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31 May 2011

Rory MacLean Remembers Marlene Dietrich

At the Goethe-Institut's "Meet the Germans" blog, Rory MacLean reminisced about his work on the film Just a Gigolo, naturally focusing on Marlene Dietrich. Although MacLean's name was expunged from the film's credits, he revealed that he had assisted the film's director, David Hemmings, and posted a photo of Dietrich with the production crew, pointing himself out in the back row. Read MacLean's memories of Dietrich:

PART ONE   |   PART TWO

If you know of other blogs, sites, etc. with people's memories of Dietrich, please share them.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing that link! Much of his recollection seems very similar to Steven Bach's reportage, though.

    Marlene must have done at least two takes of the English-lanugage version of the song, as the takes used in the film and on the single are different.

    I posted two brief rehearsal excerpts of "Just A Gigolo" at:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWYYNGXCgVQ

    missladiva

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  2. You are absolutely right. MacLean's version appears very similar to Hemmings' account in the Bach bio, except for the information about how many takes of "Just a Gigolo" were recorded. Bach quoted Hemmings as saying, "we made two takes in English, then two in German." I would chalk up MacLean's inaccuracy to his memory of an over-30-year-old event. I also wonder whether MacLean accurately cited Dietrich's excuse for not initially wanting to do Just a Gigolo: "that she was writing her memoirs and couldn’t leave Paris." Her autobiography had already been published, no? In fact, Bach stated that Joshua Sinclair had buttered up Dietrich "by telling her how much he liked her autobiography."

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