The "Russian Soul" in Marlene Dietrich’s Flicks

This post is part of the Russia in Classic Film Blogathon,
sponsored by Movies Silently & Flicker Alley. 

Please explore posts by other participants here. 

In her memoirs, Marlene Dietrich proclaimed "I have a ‘Russian soul' (which means that I easily give what is close to my heart)," a sentiment that at least dates backs to her 1964 appearance in Moscow. Given that her husband Rudolf Sieber's longtime mistress Tamara Matul was a White émigré, Russia may have very well been close to Marlene's heart and soul for decades before that. Russia has also breathed life into Dietrich's films, which include The Ship of Lost Men (1929), Dishonored (1931), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Garden of Allah (1936), Knight Without Armour (1937), Angel (1937), Destry Rides Again (1939), Seven Sinners (1940), and The Flame of New Orleans (1941). This overview of the Russian characters, depictions of Russia and Russians, Russian caricatures, and even Russified characters in these films draws attention to the rarely acknowledged Russian essence of Dietrich's oeuvre.

 

Dietrich vs Garbo: Dishonored & Mata Hari

Pitting Marlene Dietrich against Greta Garbo may be an unfair battle on a blog devoted to La Dietrich, but I've always wanted to compare the movies they made during the Great Depression, when their rivalry roared. Thus, I give you my thoughts on Dishonored and Mata Hari, two films that feature World War I women spies whose feminine foibles ultimately lead to their executions.

According to John Baxter, Josef von Sternberg whipped up Dishonored as an answer to Garbo's Mata Hari. When I read this, I thought, "Sternberg was a visionary, but I never realized that he was also a prophet!" Garbo Forever indicates that Mata Hari was in production during the fall of 1931, a year after Marlene made Dishonored, but let this not mislead us because Garbo Forever also quotes text from the November 9, 1930 issue of The New York Times, which suggests that the Mata Hari story had been a Garbo vehicle for quite some time.

In a later NYT article (March 15, 1931), movie critic Mordaunt Hall took a more diplomatic stance and wrote that "it was reported simultaneously through the offices of Paramount Publix and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo were going to play the role of Mata Hari." Regardless of which screen siren had first dibs on the spy role, Dishonored premiered on March 5, 1931, giving everyone working on Mata Hari ample time to steer the film in a different direction, and I shall explore whether they did. . . .

The Great Recasting: The Devil Wears Dior

Count on Dietrich to out-Miranda Priestly Streep herself!

Whenever I watch Stage Fright and The Devil Wears Prada, I revel in the insults that grand dames Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) and Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) hurl at Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) and Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne Hathaway), two plain Janes who--like quinoa--are so bland that no one can get their names right. Listening to Erika von Schlütow's (again, Dietrich) clawed comments about and toward Senator Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur) in A Foreign Affair also elicits the same delight.

At times, I envision these three movies as a cinematic collage of hilarious derision, and when I learned about "The Great Recasting" blogathon hosted by Frankly, My Dear and In The Mood, I spied an opportunity to mingle a few of my favorite icy characters.

Following the rules of "The Great Recasting," I'm appropriating the 2006 flick, The Devil Wears Prada, by imagining it as a 1951 movie called The Devil Wears Dior (the fashion house that dressed Dietrich for Stage Fright, a movie heavily screen-capped in this entry), recasting Dietrich and Wyman (who must have been a masochist in my alternate universe) as Miranda and Andy's characters respectively due to their antagonistic onscreen chemistry, with A Foreign Affair's director--the comedic genius, Billy Wilder--at the helm. Those of you familiar with The Devil Wears Prada, Stage Fright, and A Foreign Affair will recognize the pastiche of dialogue from all three of these flicks, but in a distilled bitchy brew--without the added ingredients of murder, post-war occupation, and romance. Consider it a sort of Socratic dialogue gone camp that probably would have flopped and become a cult classic. Rather than explain why I made all these choices for my "The Great Recasting" entry, I'll show you by biting the style of a blog that entertains me--I'm Not Patty. Let's get on with it!

The Devil Wears Dior

1951

directed by Billy Wilder

STARRING Marlene Dietrich as Anaïs Silkman Bloom, editor-in-chief of the trans-Atlantic women's fashion magazine, Nouvelle Vue. Anaïs has a penchant for Dior and may be a jab at a few fashion arbiters of the '50s publishing world, e.g., Harper's Bazaar's Carmel Snow, American Vogue's Edna Woolman Chase, and British Vogue's Audrey Withers.

WITH Jane Wyman as Annabel "Billy" Fox, a fresh-faced Vassar graduate who thought she'd be writing on postwar politics in The New Republic--not schlepping stockings at Nouvelle Vue.

PLUS, a supporting cast meant solely for added comic relief.

Annabel "Billy" Fox has a big day ahead of her! She's got an interview with some magazine called Nouvelle Vue, which may not be her cup of tea, but at least it will give her an entrée into publishing.
Here she is dolling herself up for the prospective job.

Fortunately, Billy has toned down her look a bit after realizing that she isn't going to become the next
Ida M. Tarbell at a fashion rag. As she enters the Nouvelle Vue office, her nerves start to overwhelm her.

Rightfully so! Billy's come in for an interview right when editor-in-chief Anaïs Silkman Bloom is busily "auditioning" veils for an upcoming article about the most glamorous widows on Park Ave.

Without even glancing at the schoolmarm in Sears, Roebuck & Co. mail order togs, Anaïs asks, "Who are you?" Billy answers, "I'm Annabel Fox, a recent Vassar graduate--"

Before Billy can brag about her achievements,
Anaïs turns toward her and interrupts, "Why are you here?"

Taken aback, Billy blurts, "Well, Miss Bloom, it was either this or Hot Rod magazine."

"You don't read Nouvelle Vue, do you?"

"No."

"And before today, you'd never heard of me."

"No."

"And I see you do not believe in lipstick. And what a curious way to do your hair--or rather not to do it."

"Well, I think that's a matter of perso--"

"No, that wasn't a question! Read your resume to me, dear. Not so loud, though."

"I was editor-in-chief of The Miscellany News, where I wrote an award-winning exposé
on secret Socialist societies at women's colleges--"

Anaïs, however, resumes her fitting and announces, "That's all."

Taking the hint, Billy sees her way out. . . .

but her bruised ego compels her to step back and declare, "Madame, I may not be a fashion plate,
but I've got brains, and I'm willing to work fingers to the bone." Anaïs merely repeats, "That's all."

Before Billy exits the building, one of Anaïs's lackeys gives her the good yet perplexing news, "You got the job!"

Attending to Anaïs's every need, Billy can barely keep up
with the unfamiliar names and terms thrown her way.
"Mavis, I need 27 fuschia coats from Bonnie Cashin!"

"Phyllis, get me a Balmain stole!"

"Emily, book Dovima for the next cover shoot!"

Although Billy usually listens obediently to Anaïs, she eventually slips and smirks,
which provokes Anaïs to verbally eviscerate her. "You see that smock you're wearing?" Anaïs inquires.

Dumbfounded, Billy nods her head.

"Well," Anaïs continues, "while you may believe that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, what you don't realize is that in 1942, the editors of Nouvelle Vue decided to print some Rosie the Riveter cartoons that featured the smock. By 1945, Marilyn Monroe wore a smock that skyrocketed her to stardom in photos published by Nouvelle Vue. From there, the smock trickled down to the tragic Bon Marché bargain bin where you grabbed it. So, your smock was chosen for you by the people in this room."

After that brutal chastisement, Billy was sure she had enough. Then, Anaïs's right-hand man [I couldn't help but recast Hector MacGregor as Stanley Tucci's unforgetable Nigel!] told her, "You know, Billy, you’re not bad-looking. You don’t treat your face properly. That’s all. If you fixed your hair up and used some makeup, you’d be quite attractive."

Following this advice and perhaps with a bit of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's magic, Billy transforms into the glamorous assistant she was meant to be.

The transformation even shocks jaded Anaïs, who exclaims, "Darling! What ever happened to that peculiar figure of yours?" And this is where I ought to end my recasting because I lost interest in The Devil Wears Prada after everyone stopped mocking my pet hate, Anne Hathaway. Also, Wyman reverts to wearing that boxy blazer for the rest of Stage Fright, which ruins the impact of screen-caps.

All Aboard The Ship of Lost Men!

Scream if you like silents!

Earlier in June, I ordered the last silent movie that Marlene Dietrich filmed, The Ship of Lost Men (a.k.a. Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen, a.k.a. The Ship of Lost Souls, a.k.a. the worst alternate title ever, Grischa the Cook), on DVD from Grapevine Video. After my difficulties with TCM Shop, I hesitated to do business again with a small outlet, but my concerns were unfounded. Grapevine’s checkout process was simple, and within two days after placing my order, I had the product in my hands. Therefore, I give my unsolicited endorsement of Grapevine and look forward to ordering DVDs from its site in the future.

For most of my entries, I research what I present to you. Well, I’m a bit burnt out from that and will leave it to someone else to answer my questions. Was Grapevine responsible for the restoration and music of its The Ship of Lost Men release? If so, I’d like to thank them. The score, performed by David Knudtson, accentuates every scene appropriately due to the theater organ’s portentous timbre. The subtitles are mostly free of typos and certainly weren’t translated by Babelfish. The length--at 122 minutes--exceeds the 1996 Critic’s Choice Video VHS release, which is 97 minutes. Not having seen any other versions of this movie, I’d like for those of you who have watched this Grapevine release and previous releases to compare them.

Although I hate writing synopses, I’ll distill what I watched below. Of course, be forewarned that I may have seen a different cut than what others have detailed on IMDB and elsewhere. Spoiler-haters, you ought to skip this altogether:

Queer Film Blogathon 2012: Marginalia on Note 25

This entry is part of the 2012 Queer Film Blogathon, co-hosted by Garbo Laughs and Pussy Goes Grrr. While you're here, please read my contribution to the 2011 Queer Film Blogathon, Throwing Shade: Homophobia in Riva's Dietrich Bio? Pt. 1. You can also browse our entries tagged "LGBT."

Now that summer's upon us, I'd like to make a proposal that none of you should refuse. Instead of trekking across Yosemite, spelunking in Carlsbad Caverns, or zip-lining through the Redwoods, consider roughing it in my camp. There's just one caveat. I've assigned some required reading. Don't worry. You've probably already read this text in an introductory film course, an introductory queer studies course, or an introductory queer film studies course. If none of those apply to you, maybe you've read it elsewhere--Susan Sontag's seminal work, "Notes on 'Camp.'" In case I've offended any of you radical separatist feminists, you ought to leave now because this blog is like a can of Vienna sausages--not that I'm pushing my patriarchal power on you or anything--no, siree! For you less radical or non-separatist feminists, please forgive my male privilege and substitute "ovular" for "seminal." As for you trans-folk, I can never do right by you, so rip me a new one in the comments section.

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.

Philly Marelene: Dietrich's Horsie Movies Pt. 2

PREFACE: OOPS! On June 7, I accidentally posted an entry when I merely meant to update labels. Sorry about that!

The Song of Song's Lily may be bad, but she's perfectly good at it

Thank you everyone who responded to my Horseathon entry. A few of you expressed surprise that horses appeared in so many Marlene Dietrich movies, and I didn’t even get halfway through her filmography! Picking up from where I left off, I will elaborate on my third group of Dietrich movies, the Europeans, but I'd like to hype some of the other topics I'll be raising this month. Between June 18-22, I'll participate in the second annual Queer Film Blogathon, hosted by Garbo Laughs. Last year, I wrote an entry in which I began to articulate thoughts that had been vague considerations in my head about the homophobia in Maria Riva's book. Whether I address a similar topic or examine Dietrich's movies, I'm not sure. Another topic that I have put on the back burner pertains to Greta Garbo. I plan to write a Dietrich vs. Garbo series by pitting their movies against each other, and you can expect at least one such post some time this month because I have folders brimming with Dishonored and Mata Hari screen captures that I'd like to delete from my hard drive. Now, let's race through the topic at hand. . . .

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.

Why I Won't Shop At TCM Vault Again

Like Marlene Dietrich, I cannot stand incompetence, and
TCM Vault will never have my business again. Here's my story.

On January 18, I went online to order Pre-Code Double Feature DVD Set (SKU ID#6445-360560)--the one that features The Song of Songs--and pre-order Marlene Dietrich Double Feature: Dishonored & Shanghai Express (DVD) (SKU ID#6445-364907). While processing my order, the TCM Vault website ran sluggishly, leading me to worry that my order wasn't completing. Indeed, I got a message stating that my order didn't go through. But then I got confirmation emails.

Yes, my order not only went through, it triplicated, showing 6 items on my order details page. Reading on the TCM Vault site that the customer service hours are from 7am to midnight, I realized that I--the ordering night owl--would have to call in the morning. Thus, when I woke up, I made a call on Jan. 18 at about 8:30am. Let me emphasize that everyone with whom I spoke at 1-888-982-6746 was polite, but no one seemed capable of performing simple tasks. The customer service agent could not remove the added items on my order and told me she had to submit a "ticket"  for TCM Vault's tech people to address, even though nothing had yet shipped.

Well, by the January 19, I got a shipping confirmation email, prompting me to call TCM Vault customer service again (this time just after 7am!). The customer service agent's recommendation was that I print out some packing labels to send the packages back once they had arrived. I thought to myself, "No, that's ridiculous," and asked whether I could refuse the packages. The agent told me the package might just get dropped off at my door, but I did indeed see that I could refuse the package in the TCM Vault FAQ. That didn't stop TCM Vault (or, more exactly, the company that "powers" them--Delivery Agent, Inc.) from posting 3 pending charges of $59.05 to my account. What a lovely sight to see at the end of the month, when bills are due.

So I had to wait until UPS dropped off the packages at my door at who-knows-what-time-because-I-was-at-work on Jan. 24. Before I even got home, I called up UPS to pick up the packages and called my bank to cancel the unwanted charges. By the way, the charges ended up being less, but--for some odd reason--all the charges were different (one over $30, another about $27, and yet another about $25), even though they were all clearly associated with 3 copies of the same item--the DVD that featured The Song of Songs. Wondering whether I'd face more complications, I considered doing a giveaway, but the DVD featuring The Song of Songs isn't worth it. That would be like giving away Madonna's American Life CD.

Somehow, this mess seemed to get cleared up. UPS picked up the package containing the 2 DVD copies that I did not order, I got Customer Service to cancel the two extra copies of Marlene Dietrich Double Feature: Dishonored & Shanghai Express in my order details, and the unwanted charges were refunded to my bank account. All I had to do at this point was look forward to receiving my copy of Marlene Dietrich Double Feature: Dishonored & Shanghai Express, which would become available after Feb. 5.

Now, guess what I found lying in front of my door after I got home from work this evening? The same package that I had already refused and had UPS pick up. Once again, I had to call TCM Vault, my bank, and UPS to ensure that this mess gets fixed. I was excited about getting the Dishonored/Shanghai Express DVD because Dishonored is in fact my favorite early American Dietrich movie and--after watching the The Song of Songs DVD that I had kept--I was expecting high-quality footage. Whether my conjecture is accurate, I won't know anytime soon because I refuse to do business with TCM Vault again. The customer service agent had the nerve to ask me whether I wanted to order the DVD on the phone--but why bother when they can't fix their computer's mistakes, can't stop unwanted shipments, and send back shipments that customers have already refused?

I'll just have to wait until I find it through another vendor. Let me assure you, though, that I will have a royal hissy fit if the Feb. 6 charge of $27.05 doesn't get fully credited back to my bank account because the customer service agent initially said I'd be getting $24.99 back. I will not pay for OTHERS' shipping errors. In the meantime, I will have to redirect all the emails that TCM sends me to my spam folder. After a over a decade of perfectly smooth business dealings online at Amazon, Ebay, BuyDig, Orbitz, Kayak, and others, I never expected that a vendor specializing in classic films would embody what Dietrich exclaimed in Schell's documentary:

Amateurs!

Edited to add: I should tell you how to refuse a package left at your door by UPS in case you must because the information TCM Vault site and the UPS site give is unclear. My apologies, but I can only assert that this advice applies to the U.S.

1) Call UPS ( 1-800-742-5877 aka 1-800-PICK-UPS)

2) Dial "0" because the automated options won't help you.

3) The automated service won't like that you dialed "0" and will repeat automated options. Dial "0" again.

4) Yay! You should connect to a human being! Now, be sure that you have your tracking number (which should be on the package you wish to refuse) because you will have to give this number to the UPS customer service agent. Within less than a minute, the customer service agents were able to schedule a day for refused packages to be picked up from my doorstep, and I hope the same is possible for you.

The Bump

Steven Bach and Maria Riva described Marlene Dietrich's upturned nose as a flaw, but I never shared that view. If you want to see Dietrich in both her stylized and natural states, take a gander at A Certain Cinema, one of my favorite online collections of Dietrich photos. Among these images, I observe no duck, pug, pig or other animal nose. If Dietrich had any facial blemish, it would be the one that has become the object of my obsession whenever I watch her films on DVD, the one that I never notice in studio portraits--likely thanks to judicious retouching. By no means would I regard it as a blot, but I've fixated on it ever since I saw The Scarlet Empress at the Egyptian Theater, where--in the silver screen's magnified proportions--it first became apparent to me. I'm talking about the bump near her lower lip. Has anyone else ever pointed it out? Was it a wart, a scar, a concealed mole? I've never read anything of it. For those of you who may be rolling your eyes or scratching your heads, I've compiled a gallery of screenshots featuring THE BUMP.

EXHIBIT A: I'm ready for my close-up, Herr Lang.

What? You don't see it? How about now?

Tsk, tsk, Daily Mail

Several months ago, I blogged about Dietrich's Rolls Royce featured in Morocco. Daily News has reported more on that car, which Bonhams expects to sell for around $0.5 million next month, and the article has used what appears to be the screen captures that I made. I don't care that people take content from this blog, but how tasteless of them to pass those images off as their own copyrighted material. I hate to sound so "kumbaya," but we should be sharing our sources when we spread information instead of presenting ourselves as the harbingers of facts for the sake of profit.

UPDATE: Read more about the sale of the car here!

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.

February 2007 Film Screenings!

Shanghai Express, 02.10-02.11, Stanford Theatre (Palo Alto)