Region 1 No Longer A Marlene Dietrich DVD Loser?

 Several months ago, I ranted about my difficulties with TCM Shop, but I am pleased to say that I eventually purchased and received the TCM Vault Dishonored/Shanghai Express double feature from an Amazon vendor. Despite my criticism of the TCM Shop site, I can only praise its TCM Vault products. This double feature and the one that included The Song of Songs contain solid prints and robust sound, which gives me hope for more TCM Vault and Universal joint releases, especially if the bigwigs can make available a better version of The Scarlet Empress. I would be exaggerating if I claimed that I must blink profusely and hold up an ear horn to fully enjoy the Criterion Collection release of The Scarlet Empress, but its quality leaves a lot to be desired that Amazon critics and even The New York Times critic Dave Kehr have decried. Does anyone know whether Criterion holds exclusive distribution rights in the U.S.? Before superfluous questions make me stray too far from my intended topic, I should spit it out now: American (and Canadian as well?) Dietrich fans are finally catching up with the rest of world as more Region 1 DVDs have hit the market.

Horseathon: Dietrich's Horsie Movies Pt. 1

In many Marlene Dietrich movies, you’ll find horses, which is why I’m participating at the final hour in My Love of Old Hollywood’s Horseathon. For most of these flicks, I can divide them neatly into the following groups: Westerns, Middle Easterns, and Europeans. Well, it may be a bit messy that I consider The Flame of New Orleans a European, but its setting is just so “frou-frou French”—to borrow Maria Riva’s phrase—that I wouldn’t consider calling it a Western or anything else. Geographically speaking, The Scarlet Empress and Golden Earrings would fit in the third “genre,” but for reasons I’ll explain later, I’m putting them into their own special group: the WTFs.

As is typical of me, I've realized that I can't bridle my ramblings into one post. Consequently, I'll have to submit only the first part of my horse-themed thoughts to the Horseathon and post the second part on a later date. Here, you'll get the Westerns and the Middle Easterns. Later, I promise to give you the Europeans and the WTFs.

Marlene Dietrich: Time After Time

I always forget to post this but the 19th anniversary of Marlene Dietrich's demise today seems an appropriate moment. Watch Cyndi Lauper mouth Dietrich and Charles Boyer's lines from the 1936 film, The Garden of Allah, in her 1984 video, "Time After Time."

Marlene Dietrich Movie Reviews on NYT Site

Marlene Dietrich movie reviews from the time of the films' release are appearing on The New York Times (NYT) website. Earlier, I cited the original NYT review of A Foreign Affair, but it appears that NYT is conducting an ongoing project to make all reviews available online. For those of you interested in the initial impact and media perception of these films, these reviews should serve you as informative sources.

Be aware that the NYT site is working out kinks, meaning that some of their links may currently be dead or some pages unlinked to their proper hubs. The NYT site could improve the search function by allowing users to limit their results to only reviews, trailers, etc., and if you agree, express this view to NYT here. So far, I have found original reviews for the following films:

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
No Highway in the Sky (1951)
Stage Fright (1950)
A Foreign Affair (1948)
Golden Earrings (1947)
Kismet (1944)
The Lady Is Willing (1942)
The Flame of New Orleans (1941)
Seven Sinners (1940)
Destry Rides Again (1939)
The Garden of Allah (1936)
The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Blonde Venus (1932)
Shanghai Express (1932)
Dishonored (1931)
Morocco (1930)
The Blue Angel (1930) *Released in the United States after Morocco.
I Kiss Your Hand, Madame (1929) *Released in the United States in 1932.

Bosley Crowther appears to have been a decades-long admirer of Dietrich, no? Please share more review links in the comments section if you find them.

The Dress That Jamie Lee Snipped?

Marlene gave Jamie Lee Curtis one of her old evening dresses to wear to the 1983 or 1984 (sources differ) Academy Awards. Curtis was at the time engaged to one of Dietrich's grandsons.

Apparently, the gown had originally been made for Marlene to wear in 1942's The Lady is Willing; for the Oscars, Curtis had the gown altered and shortened.

Is this the dress?

The shortened version of the gown was sold by Christie's in 1999 for $ 9 200. The auction house credited it as a Jean Louis creation. Jean Louis only started to work at Columbia Pictures in 1944.

In the film, Dietrich's gowns are credited to Irene.