Fashion in Film Blogathon: Shanghai Express (1932)

<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/AVvXsEieyLtCNNsd7jJvVhqlnA2JmUnkyvWCStpY7ot6X39C6rNdf0P5qEG-_CxGgbyVGoFfMVAbk3TYI_i3L3eJ1Xp7Aqfqf7beZpo5Sg9ytwdK-kTEJbBXd0AvjDib1DAhiRRn4RTpcT_0Q5Y/s1600/clive_dietrich_windows_opt.png.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieyLtCNNsd7jJvVhqlnA2JmUnkyvWCStpY7ot6X39C6rNdf0P5qEG-_CxGgbyVGoFfMVAbk3TYI_i3L3eJ1Xp7Aqfqf7beZpo5Sg9ytwdK-kTEJbBXd0AvjDib1DAhiRRn4RTpcT_0Q5Y/s1600/clive_dietrich_windows_opt.png.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Clive Brook and Marlene Dietrich</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">B</span>etween 1930 and 1935, Josef von Sternberg filmed six wondrous and surreal flights of imagination for Paramount starring Marlene Dietrich with costumes by Travis Banton. The director and Dietrich had already made their first film together<span style="font-size: small;"><i>, <span style="font-size: small;">The Blue Angel </span></i><span style="font-size: small;">(1930), for UFA in Germany and, on the heels of that film's sensational premiere in Berlin, departed for Hollywood. Von Sternberg, who was born in Austria but <span style="font-size: small;">mostly raised in America, had worked previously with Banton in the U.S. on <i>Underworld </i>(1927), a groundbreaking silent crime drama.</span></span></span></span></span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEiNLmwA6u5KvkjXCAGcql7AkvWPX2q39k46T4W1Vqi-7h4O_RrBFs8_XlSuhkFzYfj84wWU9gJMUELKQLQx1v2by3MmJeMAtQJVgNnr0h6Cop2-koX_Evt7ev5f8qXcV12qMG5q9yaFv_o/s1600/Evelyn_Brent_Underworld_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNLmwA6u5KvkjXCAGcql7AkvWPX2q39k46T4W1Vqi-7h4O_RrBFs8_XlSuhkFzYfj84wWU9gJMUELKQLQx1v2by3MmJeMAtQJVgNnr0h6Cop2-koX_Evt7ev5f8qXcV12qMG5q9yaFv_o/s320/Evelyn_Brent_Underworld_opt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Evelyn Brent as Feathers McCoy in <i>Underworld</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first of the six Paramount productions was <i>Morocco </i>(1930), the film that made a star of Dietrich. It brought Academ<span style="font-size: small;">y A</span>ward nominations to von Sternberg, cinematographer Lee Garmes, art director Hans Dreier - and for <span style="font-size: small;">Marlene </span>Dietrich her one and only Best Actress nod. <i>Morocco </i>also introduced elements and themes that would recur in Josef von Sternberg's future Dietrich films: an enigmatic siren, besotted men, distant locales, misleading <span style="font-size: small;">appearances, frustrated passion and the redemptive power of love.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEgGP8NXr2pc970gHvZr_4Ewlpl9Tdn9uyY7DktzUA84tTJFspEmamgGZ7m5UMulcuxpCXyxo9ThxZJMYoNBiKTMh-WJaqzuQVI8Cyy2idkyyfkkQefo0WXqU5zS0Gb8zU6-t_sq1SfNhHk/s1600/Morocco_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGP8NXr2pc970gHvZr_4Ewlpl9Tdn9uyY7DktzUA84tTJFspEmamgGZ7m5UMulcuxpCXyxo9ThxZJMYoNBiKTMh-WJaqzuQVI8Cyy2idkyyfkkQefo0WXqU5zS0Gb8zU6-t_sq1SfNhHk/s320/Morocco_opt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper, <i>Morocco</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Shanghai Express</i> (1932), the third of th<span style="font-size: small;">e </span>collaborations with Dietrich and Banton<span style="font-size: small;">, was, according to its director, "<span style="font-size: small;">loosely based on a single page by Harry Hervey." Hervey actually provided more pages than that and<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>from those pages Jules Furthman crafted a clever script. Von Sternberg constructed a China made of "papier-mache" and, borrowing a loco<span style="font-size: small;">motive and railway cars from the Santa Fe Railroad, set the scene for the tale of a train <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">hijacked en route from Peking to Shanghai </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">by Chinese revolutiona<span style="font-size: small;">ries.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><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/AVvXsEilMDMR5BtQgVh6s6VVYuZCF7CziMHB5sM74AZv_WnKCPuKK4i5cDCz7MGiRlavL7LOnLNSrQwFrtz7kzjuz0MwVRleAe1DQvEbiH3KEN3V810jQhyphenhyphenQm1KxACOyW13BdfiK82ushO91LNg/s1600/shanghai_express.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMDMR5BtQgVh6s6VVYuZCF7CziMHB5sM74AZv_WnKCPuKK4i5cDCz7MGiRlavL7LOnLNSrQwFrtz7kzjuz0MwVRleAe1DQvEbiH3KEN3V810jQhyphenhyphenQm1KxACOyW13BdfiK82ushO91LNg/s400/shanghai_express.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">imagining China, <i>Shanghai Express</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Crowded on board with a clutter of cargo is a disparate group of passengers, several of whom harbor secrets. Among these travelers is dry-as-dust <span style="font-size: small;">British military officer </span>Donald ‘Doc’ Harvey (Clive Brook). Early in the journey he encounters the great lost love of his life, Magdalen, now known as “Shanghai Lily” and an infamous ‘coaster’ living by her wiles – played to the hilt by Marlene Dietrich at her most ravishing. As the trip unfolds and the train makes its way down the exotic and dangerous coast of China, Doc and Lily wrestle with reignited desire for each other. The hijacking triggers a crisis in their reunion.</span></span></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dietrich first appears onscreen more blonde than ever before, veiled<span style="font-size: small;"> and swathed in crepe and feathers, wearing crystal beads and kid gloves, carrying an Art Deco handbag<span style="font-size: small;">. She is </span>the quintessential<span style="font-size: small;"> femme fatale.</span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Sleek and mysterious, Lily’s cynicism and insolence are tempered by her profound femininity. Dietrich skirts the edges of parody as the soft-spoken, worldly-wise heartbreaker. Brook is mostly sulky and long-suffering in his role; what attracts such a sensual woman to the repressed doctor is neither easy nor difficult to fathom. </span></span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEgZDxBhMih1vCY-WsGlKOm969L3AyZ1Y1_hWIqhcCkUzt0nSlH-lKuW82h7oZXkH4Z_CXhP6ItebydEmeuuOlVOfL2dr7opxpE21ZpizynGjaOwpLiTbpIrLwuFL0Vt8pHPZSgylglHcbE/s1600/Shanghai_ultimate_3_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZDxBhMih1vCY-WsGlKOm969L3AyZ1Y1_hWIqhcCkUzt0nSlH-lKuW82h7oZXkH4Z_CXhP6ItebydEmeuuOlVOfL2dr7opxpE21ZpizynGjaOwpLiTbpIrLwuFL0Vt8pHPZSgylglHcbE/s400/Shanghai_ultimate_3_opt.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">veil, feathers, crystal, kidskin</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span 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Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]-->This ensemble was concocted, according to Dietrich’s daughter Maria Riva, by her mother and Travis Banton. She writes of Dietrich going to the studio and running into Banton’s private office shouting, “Feathers! Travis - feathers! What do you think…Black feathers! Now, what bird has black feathers that will photograph?” The black-green tail feathers of Mexican fighting cocks were eventually chosen. Selecting the proper veil fabric took<span style="font-size: x-small;"> as long</span>. Riva reports that when Dietrich finally held up a swatch of “black 41” with its horizontal lines, “Travis let out a wild whoop.” Finally, von Sternberg came to take a look at the completed outfit. There had been concern about his reaction – the elaborate costume would be very difficult to photograph. In German he said to Dietrich, “If </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">you </span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">believe I am skilled enough to know how to photograph this, then all I can offer you is – to </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">do</span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the impossible.” In English he said to Banton, “A superb execution of an impossible design, I congratulate you all.”  After the director left, Banton broke out a bottle of champagne.</span></i></span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEhO9vBuG0Fg2J908f7QMM8V0vaAVdm8M8w4enU3FPQFj6JfTlH5C_VxZRFcvNSI5aTGYvyxwjaz1Q0Nqw1ocWiVsJh2q9BuUnOem4OiwFFTTaeBG7C1PYqFP5ZHFFbnhoaJTwSCJx897CI/s1600/textures_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9vBuG0Fg2J908f7QMM8V0vaAVdm8M8w4enU3FPQFj6JfTlH5C_VxZRFcvNSI5aTGYvyxwjaz1Q0Nqw1ocWiVsJh2q9BuUnOem4OiwFFTTaeBG7C1PYqFP5ZHFFbnhoaJTwSCJx897CI/s400/textures_opt.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">fur, feathers and lace</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Chierichetti has written that Travis Banton worked to give Dietrich, with her perfect posture and slender figure, a softened quality. "Her clothes would usually be fussier than any others he designed, with drapings of fabric and much use of fur and velvet that would be unflattering to a heavier figure." Banton understood that few but Dietrich could<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">successfully wear a busy mix of textures and patterns.</span></span></span></i></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span></span></i></span><br /><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/AVvXsEh-faSMiDFDAEQU4rUFSnhnZso7QviLzGkzK8cijr8TmjzASYOxUjB_47pLmMoqNW1h3C21GuvB-JNk2mnSnyMgRUbeiK-92l53mcENyI4VPLghtZqPAa22PtGUXeEdVsB-z1MMvAfEnW8/s1600/maribou2_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-faSMiDFDAEQU4rUFSnhnZso7QviLzGkzK8cijr8TmjzASYOxUjB_47pLmMoqNW1h3C21GuvB-JNk2mnSnyMgRUbeiK-92l53mcENyI4VPLghtZqPAa22PtGUXeEdVsB-z1MMvAfEnW8/s400/maribou2_opt.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">maribou</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">C</span>inematic <span style="font-size: small;">v</span></span></span>irtuoso and visionary Josef von Sternberg didn't hesitate to claim that he not only directed his films but was also responsible for every facet of every one of them, from lighting and photography to set design, costuming and, sometimes, music. Though the director freely admitted that Lee Garmes <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span>excelled behind the camera, he also maintained that Garmes did exactly as he was told, "to the extent that I would always be beside the camera. No picture of mine has been independently photographed." Dietrich, for her part, supported these assertions. As for costumes, von Sternberg's involvement in designing Dietrich's wardrobe was, as David Chierichetti has noted, "as hard a question to answer as how much he photographed the films<i>."<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">What <i> is</i> evident in the films von Sternberg made for Paramount with Dietrich and Banton is that costume was as much an element of narrative and theme as every other meticulously <span style="font-size: small;">designed </span>visual and aural detail<span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><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/AVvXsEj9lbJbSNb372RnlWZnEB7Nwiv_eunkPA_RIrWfc21rBV4RElcpCZzZYlpZzF5c8aQteWRAMoaa7VTOeHTcSM0_26jYIciv7XZZxr8VmqYGSR-U2Mwy6qPMMv41ynFFzd4NwairM8n9Hec/s1600/Shanghai-ultimate-costume_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9lbJbSNb372RnlWZnEB7Nwiv_eunkPA_RIrWfc21rBV4RElcpCZzZYlpZzF5c8aQteWRAMoaa7VTOeHTcSM0_26jYIciv7XZZxr8VmqYGSR-U2Mwy6qPMMv41ynFFzd4NwairM8n9Hec/s400/Shanghai-ultimate-costume_opt.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr><tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Shanghai Lily's introduction - her attire and bearing suggest different possibilities: seasoned seductress, dark angel and more. </span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="goog_1201836282"></span><span id="goog_1201836283"></span></div><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/AVvXsEhXJx9XNFBLD7g6i1P2Mqc6h02ss074XglNL_kjQQpUqK7whgN6rPeK6FoyXYgLUEzfZPK9wS4CpsK2By5KEhZ1DwD6Y9xjM19Q3aulbwhtePkJkCv5ENVO8kELjC9pIUg21gFl-VnSI9g/s1600/marlene-dietrich-and-clive-brook-hat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXJx9XNFBLD7g6i1P2Mqc6h02ss074XglNL_kjQQpUqK7whgN6rPeK6FoyXYgLUEzfZPK9wS4CpsK2By5KEhZ1DwD6Y9xjM19Q3aulbwhtePkJkCv5ENVO8kELjC9pIUg21gFl-VnSI9g/s400/marlene-dietrich-and-clive-brook-hat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lily is regally bundled in fur when she toys with her former lover. Teasing, she puts his military cap on her own head - at a jaunty angle. This is a woman who knows how to take command.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><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/AVvXsEg9UivP8zaY0Pjc09eVZAZexNC7VCFSvScSiMNUSgfElUUjNk8TUUwtVCqj54VLr8TrQHZkU-4XFmVQTie9pGfew1NnI3y6wW9SF5wRzKqnmdya_D7vZBq2kZEYjV_g641-KbWT3e8_yaY/s1600/Magdalen_Donald_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9UivP8zaY0Pjc09eVZAZexNC7VCFSvScSiMNUSgfElUUjNk8TUUwtVCqj54VLr8TrQHZkU-4XFmVQTie9pGfew1NnI3y6wW9SF5wRzKqnmdya_D7vZBq2kZEYjV_g641-KbWT3e8_yaY/s400/Magdalen_Donald_opt.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By the time Dietrich utters the line, "Shanghai Lily has reformed," Magdalen has begun to resurface.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><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/AVvXsEj-FohBUGVSF8ixiXPDjuW94gr__Uq6MKV0oFIiKFu_68kII4rBrDLtrAVOdlHUYQoLkIllH-6eIAFNiC-daYWGZrXJNS5AdT4YtCmUncJ5jhVbZyMWIScBXkIdynHogHuKsod9yPVgW6E/s1600/final_scene_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FohBUGVSF8ixiXPDjuW94gr__Uq6MKV0oFIiKFu_68kII4rBrDLtrAVOdlHUYQoLkIllH-6eIAFNiC-daYWGZrXJNS5AdT4YtCmUncJ5jhVbZyMWIScBXkIdynHogHuKsod9yPVgW6E/s400/final_scene_opt.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the final scene, Dietrich is again bedecked in Shanghai Lily's black-feathered vamp ensemble - but Magdalen can be seen and heard in her expression, her voice and her words. Doc, who she now calls by his given name, Donald, surrenders to her completely. She tosses away his riding crop and glove as they embrace.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></div><div style="text-align: left;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> 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mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Josef von Sternberg, in a 1966 interview with Oscar-winning film preservationist Kevin Brownlow, acknowledged that he had no interest in ‘authenticity’, “…on the contrary, the illusion of reality is what I look for, not reality itself.” Of the six von Sternberg/Dietrich/Banton films, film critic/historian David Thomson has written, “They are sublime, radiant and utterly undated, where earnestness, noble intentions, showing real life with pained sincerity (all plausible in the difficult times of the 1930s), have perished by the wayside.”</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> <i>Shanghai Express</i> was the most financially successful of the six Paramount productions though its critical reception was mixed. Von Sternberg was flattered when novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand told him that the film had impressed her as other films rarely had. Naturally he asked what it was that captivated her so. He remembered, with some irony<span style="font-size: small;"></span>, that she told him it was “the way the wind blows through the fur-piece around Marlene’s shoulder when she sits on the back platform of the train.”</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwMiAdJRm-Tny9WI234xZbtWjA4lnPmkZIapsC3ceHMm6fK6XvKWZ5x2q0QYKPcVwtXfo2uJCvf6hneBVNdaUkN5mW0qn3TZbKQHVe_GOJ0XgY5bKtKQJaf4QAwkmQ_Sgs6yVI0FBfxQ/s1600/tumblr_lpnrykbe9J1qakh43o1_250.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwMiAdJRm-Tny9WI234xZbtWjA4lnPmkZIapsC3ceHMm6fK6XvKWZ5x2q0QYKPcVwtXfo2uJCvf6hneBVNdaUkN5mW0qn3TZbKQHVe_GOJ0XgY5bKtKQJaf4QAwkmQ_Sgs6yVI0FBfxQ/s1600/tumblr_lpnrykbe9J1qakh43o1_250.gif" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Shanghai Express </i><span style="font-size: small;">was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, Josef von Sternberg was nominated for Best Director<span style="font-size: small;"> and Lee Garmes won the Academy Award for B<span style="font-size: small;">est Cinematography.</span> </span></span></span></span></div><br />~</div></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">T<span style="font-size: small;">ravis <span style="font-size: small;">B</span>anton</span></span> was Paramount's Chief Designer from 1929 until 1938. Before coming to Hollywood to design Leatrice Joy’s costumes for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dressmaker of Paris </i>(1924), he worked at various design houses including his own in New York. His reputation got a major boost in 1920 when he designed Mary Pickford’s wedding dress for her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><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/AVvXsEjmjtawliPxdGzcXX3rhJbbpO-R64rT7Nex2SdQBVcb2Lgja-7fQzhmSgifN8AKsp9JcVbPUnf_tu2MwyB4ZTPCXXf9_tcPabUSNTHY3D9l8LiFMm0zDu-zfug-uqaqGnDFlwS4uMEQjmo/s1600/pickford_20_dress_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjtawliPxdGzcXX3rhJbbpO-R64rT7Nex2SdQBVcb2Lgja-7fQzhmSgifN8AKsp9JcVbPUnf_tu2MwyB4ZTPCXXf9_tcPabUSNTHY3D9l8LiFMm0zDu-zfug-uqaqGnDFlwS4uMEQjmo/s200/pickford_20_dress_opt.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mary Pickford in wedding gown, 1920</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">B</span>anton’s designs were known for their fashionable cuts (frequently on the bias, his specialty), luxurious fabrics, and beads, feathers, lace, fur and other ornamentation. His designs embodied the “Paramount Look” of the 1930s. He never took home a costume design Oscar, no doubt because the award did not exist until 1948, after the better part of his film career was over. Leaving Paramount, Banton went on to work for Fox on films like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Mark of Zorro </i>(1940), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blood and Sand </i>(1941) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Yank in the R.A.F.</i> (1941). He designed gowns on Columbia’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cover Girl </i>(1944) and for Universal’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (</i>1947). One of his late film assignments was designing gowns for <span style="font-size: small;">Joan Fontaine in the h<span style="font-size: small;">aunting </span></span>Max Ophuls drama <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Letter from an Unknown Woman </i>(1948).<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>The designer is also credited with mentoring his Paramount assistant Edith Head, who became the best known and most Oscar-winning costume designer in Hollywood history.</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><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;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRxdWwBwqZ_0rh_JiCiiBB1obg_O_ky97fYlx2WZdsPELCDTewv2n3fXvWO_oeSbZDRYZHUHY_9329sXR9GOvwk5SPt9vMPe4Vh6C5iJlPp1-EbYsyNOldnMzgQzDvWK4pzoP7i9JHBY/s1600/1-cover-girl-rita-hayworth_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRxdWwBwqZ_0rh_JiCiiBB1obg_O_ky97fYlx2WZdsPELCDTewv2n3fXvWO_oeSbZDRYZHUHY_9329sXR9GOvwk5SPt9vMPe4Vh6C5iJlPp1-EbYsyNOldnMzgQzDvWK4pzoP7i9JHBY/s1600/1-cover-girl-rita-hayworth_opt.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rita Hayworth, <i>Cover Girl </i>(1944)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Banton’s eventual decline has been attributed to overwork and overindulgence. “He was a genius. Boy, did he drink! That’s what ruined him…” said Louise Brooks, a woman who knew firsthand about drinking and ruination. Evelyn Brent, the first actress to work on a von Sternberg/Banton film, recalled, “He was the kind of designer who read the script and would find out who was going to play the part, and worked out the clothes that way.” The feather and velvet hat he designed for her in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Underworld </i>started a fashion trend.<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">M</span>aria Riva knew Banton when he designed for the Dietrich/von Sternberg films. Of him she said that he “had the Ronald Colman look long before Ronald Colman <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">had </i>a look” – cashmere blazer, white flannels, paisley ascot and silk shirt with French cuffs. Dietrich’s long-time photographer John Engstead recalled that the actress didn’t listen to many but would always take advice from von Sternberg and Banton. David Chierichetti has written that it was his work for Dietrich that made Banton’s designs immortal. And costume designer Walter Plunkett (<i><span style="font-size: small;">Gone with the Wind</span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">,</span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>An American in Paris</i>) remembered, “The rest of us always watched Banton because he was always ahead of the fashion trend.”<span style="font-size: small;"> In fact, Banton's use of the strapless bodice pre-dated by four years Christian Dior's<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>celebrated use of it as part of his "New Look" of the late 1940s.</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">  </span></span><br /><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/AVvXsEgJRUbXOsU7LQJMDxyGosofJNjmwtHOmp0-84u_aJ7RsBhVhVijTOGyS75Rl3_TlLCvyCgwgoEHlOuz-dSAif9iFsUO6X4opxyPcxnre-AD-6D1ju0QGaXYM3PyYnbCFmRLaTLbIi2ud0s/s1600/banton_dietrich_opt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRUbXOsU7LQJMDxyGosofJNjmwtHOmp0-84u_aJ7RsBhVhVijTOGyS75Rl3_TlLCvyCgwgoEHlOuz-dSAif9iFsUO6X4opxyPcxnre-AD-6D1ju0QGaXYM3PyYnbCFmRLaTLbIi2ud0s/s400/banton_dietrich_opt.jpg" width="346" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Travis Banton and Marlene Dietrich</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br />~</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">M</span>arlene Dietrich forever attributed her initial success in film to Josef von Sternberg, insisting "I was nothing but pliable material on the infinitely rich palette of his ideas and imaginative faculties." She learned everything about filmmaking, most especially lighting and photography, from him. The director would be unusually modest when it came to taking credit for 'inventing' Marlene Dietrich. "I did not endow her with a personality that was not her own...I gave her nothing she did not already have. What I did was to dramatize her attributes and make them visible for all to see."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Paramount films Dietrich made with von Sternberg and Travis Banton were <i>Morocco</i>, <i>Dishonored </i>(1931), <i>Shanghai Express</i>, <i>Blonde Venus </i>(1932), <i>The Scarlet Empress </i>(1934) and <i>The Devil is a Woman</i> (1935). She and von Sternberg parted ways afterward. When her career foundered he advised her to make <i>Destry Rides Again </i>with James Stewart for Universal in 1939; it was a hit and revived her reputation. She went on to reinvent herself again and again.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Dietrich would work with Travis Banton on two more Paramount films, Frank Borzage's <i>Desire </i>(1936) and Ernst Lubitsch's <i>Angel </i>(1937). With or without von Sternberg's input, Banton's gowns for the great star were breathtaking.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Marlene Dietrich in scenes from all six films directed by Josef von Sternberg with costume design by Travis Banton</i></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VlA0EbSHRFA" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post is my entry in The Hollywood Revue's Fashion in Film Blogathon..<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">.</span><span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://hollywoodrevue.wordpress.com/">click here</a></span></i> </span><span style="color: black;">for more information and links to participating blogs.</span></span></span></b> <br /><br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Not</u></span></span><u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">es</span></span></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Fun in a Chinese Laundry</i> by Josef von Sternberg, MacMillan Co. (1965)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Marlene Dietrich</i> by Maria Riva, Alfred A. Kno<span style="font-size: small;">pf (1993)</span> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Hollywood Costume Design</i> by David Chierichetti, Harmony Books (1976)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>The Parade's Gone By</i> by Kevin Brownlow, Bonanza Books (1968)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>People Will Talk</i> by John Kobal, Alfred A. Kno<span style="font-size: small;">pf (1985)</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>The Big Screen: The History of Hollywood</i> by David Thomson, Farrar<span style="font-size: small;"> Strauss<span style="font-size: small;"> and Giroux (2012)</span></span><i>    </i></span></span>

Fashion in Film Blogathon Josef von Sternberg Marlene Dietrich Shanghai Express The Lady Eve (author) Travis Banton Fashion in Film Blogathon: Shanghai Express (1932)

Clive Brook and Marlene Dietrich B etween 1930 and 1935, Josef von Sternberg filmed six wondrous and surreal flights of imagination for Para...

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A Tale of Two Epics: I, Claudius

<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/AVvXsEjA9sRFaOha7SHqYx1kUZu5ZrN6Cns5QcVSqWxPErhJgJ5q4bF2uOm_thIjhgcJso2DS3CbGGrdRmCGO45N_Fakxz1gvRGTZT3g_ArOb2mW8plhOtzM9skHNs_XaNtWnLL089ke0YdNjCRk/s1600/von+sternberg+oberon+laughton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA9sRFaOha7SHqYx1kUZu5ZrN6Cns5QcVSqWxPErhJgJ5q4bF2uOm_thIjhgcJso2DS3CbGGrdRmCGO45N_Fakxz1gvRGTZT3g_ArOb2mW8plhOtzM9skHNs_XaNtWnLL089ke0YdNjCRk/s400/von+sternberg+oberon+laughton.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Josef von Sternberg, Merle Oberon and Charles Laughton</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In 1934, British scholar/writer Robert Graves published his best known and most successful work, the sweeping historical novel <i>I, Claudius</i>, written in the form of an autobiography by the Roman Emperor Claudius (10 B.C. - 54 A.D.). 40 years later this classic work would receive plaudits and a new audience in an entirely different medium.</span></span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The golden age of the television miniseries began in the mid-'70s - <i>Rich Man, Poor Man </i>was a sensation in 1976 and <i>Roots </i>made history in 1977. Classics like <i>Shogun</i> (1980), <i>Brideshead Revisited </i>(1981) and <i>Winds of War</i> (1983) soon followed. In 1976 the BBC's <i>Masterpiece Theatre</i> adapted Graves's historical fiction into a </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">12-episode landmark starring Derek Jacobi (Claudius), John Hurt (Caligula), Sian Phillips (Livia) and Patrick Stewart (Sejanus). An Emmy and BAFTA winner, <i>I, Claudius </i>debuted in the U.S. in 1977 and was, among other things, later acknowledged as inspiration for the blockbuster prime-time soap, <i>Dynasty</i> (1981 - 1989).</span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq5iHqgTwXhBf9NLmCTBISajphGZAsCQ3gbFMtjlssO4vtaExrwa7NwBjarSAOXL5nVjr-J2D693SS0U9IwhcYqWIHEM2vQCcIM4JxJZ8z4mEEXxdFz43XqgqepqpxFBs-vkiaO-zbL_Jm/s1600/Claudius+35+anniv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq5iHqgTwXhBf9NLmCTBISajphGZAsCQ3gbFMtjlssO4vtaExrwa7NwBjarSAOXL5nVjr-J2D693SS0U9IwhcYqWIHEM2vQCcIM4JxJZ8z4mEEXxdFz43XqgqepqpxFBs-vkiaO-zbL_Jm/s320/Claudius+35+anniv.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This year, in March, Acorn Media released a new boxed set edition celebrating the 35th anniversary of <i>I, Claudius</i>. Among the bonus features are extended original versions of episodes one and two, a behind-the-scenes documentary entitled <i>I,Claudius: A Television Epic</i>, an interview with Derek Jacobi and...a 70+ minute BBC documentary from 1965, <i>The Epic That Never Was</i>, about the unfinished Alexander Korda production of a Josef von Sternberg-directed film. This first version of the Graves novel starred Charles Laughton (Claudius), Merle Oberon (Messalina), Flora Robson (Livia) and Emlyn Williams (Caligula).</span></span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEgYOQzALdvGHOCQlI670WcAqWUpJcPUVbZXNDvpGscJQRowA6PSm5rDvcHAuR_ou6Mvm0SqPE5kS6WIot35lA2y9D4TNFAimh2QqK1T9Nn0NgsOo1fopqeDEKl9F8xdsHY8udZ3eG0K_pc9/s1600/Vincent+Korda+sketch+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYOQzALdvGHOCQlI670WcAqWUpJcPUVbZXNDvpGscJQRowA6PSm5rDvcHAuR_ou6Mvm0SqPE5kS6WIot35lA2y9D4TNFAimh2QqK1T9Nn0NgsOo1fopqeDEKl9F8xdsHY8udZ3eG0K_pc9/s400/Vincent+Korda+sketch+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sketch by Art Director/Production Designer Vincent Korda for <i>I, Claudius</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In 1937 Korda, who would later marry Oberon, set out to produce a grand epic. In 1933 he had produced and directed <i>The Private Life of Henry VIII</i>, the popular film that brought Charles Laughton a Best Actor Oscar, and produced another great success in 1934 with <i>The Scarlet Pimpernel</i> starring Leslie Howard. Hungarian-born but based in Great Britain, Korda's dream was to make pictures in England that rivaled those coming out of Hollywood. With <i>Henry VIII</i> and <i>The Scarlet Pimpernel</i>, he'd begun to realize his dream but wanted to reach further. With Charles Laughton still under contract to him in 1937, Korda's ambition was to create a film greater than either <i>Henry VIII</i> or their most recent collaboration, <i>Rembrandt</i> (1936). Korda bought the rights from Robert Graves for the recently published <i>I, Claudius</i>, hired Josef von Sternberg to direct, and the project moved forward.</span></span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEiJEOeBy6kA3ESrwtYIXqFw6JxHMBUWlBMkkFvpesMiB4mPZf_yrQcjasajaWTI7RuCAU5P6VDlIkV0QhJsMc3tZSS2EwDmqJFhZRZN22qYhOfpgm5DnLhCprSnO8j6dOUtyN2rtaLj0PUL/s1600/Charles+Laughton+Claudius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJEOeBy6kA3ESrwtYIXqFw6JxHMBUWlBMkkFvpesMiB4mPZf_yrQcjasajaWTI7RuCAU5P6VDlIkV0QhJsMc3tZSS2EwDmqJFhZRZN22qYhOfpgm5DnLhCprSnO8j6dOUtyN2rtaLj0PUL/s320/Charles+Laughton+Claudius.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Laughton as Claudius</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>The Epic That Never Was</i> is hosted by actor Dirk Bogarde, who recalls in his narration that as a teenager he ventured with friends to Korda's Denham Studios to watch the filming of <i>I, Claudius</i>. The documentary features interviews with many who worked on the film: Merle Ober</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">on, Josef von Sternberg, Robert Graves, Emlyn Williams and Flora Robson, as well as Korda's longtime script girl and others. Only Korda and Laughton, n</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">o longer alive in 1965, </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> are absent.</span></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/AVvXsEioPP6rCnRqMhHozYrsWFpC5J6JdolCmejNseiGu7epLaF_qZ6nl9gTDZBWPJyEuaM9CFR8AOXRWNYiJsjxJS96VBAdsp-cywP3elKimgNs1Gyuo7Ie-bxUCIDNIiJQRdEAnigCdqMjc-Tb/s1600/Merle+Oberon+claudius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPP6rCnRqMhHozYrsWFpC5J6JdolCmejNseiGu7epLaF_qZ6nl9gTDZBWPJyEuaM9CFR8AOXRWNYiJsjxJS96VBAdsp-cywP3elKimgNs1Gyuo7Ie-bxUCIDNIiJQRdEAnigCdqMjc-Tb/s200/Merle+Oberon+claudius.jpg" width="166" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Merle Oberon<i> </i>as Messalina</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">According to Merle Oberon, Korda wanted his friend von Sternberg to direct hoping that the filmmaker who masterminded Marlene Dietrich's ascent to stardom would handle Oberon with the same care and artistry so that she, too, might become a great star. The actress recalled vividly once filming began, "something odd happened," suddenly Charles Laughton "couldn't find his character." Laughton began to break down and the script girl remembered him despairing, "I can't find the man!" Josef von Sternberg recalled the actor "had some difficulty getting into his part" but felt, all in all, that Laughton's performance was "magnificent" and that his problems would pass.  Eventually Laughton determined that Claudius <i>was</i> Edward VIII and began listening to the former king's abdication speech to help sustain his motivation.</span></span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEi9-hPKp2s033TuDGYPInn4PQBuoyAlr-aCkBsbUCtYu57wWSNLn3DUS55NCUWEmVytO1sFxe5hF_wGeild6tfl1rHj_c-s7KNOa1nSPdy7mRg_elIRcHMm7C-HEQ8nXsWssQRbW84jyuHC/s1600/Flora+Robson+as+Livia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-hPKp2s033TuDGYPInn4PQBuoyAlr-aCkBsbUCtYu57wWSNLn3DUS55NCUWEmVytO1sFxe5hF_wGeild6tfl1rHj_c-s7KNOa1nSPdy7mRg_elIRcHMm7C-HEQ8nXsWssQRbW84jyuHC/s200/Flora+Robson+as+Livia.jpg" width="165" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flora Robson as Livia</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Flora Robson remembered that Josef von Sternberg was very much the flamboyant director and that he came to the set dressed in riding boots and other regalia. The script girl recalled that the director was also a first-rate editor and noted that he seemed to "edit in his head" before he shot a scene. Her remarks bring to mind critic Andrew Sarris's observation that von Sternberg "entered the cinema through the camera rather than the cutting room" and Marlene Dietrich's flat statement that "he was the greatest cameraman the world has ever seen..."</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">About 30 minutes of the 1937 production footage survives and is included in <i>The Epic That Never Was</i>; it is fascinating. Emlyn Williams is vile and reptilian as Caligula and Laughton's inspired Claudius foreshadows Jacobi's brilliant interpretation. As always, von Sternberg </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">composed </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">visually stunning, painterly scenes drenched in atmosphere.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Just a month into shooting, Oberon suffered a car accident in which she was thrown into the windshield. She was badly injured and filming was permanently halted. Emlyn Williams considered this "a godsend;" according to him, producer, director and star were not happy. Author Robert Graves, who had written an unused script for the project, assigned credit for the film's demise to Claudius himself - from beyond the grave...</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The <i>Masterpiece Theatre</i> drama met a far better fate than Korda's promising but ill-starred venture. Along with awards won and influence extended, TV's <i>I, Claudius</i> earned an enduring reputation and remains today among the top-ranked miniseries of all time. Any speculation by Robert Graves, who lived until 1985 and the age of 90, on the late Emperor's reaction to the BBC series is unknown...</span></span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEj-cZl7SL1-fVDNTcnX4rCfgeXqPrpKPyjHVPFs5c39ec5Xsti7aWuuf631AS9jievnYjzJ8uAbc9OL4EqlXPxox4cNjSR3tCpF_IRg7h6eWwK5DslgFhX3bUmnA1txeEzXtsJ_Vu-n0lbp/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-cZl7SL1-fVDNTcnX4rCfgeXqPrpKPyjHVPFs5c39ec5Xsti7aWuuf631AS9jievnYjzJ8uAbc9OL4EqlXPxox4cNjSR3tCpF_IRg7h6eWwK5DslgFhX3bUmnA1txeEzXtsJ_Vu-n0lbp/s400/Capture.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Hurt as Caligula, Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Sian Phillips as Livia</td></tr></tbody></table></div>

Alexander Korda Charles Laughton Derek Jacobi Flora Robson I Claudius John Hurt Josef von Sternberg Masterpiece Theatre Merle Oberon Patrick Stewart Sian Phillips The Lady Eve (author) A Tale of Two Epics: I, Claudius

Josef von Sternberg, Merle Oberon and Charles Laughton In 1934, British scholar/writer Robert Graves published his best known and most succe...

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Marlene Dietrich Gets Personal in Charlotte Chandler's New Biography

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWqT5xMUzvfuoskrE1oYJZirvPmMu4Lx_nJnfzUY9cE2Gnwe4Ov-4d054059j5CkCqzmKPL6eMuqt3yW0zKgce3exOYyhlDiAgAvguW_rZgNqbsPTPQ6VkYJlBcszzbJyUGQOj0xRedQOY/s1600/dietrich-hat-desire+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWqT5xMUzvfuoskrE1oYJZirvPmMu4Lx_nJnfzUY9cE2Gnwe4Ov-4d054059j5CkCqzmKPL6eMuqt3yW0zKgce3exOYyhlDiAgAvguW_rZgNqbsPTPQ6VkYJlBcszzbJyUGQOj0xRedQOY/s400/dietrich-hat-desire+a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Prolific biographer Charlotte Chandler has written on the life of a different film legend every year for the past 6 years, beginning with <u>It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock</u> in 2005. Her latest, <u>Marlene</u>, has just been published by Simon & Schuster.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3BHcYpOMMpE1XztFTKE__nggcm-5u8r3uHCwTgstg3c9O9YwnG3Yfew58sRnWlhecngnKdR_d8TafFnV7gbEyqvKCxXVYFrvlDfzIPa7MlW7DSSaAqzZaGKw0TpVDuNP1nsbrHzQlrAm/s1600/400000000000000350608_s4%255B1%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3BHcYpOMMpE1XztFTKE__nggcm-5u8r3uHCwTgstg3c9O9YwnG3Yfew58sRnWlhecngnKdR_d8TafFnV7gbEyqvKCxXVYFrvlDfzIPa7MlW7DSSaAqzZaGKw0TpVDuNP1nsbrHzQlrAm/s200/400000000000000350608_s4%255B1%255D.png" width="130" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Chandler's biographies are based on personal interviews. She includes filmography and career details, but her style is to convey the story of a life in the first-person as much as possible, using the subject's own words. This conversational approach gives the reader a sense of being in the room, listening in, as the story of a remarkable life unfolds. </span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><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/AVvXsEhSaDCSVfKbkQExeQ0-EszJ2y8RaiB2Mu1DLVYoUq_HbEh_h4AHCHxylY6yxxmhliLa7muNx4EGcy4zZRrak2MERtimQgDdnYgBiswWahtXJjdo6ppp-iJYM3ghG-w1WQdipq_NSA29H7B7/s1600/groucho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaDCSVfKbkQExeQ0-EszJ2y8RaiB2Mu1DLVYoUq_HbEh_h4AHCHxylY6yxxmhliLa7muNx4EGcy4zZRrak2MERtimQgDdnYgBiswWahtXJjdo6ppp-iJYM3ghG-w1WQdipq_NSA29H7B7/s1600/groucho.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Groucho Marx</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The author's career as a biographer began with <u>Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends</u> in 1978. Written during Marx's lifetime but published not long after his death, it became a bestseller. Chandler returned to the genre years later with her 1995 Fellini biography, <u>I, Fellini</u>. But it was with her first book for Simon & Schuster in 2002, <u>Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder</u>, that Charlotte Chandler’s biographies became frequent and consistently titled, each with the annotation "A Personal Biography."</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Who is Charlotte Chandler? Her Simon & Schuster bio is sketchy - we are told that she has written many bios, lives in New York and is on the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The back cover of <u>Hello, I Must Be Going</u> includes a picture of Chandler with Groucho who sits at a piano. Her biography of Alfred Hitchcock contains photos of Chandler with the director as well as his daughter, Pat. The dust jackets of Chandler’s biographies are strewn with the praise of film world luminaries: Isabella Rossellini, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Pat Hitchcock, director Michelangelo Antonioni, producer David Brown and others. <i>Vanity Fair</i>, which has published excerpts of many of her books, proclaims that Chandler “sets the gold standard for celeb bios.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">In a recent interview with <i>Kirkus Reviews</i>, Chandler was asked how she managed to gain access to so many of the most famous, and often famously difficult, stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. About Groucho Marx she recalled that someone had given her his phone number, she called and, though Groucho refused to be interviewed, he invited Chandler to dinner. Then, over dinner, Groucho asked why she hadn't been taking notes on their conversation. It was Groucho who later introduced her to Billy Wilder.  </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Henri Langlois, film archivist and founder of the Cinématheque Française, introduced Chandler to Hitchcock, Mary Meerson, also of the Cinématheque Française, introduced her to Dietrich, director George Cukor introduced her to Katharine Hepburn…and Bette Davis, ever the formidable outlier, called Chandler herself, the only one of the author's subjects to do so.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">  </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></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/AVvXsEj4qSAXmtoGpmHW2Szn3_pMWZwm7n299CRgkecQ6jm5fQx4n_KqIHpAoy0_FF_iPmIlGifHA1uKvZaWK_uFg1emIvW7IFxUAyKXxjGkFXHZLc3QL9ppE4Ui1KLFBpFQXb3x6ybmbT8Jt8dB/s1600/Douglas+Fairbanks+jr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qSAXmtoGpmHW2Szn3_pMWZwm7n299CRgkecQ6jm5fQx4n_KqIHpAoy0_FF_iPmIlGifHA1uKvZaWK_uFg1emIvW7IFxUAyKXxjGkFXHZLc3QL9ppE4Ui1KLFBpFQXb3x6ybmbT8Jt8dB/s1600/Douglas+Fairbanks+jr.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Connections abound between Chandler's subjects, most of whom knew and worked with each other, and occasionally one story will overlap into another. For example, Marlene Dietrich and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. had an affair that lasted for years, and the gentleman had many memories of her. He told Chandler about a series of miniature nudes he sculpted of Marlene and how he eventually decapitated all of them to protect her reputation in the event of his demise. This anecdote is told in detail in the Dietrich biography. It is also woven into the Hitchcock biography, in abridged form, in a section on <b>Stage Fright</b>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Fairbanks was the friend of many film legends and a substantial resource for Chandler; he is quoted in each of the biographies of hers that I’ve read (Bette Davis, Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Hitchcock). Equally well-connected and forthcoming was George Cukor, who is quoted in the Davis, Hepburn and Hitchcock books. What I wouldn’t give to have access to the stack of notes and tapes Chandler must have made over the years…</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Charlotte Chandler met Marlene Dietrich in 1977, when the legendary star was 76 years old and living in Paris. Dietrich’s greeting to her future biographer was, “I don’t mind meeting you because you didn’t know me before, when I was young and very beautiful.” Moments later she added, “It can be a curse being beautiful, after a certain point, as it slips away…” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><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/AVvXsEiftABVvSa6MuXETbboSw_NLl5walI2PbAZvvMEn-em7QwoEWk0TunOb-ELtAfhM0CFKXid1sS2rpA_h0jixgNRtfvxx2ra-55ats9FW6xaz3NsyJwC39A8pRIhGNQ_rpvMrxHfoYvwDOlu/s1600/dietrich+in+the+40s+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiftABVvSa6MuXETbboSw_NLl5walI2PbAZvvMEn-em7QwoEWk0TunOb-ELtAfhM0CFKXid1sS2rpA_h0jixgNRtfvxx2ra-55ats9FW6xaz3NsyJwC39A8pRIhGNQ_rpvMrxHfoYvwDOlu/s200/dietrich+in+the+40s+a.jpg" width="165" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dietrich in the 1940s</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I have read and watched much about Marlene Dietrich, from her memoirs (<u>Marlene</u>, 1990), to various biographies, including her daughter Maria's lurid opus, to Josef von Sternberg’s eccentric autobiography (<u>Fun in a Chinese Laundry</u>, 1965), the page on the CIA’s website about Dietrich’s work during World War II and Maximillian Schell’s Oscar-nominated documentary (<b>Marlene</b>, 1984). I have to admit that I had something of a “tell me something I don’t know” attitude before I sat down with Chandler’s book. She did.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">There are revelations large and small of all kinds...Dietrich's mad plot to kill Hitler, details of her introduction to Ernest Hemingway on the <i>Île de France</i><i>,</i> the lie she told JFK about his father...Dietrich's memory of her grandmother’s lavender eyes, her habit of giving her hand-me-downs to husband Rudi's mistress...her hatred of knitting because it reminded her of World War I in Germany.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Chandler knows how to set a scene and tell a story. She nimbly leads the reader through Dietrich’s early years, the arc of her career, her personal life and into her late years, when she “closed the door” and retreated inside the rooms of her small apartment across from the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris. Among the many voices heard of those who knew Dietrich at different points in her life and career are her one-time arranger and accompanist, Burt Bacharach and her friend and fellow Paramount star, Mae West.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">  <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/AVvXsEgkhV2cJInf9Udbh8Z_2zmrVzwEeYEY-Vlq0i62zRFoPOaTjzAM_Ffb-4aa31veQDBcJdByUoQa0JLCzeM2plQrvrF88jpAjpT0Vghly50GGSSmjJjGuTrRNmIs6PVaUWqCuR2_m0ySXt5a/s1600/dietrich+%2526+maria+50s+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhV2cJInf9Udbh8Z_2zmrVzwEeYEY-Vlq0i62zRFoPOaTjzAM_Ffb-4aa31veQDBcJdByUoQa0JLCzeM2plQrvrF88jpAjpT0Vghly50GGSSmjJjGuTrRNmIs6PVaUWqCuR2_m0ySXt5a/s320/dietrich+%2526+maria+50s+a.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maria and Marlene, early '50s</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Maria Riva is Dietrich's only child, and Riva's own sensationalistic 787 page version of her mother's life was published shortly after Dietrich's death. Maria is not a direct source for Chandler's book but her youngest son David, who produced and directed a documentary on Dietrich in 2001, speaks at length. His references to his mother as an "Emmy-winning actress" caught my eye - I'd not heard this before and checked the Emmy website. Maria is listed as having been nominated for a Best Actress Emmy in 1952 and 1953. However, Imogene Coca won in 1952 and Helen Hayes won in 1953.</span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Charlotte Chandler remarked to <i>Kirkus Reviews</i> that Marlene Dietrich had originally been perceived as "another Garbo" very early in her Hollywood career. It happened that <span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Dietrich came to Hollywood as talkies were coming in and MGM was carefully transitioning Garbo, its great star, to sound. When <b>Morocco </b>and <b>The Blue Angel </b>struck box office gold, Paramount saw in Dietrich its opportunity to trump MGM and Garbo. The two actresses were to have distinctly different careers, though both were deemed "box office poison" (along with Katharine Hepburn and others) in the late '30s. However, no one imagined that Dietrich’s film career would outlast Garbo’s (or anyone else's) by several decades or that she would successfully reinvent herself as a high-ticket stage performer.</span></span></span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Chandler told <i>Kirkus</i> that though she didn't interview her, she did meet Garbo. Her impression was that Garbo was too bitter about the past to make a good interview. Asked if she thought Dietrich also became bitter, Chandler responded, “not at all. She loved what happened to her," adding that Dietrich hadn’t expected any of it and “she felt she owed her great life to Josef von Sternberg,” her mentor and the director of seven of her most memorable films.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I enjoy Charlotte Chandler's uniquely readable biographies. I've read more heavily documented books (the fascinating Barry Paris tome on Louise Brooks comes to mind) and books concerned almost solely with a life on film </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">(David Thomson's excellent "Great Stars" series entry on Bette Davis), but for a pleasurable foray into legendary firsthand memories, Chandler is hard to beat.</span><br /><br /><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/AVvXsEij7H9ALMGn0pRU7mjtGXaYrarl7UnuIQTFEqAcXQ-ZJ-cqDcd_vHLZxMvob51LLzGw6nhIZjPJvzut3AASBown_4DEyb7WQnQQu9Yonv2I2UX6Im0oMRdJ0FTpCevgQMCInJ59MG4Ls98/s1600/Marlene+sculpture+by+Hanford.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij7H9ALMGn0pRU7mjtGXaYrarl7UnuIQTFEqAcXQ-ZJ-cqDcd_vHLZxMvob51LLzGw6nhIZjPJvzut3AASBown_4DEyb7WQnQQu9Yonv2I2UX6Im0oMRdJ0FTpCevgQMCInJ59MG4Ls98/s400/Marlene+sculpture+by+Hanford.JPG" width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marlene Dietrich sculpture by <a href="http://dolls.clarkhanford.com/"><b>Clark Hanford</b></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Biographies by Charlotte Chandler</b>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends</u></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u></u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>I, Fellini</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>She Always Knew How: Mae West, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><u><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Marlene: Marlene Dietrich, A Personal Biography</span></u><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><i>Thanks to Simon & Schuster for a review copy of <u>Marlene</u></i></span></div>

Burt Bacharach Charlotte Chandler Classic Film and TV Cafe Douglas Fairbanks Jr. George Cukor Greta Garbo Groucho Marx Josef von Sternberg Mae West Marlene Dietrich The Lady Eve (author) Marlene Dietrich Gets Personal in Charlotte Chandler's New Biography

Prolific biographer Charlotte Chandler has written on the life of a different film legend every year for the past 6 years, beginning with It...

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