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Marlene Dietrich

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From the trailer for Stage Fright (1950)
From the trailer for Stage Fright (1950)

Marlene Dietrich (December 27 1901 – May 6 1992) was a German-born American actress, singer and entertainer. She is considered to be the first German actress to flourish in Hollywood.

She managed to remain popular by continually re-inventing herself through her long lasting career. During the 1920s she began her work as a cabaret singer, chorus girl and film actress in Berlin. In the 1930s, she became a Hollywood actress, a World War II frontline entertainer, and lastly an international stage show performer from the 1950s to the 1970s. By the end of her career she had become an entertainment icon of the 20th century.

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[edit] Film star

Anna May Wong and Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932)
Anna May Wong and Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932)
From the trailer for A Foreign Affair (1950)
From the trailer for A Foreign Affair (1950)

On the strength of The Blue Angel's international success, and with encouragement and promotion from von Sternberg, who was already established in Hollywood, Dietrich then moved to the U.S. on contract to Paramount Pictures. The studio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer to MGM's Swedish sensation, Greta Garbo. Her first American film, Morocco, directed by von Sternberg, earned Dietrich her only Oscar nomination.

Dietrich's most lasting contribution to film history was as the star of a series of six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount between 1930 and 1935: Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman. In Hollywood, von Sternberg worked very effectively with Dietrich to create the image of a glamorous femme fatale. He encouraged her to lose weight and coached her intensively as an actress – she, in turn, was willing to trust him and follow his sometimes imperious direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted. A crucial part of the overall effect was created by von Sternberg's exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect — the use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted blinds (as for example in Shanghai Express) — which, when combined with scrupulous attention to all aspects of set design and costumes, make this series of films among the most visually stylish in cinema history.[citation needed] Critics still debate vigorously how much of the credit belonged to von Sternberg and how much to Dietrich, but most would agree that neither consistently reached such heights again after Paramount fired von Sternberg and the two ceased to work together.[1]

Without von Sternberg, Dietrich -- along with Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn and others -- was labeled "boxoffice poison" after her 1937 film, Knight Without Armour, proved an expensive flop. In 1939, however, her stardom revived when she played the cowboy saloon girl Frenchie in the light-hearted western Destry Rides Again opposite James Stewart. The movie also introduced another favorite song, "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have." She played a similar role in 1942 with John Wayne in The Spoilers.

While Dietrich arguably never fully regained her former screen glory, she continued performing in the movies, including appearances for such distinguished directors as Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, in successful films that included A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Stage Fright.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ See, for example, the entries for Dietrich and von Sternberg in David Thompson, "A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema."

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://www.wikimoviesmemorabilia.com/Marlene_Dietrich"
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