The Devil Is a Woman

The one thing everyone seems to miss Is that Lionel Atwill looks a lot like Sternberg. Looking at the Dietrich/Sternberg collaborations it's hard not to notice that Adolph Menjou, Herbert Marshall, and Lionel Atwill seem to be Sternberg surrogates, which knowing about the Dietrich/Sternberg relationship, adds a perversity and depth to viewing the films. If you look at the screen test for Blue Angel available on the blue angle DVD, you can already see Dietrich's disdain that seems an enormous part of her screen character in their collaborations. The Devil is a Woman is a story of a man who ruins his career in pursuit of a woman. Pretty hard not to see parallels to Sternberg's career. This was his last big budget film and one that remains a lasting testament to "l'amour fou."

A captivating and very different movie where a dazzling Marlene Dietrich willfully toys with the affection of Lionel Atwill whose life is then ruined by their relationship. How low will he sink? As low as Emil Jannings in The Blue Angel? The reasons for Atwill's obsession is left to the imagination since censors at the time would not allow us to observe what is today commonly on screens. Surrealistic scenes of a Spanish carnival and extraordinary costumes make this highly recommended and not often seen film a visual feast. Marlene has never been lovelier and more injurious. Atwill does a respectable job as the bedeviled older lover. A young Ceasar Romero is a believable other love interest. Edward Everett Horton's voice mars the play of what should have been a stately governor who appears to have been seeing Marlene on the side. An unexpected ending contributes to a movie that should be discussed and watched again. Highly recommended.

In terms of artistry, this probably ranks up there with the best of them. It has to be one of the most attention-grabbing films ever made with every scene crammed full of enticing details. From the opening carnaval parade that's buried under three feet of confetti, with everyone hiding behind unbelievably bizarre masks, the film revels in outstanding direction, sets, and costumes. Marlene Dietrich is simply on another level with her smart, beautiful, and sexy character, and the way they dressed her and the sets they put her in all combine for a totally and undeniably spellbinding experience. I guess if one digs a little deeper one would find a simple enough story and could claim the characters are mere caricatures for an American audience, but that would miss out on the sheer sophistication that can be appreciated up to today and beyond.

Very few aesthetic delights of the post-Code era tantalize and linger long afterwards in the mind as much as films from the Marlene Dietrich/Josef Von Sternberg partnership, and this, thankfully kept in Dietrich's vault as it was the favourite of her films, is no exception. Though anyone who knows me will readily recall I prefer the twice-Oscar nominated (for 'Morocco' and 'Shanghai Express'), Viennese expert craftsman's silent pictures to those made with the sexpot, this saga of vengeance is also superlative and well worth both purchasing and re-watching. Paramount caved in to pressure by the Spanish government, who hated the way Pierre Louÿs' novel portrayed the Spanish police, and actually destroyed the original print. Thankfully Dietrich's fear that her favourite film would otherwise be lost meant it was extremely well-preserved, and I saw my copy as part of a superlative DVD boxed set of six of her films that I've had for a few years now.