Marlene Dietrich

Today's movie mogul is Marlene Dietrich. I've been a huge fan since I first saw her in Destry Rides Again.

My grandfather (RIP) was a huge western fan. Most of all, he was a John Wayne fan. His next favorite movie star was James Stewart. Don't get me started on how many times It's A Wonderful Life was played in the family home. Well, while I was staying with him for the weekend, we watched Destry Rides Again. When I saw Marlene in that film, I was hooked.

Soon I began looking for other movies of hers. Unfortunately, I didn't have the internet at the time. I didn't even have a computer. I had to do all my digging the old-fashioned way...the library! Some might say, "Eww! The library!?", but I was jazzed because that meant I could go through book after book without my mom being on my case about doing something educational.

The library near our house was literally two blocks away. I picked up my backpack full of writing materials, hopped on my bike and away I went. Ahh, the dewy decimal system. how I love thee. You know what I'm talking about. Those little cards the library had before they used computers to log every book. you had to write down the section and book number. Then, you had to go looking through that section to find that a) the book was checked out or b) it's there, just not in it's place. In essence, if you really needed the information or you were really dedicated, then you just said, "fuck this!" and you would leave.

Since I had absolutely nothing else besides homework to do, I spent most of my time in the library. I would look up anything I had an interest in. I was combing the movies section when I came across a book filled with descriptions and pictures of Marlene Dietrich's movies.

All her films are so amazing. My favorite being, of course, Destry Rides Again:

As well as Shanghai Express:

And of course the most awesome Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair:

She was a big star already in Berlin where she was born and raised. Her first international film performance was in a movie called The Blue Angel directed by Josef von Sternberg, which so happens to be Germany's first "talkie". Paramount was so impressed, they signed Dietrich to a contract. Her first American movie was a gender-bending controversy for it's time called Morocco. It was such a hyped-up film because there were so many expectations for this German beauty. Amazingly, though she knew a tiny bit of English, she garnered her first, and only, Oscar nomination. She made a big fuss in Hollywood with her men's wear in the film. That also became her signature look, men's wear and suits:

I think what is most amazing about this actress was her public admission of despising the Nazi party. She was a German-born woman in WWII-era film production. According to her, she was propositioned by the Nazis. Some say Hitler himself asked Dietrich to be his mistress. She defied their approaches and became a U.S. citizen. What a slap in the face for ya. Not only that, but she became one of the U.S. military's most notable celebrity allies. She entertained the troops, sold war bonds, performed for U.S. soldiers near the front-lines in Germany. You Go Girl! lol. She became my heroine for that.

"I aint yo bitch, bitch! Imma not only say 'fuck you', but i'm gonna work for the other guys and rile them up to kick yo fuckin' ass!"

Anyhow, she really influenced women's rolls in the film industry and some don't even know it. She was one of the first few women, Greta Garbo being another one, who wore pant suits out in public for events. She has been hailed as a fashion icon all of her career.

So not only all that, but later in her career she performed cabaret in large theaters. They paid her something like 20-30k a week in Vegas. Apparently that was a lot of money then. Well shit...it's still a hell of a lot of money in one week today. With that said, I will leave you with her most famous scene of her career. This is her American debut scene in Morocco: