_gju4Jx8QZVzHI0X5DYq_b48lWvo0U8B0dRHBJcsZRqj5YT4iAv1dFwsDg0TnKrmq7OuLT1VYbDKJWDqpLWcy5IWawF_xzBgmymkVVuHSYReYSL2kwkLPojXuRPReX3vtX_eXhI9/s1600/vonsternberg-j%5B1%5D.jpg" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520324979978877858" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_w-h_gju4Jx8QZVzHI0X5DYq_b48lWvo0U8B0dRHBJcsZRqj5YT4iAv1dFwsDg0TnKrmq7OuLT1VYbDKJWDqpLWcy5IWawF_xzBgmymkVVuHSYReYSL2kwkLPojXuRPReX3vtX_eXhI9/s320/vonsternberg-j%5B1%5D.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Born in Vienna in 1894, he spent his childhood shuttling back and forth between Vienna and New York City as family fortunes mostly waned. By the time he was in his late teens he was in New York and </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">apprenticed to a man who patched, cleaned and coated motion picture stock. At 20 he received his first film credit while rising through the ranks at World Film Corporation in Fort Lee, New Jersey.</span><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Von Sternberg made his debut as a director in 1925 with <b>The Salvation Hunters</b>, a picture that attracted attention. <b>Underworld </b>(1927), a "sleeper" that became a pioneering film of the gangster genre, made his reputation (for his contribution, Ben Hecht won the first Oscar given for Best Original Story). In 1928, he directed <b>The Last Command </b>starring Emil Jannings, who won the first Best Actor Academy Award for for his performance as well for his performance in <b>The Way of All Flesh</b>.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Just over a year later Jannings was slated to star in Germany's first full-length sound feature, <b>Der Blaeu Engel</b>/<b>The Blue Angel </b>(1930), and von Sternberg was tapped to direct. Against opposition, he insisted on casting Dietrich, then an actress/entertainer in Berlin, as the cheap cabaret singer who becomes the object of Jannings' obsession.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMgm3Rgi2dvMizG9HOSsy07A7M54OnfGIqCWXuUK1qi4QYZEQuX50SSjNfu9CdG0Zd8YCrsE4QRraOymOAgZA6hedMMH1XiugUa0FgpXDJUxjTQkcZxPHP0uNO19Vlpian9tAYIh7Gp_i/s1600/JvS+and+MD.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="140" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520328260185050178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMgm3Rgi2dvMizG9HOSsy07A7M54OnfGIqCWXuUK1qi4QYZEQuX50SSjNfu9CdG0Zd8YCrsE4QRraOymOAgZA6hedMMH1XiugUa0FgpXDJUxjTQkcZxPHP0uNO19Vlpian9tAYIh7Gp_i/s200/JvS+and+MD.jpg" style="float: right; height: 199px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 284px;" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This was the beginning of a collaboration that made Dietrich an international star and forever entwined their two names. <b>The Blue Angel</b> caused a sensation in Europe and, before its release, von Sternberg was on his way back to Hollywood - such was industry word-of-mouth on the picture. His leading lady followed him immediately after the film premiered in Berlin (to rave reviews). Both signed with Paramount, though Universal and MGM also vied for Dietrich, and made six American movies together over the next five years.</span></div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">When von Sternberg sailed for the U.S., Dietrich gave him a book to read on his voyage, <u>Amy Jolly: Woman of Marrakesh</u>. Not long after, and despite Dietrich's opinion that it was "weak lemonade," the story was adapted to the screen as <b>Morocco</b> (1930). </span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx1Xr3H3bi_oHTyGgDcEczeKtuLj2braVHZk0WWAbh2DJWck4URUVKLM-bov2G1oM9n-pfU5j_6n_M8WkCz2tstFM50-DBWI1nEm-Hocrb_EcHNULKX9IbSFJ6OwkwFeyjzyaZF6WChzb_/s1600/morocco+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; height: 169px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 218px;"><img border="0" height="145" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx1Xr3H3bi_oHTyGgDcEczeKtuLj2braVHZk0WWAbh2DJWck4URUVKLM-bov2G1oM9n-pfU5j_6n_M8WkCz2tstFM50-DBWI1nEm-Hocrb_EcHNULKX9IbSFJ6OwkwFeyjzyaZF6WChzb_/s200/morocco+2.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It was with <b>Morocco </b>that the evolution of the iconic Dietrich character truly began. Lola-Lola of <b>The Blue Angel</b> had been a tawdry temptress, raw and coarse. And though Dietrich's performance as the ammoral tart was electrifying, Josef von Sternberg had a different archetype in mind when he developed <b>Morocco</b>, the film that would introduce her to the United States, where <b>The Blue Angel </b>was not yet in release.</span></div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In her autobiography, Dietrich recalled, "I had terrible difficulties since I had to speak correct English and appear mysterious at the same time. An aura of mysteriousness has never been my forte. I knew what was expected of me, but I wasn't in a position to create this atmosphere. <b>The Blue Angel</b> had been something altogether different, the role of an ordinary, brazen, sexy and impetuous floozie, the very opposite of the 'mysterious woman' that von Sternberg wanted me to play in <b>Morocco</b>."</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In his 1965 autobiography, <u>Fun in a Chinese Laundry</u>, von Sternberg remembered, "I had deliberately selected a theme that was visual and owed no allegiance to a cascade of words..."</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Once Dietrich arrived on the West Coast she underwent the full Hollywood treatment. Her makeup was entirely redone (under von Sternberg's close supervision), she was assigned a voice coach and put on a diet and exercise regimen to slim down. Then Paramount photographers took portrait stills and Dietrich, awed, thought them, "the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life." The studio, soon realizing it had a potential superstar on its hands, rolled out a massive publicity blitz for its latest discovery...Voila! Dietrich was famous before either <b>Morocco</b> or <b>The Blue Angel</b> were released in America.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In his 1966 book, <u>The Films of Josef von Sternberg</u>, critic Andrew Sarris observed that the director had "...entered the cinema through the camera rather than the cutting room and thus became a lyricist of light and shadow..." In </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><b>Morocco</b>, this lyricism is revealed to full effect. With Dietrich its fabulous centerpiece, the film wraps itself around her like a long, sensuous caress...in von Sternberg's painstaking hands she is stunning, enigmatic, worldly, intriguing. The landscape of the film is a dream world...an atmospheric fantasy of escape into the exotic and the romantic. Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou add just the right accents as rivals of opposing types.</span></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">It was in <b>Morocco </b>that Dietrich created a commotion when she famously cross-dressed in a cabaret scene. About the sequence von Sternberg wrote that his intention was, in part, "to demonstrate that her sensual appeal was not entirely due to the classic formation of her legs." And he did.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jO0h190oboE?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jO0h190oboE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Upon its release at the Rivoli Theatre in New York, <b>Morocco </b>broke box-office records; both the picture and its star received an avalanche of press coverage.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Much was made of the way von Sternberg showcased Dietrich in the film. One magazine article aptly observed that von Sternberg "not only gave the picture to Marlene; she took it." </span><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Part II...coming soon...</span></i></div></div></div></div></div><img height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx1Xr3H3bi_oHTyGgDcEczeKtuLj2braVHZk0WWAbh2DJWck4URUVKLM-bov2G1oM9n-pfU5j_6n_M8WkCz2tstFM50-DBWI1nEm-Hocrb_EcHNULKX9IbSFJ6OwkwFeyjzyaZF6WChzb_/s200/morocco+2.jpg" style="filter: alpha(opacity=30); left: 167px; mozopacity: 0.3; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 1629px; visibility: hidden;" width="96" /></div></div>

Ben Hecht Emil Jannings Josef von Sternberg Light Shadow and Synergy Marlene Dietrich Morocco The Blue Angel The Lady Eve (author) The Last Command Underworld Light, Shadow and Synergy - von Sternberg and Dietrich, Part I

Josef von Sternberg is recalled first and foremost as the filmmaker who, 80 years ago, introduced the cinematic persona adopted by Marlene Dietrich as her own, on screen and off, for most of the rest of her life. It is less well known that before the…

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