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Marlene Dietrich was one of the cinema's glorious creatures, an elegant arrangement of bone structure and silver light, blessed with a sly sense of humor. Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection assembles five titles featuring la Dietrich at her best, with a special emphasis on one of the great Hollywood director-star collaborations.
Dietrich and director Josef von Sternberg met in Germany when he plucked her from obscurity for the starring role of The Blue Angel, after which she came to America and instant stardom. A string of films with Sternberg created her image as an exotic source of fascination, both ethereal and sexually knowing. Three of those outings are included in this package. Morocco, their first Hollywood movie together, is a delirious look at a cabaret singer taken with a Foreign Legion soldier (the young Gary Cooper). Dressed in masculine clothes for her act, Dietrich already displays a sexual confidence that fairly burns off the screen. Blonde Venus has a soap opera-ish plot about a woman's fall and rise, but Dietrich's commitment to the part is complete; plus, there's an outrageous faux-African number that begins with Dietrich dressed in a gorilla costume. Cary Grant looks on in astonishment.
The Devil Is a Woman is an unmitigated Sternberg-Dietrich masterpiece, and their final movie together. Here Marlene is a Spanish vixen making life exciting and miserable for Lionel Atwill (a lookalike stand-in for Josef von Sternberg himself). The film is an eye-popping light-painting draped with feathers, mesh, and confetti, all of which are in service to a fundamentally serious inquiry into the knotty business of men and women.
Putting three of the Paramount Dietrich-Sternberg films in this collection and leaving out the other three is either carelessness or marketing strategy. In any case, the other two movies in this package are not at the same level, but certainly good fun. The Flame of New Orleans, director Rene Clair's first Hollywood picture, is a gorgeously photographed comedy with a delightful role for its star. Dietrich is stuck choosing between aristocrat Roland Young and rough sailor Bruce Cabot. The look on her face as she listens to helpful advice about wedding-night conjugal realities from a matron is a riot of erotic mischief. Golden Earrings is a crazy story about Ray Milland getting stuck behind German lines in the early days of WWII, and being taken in by gypsy girl Dietrich. Even here, nearly 20 years after her first stardom, she's still Dietrich. The hair may be dyed black, but the cheekbones are unmistakable. --Robert Horton
Product Description
In Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection, you'll ee Marlene in her American movie debut as a glamorous cabaret singer in Morroco; experience the heart-wrenching anguish of a woman torn between two men, her successful career on the stage, and her child in Blonde Venus; join in the mystery and mayhem of Spain's Carnevale in The Devil is a Woman; hit the road to jewels and jeopardy in The Flame of New Orleans; and be seduced by a lusty gypsy on a secret mission during World War II in Golden Earrings. Marlen Dietrich: The Glamour Collection is a stunning tribute to a screen siren who remains one of the most fascinating women of all time.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review based on Morocco only,
By
This review is from: Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings) (1935) (DVD)
The movie starts out slowly, but once the scene is set, you quickly get more and more involved in the tensions being generated between all the characters. There's nothing fancy here, but Marlene and Josef von Sternberg are masters of their crafts, and can take a simple, basic boy/girl theme and make it seem as complex and important as any convoluted modern movie with all kinds of surprise twists and turns. I couldn't believe how quickly the 90 minutes went, and at the end I sat there staring at the screen wishing there was more. I was so engrossed that I never thought to try to predict how it would develop and was taken by surprise by how it ended.For the price you can't beat it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (36 customer reviews) 60 of 65 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
No worries; the prints are very good!,
By Joan Crawford "Jon" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings) (1935) (DVD)
When you are buying classic movies on DVD, your main concern probably is the quality of the film transfers. Who wants to watch grainy, unrestored black-and-white films when such beautiful transfers of other films have been released (Now Voyager or Mildred Pierce, for example)? My point is all classic films deserve first-rate dvd transfers.I am happy to report that the films in Universal's Marlene Dietrich collection all look very good. The transfers are not perfect, and quite possibly could have been restored to a greater extent. However, the transfers look just as good as anything WB has been releasing lately. The transfers are about on par with titles from the Greta Garbo or Joan Crawford collections from WB; not perfect, but very nice. My main complaint is there were not more Dietrich films in this collection. I would love to also have Shanghai Express, The Scarlet Empress, Desire, Angel, Dishonored, and A Foreign Affair. Hopefully, Universal will release a second volume with these titles. Athough the packaging is attractive, it is cheap. The movies are crammed on two-sided DVDs. It's mystifying why Universal saw fit to cram four titles on one double-sided DVD and one title (Golden Earrings) on one side of the other double-sided DVD (leaving a complete side with nothing on it). It seems a waste of DVD space to me; why not put three more titles in the set with that extra space? Or, for better picture quality, put one title on three DVD sides, and two on one side? My guess is they were in a big, careless hurry. Luckilly, this is not that big of a deal. The films are here, they look good, and the price is a bargain! In these days, who can afford to spend all their money on movies? WB may be charging the cost of this set for one movie alone, and with about the same transfer quality. At least Universal gives us five films for the cost of one WB title! 32 of 35 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
5 stars for films, 1 for packaging,
By C. Tolley "Chris Tolley" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings) (1935) (DVD)
Marlene Dietrich was one of the greatest stars the movies ever produced. That said, she deserved better treatment for her films than this. I have no objections to the films presented here. None of th five films were available on DVD before, and their release in this format was way overdue. However, the packaging was negligible. Five films on two discs, divided this way: four films on one disc, with one film on the other. No liner notes of any kind, and practically no extras whatsoever. A still gallery of any sort would have great here, as well as any kind of Dietrich documentary, which was notably absent. The films themselves look fine, and the addition of a subtitle option was very welcome. I've viewed each film, and they look fine to me. I have these movies on video, and they all look better in this set. The pricing was very fair, as there is nothing extra added to drive up the price. One would think Universal would come up with something better to honor such a legendary star. Just look at the Greta Garbo Collection which is out now. One disc per film(except for the silent films), plus a documentary. Dietrich in her day was Garbo's main rival, and just as popular. Her films have aged much better than Garbo's, and her influence on culture and fashion continues to this day. I hope that sometime in the future, we'll be treated to a true Dietrich collection, done correctly, with the films given the whole archival treatment they deserve.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
GLAMOUR , YES.....,
By Mark Norvell - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Marlene Dietrich: The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings) (1935) (DVD)
...but that's about it. While this hotly awaited (at least by me) collection contains three of Dietrich's Josef von Sternberg films ("Morrocco", "Blonde Venus" and "The Devil is A Woman") and one by Rene' Clair ("Flame of New Orleans") it , alas, does not contain Dietrich and von Sternberg's "Shanghai Express" which it could have sorely used. The 5th film "Golden Earrings" is not one I would have chosen. And the packaging here is less than appetizing. Very cheaply done. Although the films look OK, cramming them onto 2 discs does not give them the respect they are due. They should have been individually packaged with their original poster art, etc. This would have made a fine collector's item. Dietrich (and esp. von Sternberg) were unique, even for their era. Watch "Devil is A Woman" for example. The Travis Banton costumes, the setting of Carnivale in Spain during the 1800's, Dietrich's slightly over the top performance as a femme fatale---all beautifully and baroquely realized by von Sterberg. Quite unlike anything else from the 1930's. But for fans , this is it and I guess we should be grateful they're even out at all in watchable prints. Still, it's sad that this set could've been done so differently...for the better that is.
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