Morocco

Morocco is such a classic of the early silver screen, if you've never seen it, you've got to rent it. It doesn't make Gary Cooper look like a very nice guy, but if you know about his personal life, you already know he wasn't a very nice guy.

While traveling from Europe to Morocco by ship, the cabaret singer Mademoiselle Amy Jolly (Marlene Dietrich) meets the wealthy Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) that offers to "help" her in Morocco, but Amy refuses his offer. Mademoiselle Amy Jolly is hired by Lo Tinto (Paul Porcasi) to sing in his nightclub and in her debut, she meets Monsieur La Bessiere again having dinner with his friends Adjutant Caesar (Ullrich Haupt) and his wife Madame Caesar (Eve Southern).

The single most significant element of this film is its B&W visuals. Not only are they unnecessarily dark to the point of being unable to recognize faces in some night scenes, but the vast majority of camera shots are close-ups.

A cabaret singer (Marlene Dietrich) and a Legionnaire (Gary Cooper) fall in love, but their relationship is complicated by the results of his womanizing and due to the appearance of a rich man who wants her for himself.According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, Cooper and von Sternberg did not get along.

I am a Gary Cooper fan ( this is Film # 69 of his I have seen). And I admit to not liking Marlene Dietrich ( the only ones she ever made that I like were Desire ( also with Cooper), and Knight Without Armour).

Morocco (1930) *** (out of 4)Marlene Dietrich plays cabaret singer Amy Jolly who comes to Morocco where she soon finds herself wanted by two very different men. Legionnaire Tom Brown (Gary Cooper) is a bit wild and has very little money whereas Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) has everything that could give Jolly a great life.

Not for distance of time but for the mixture of high performance, exotic atmosphere and correct love story. it could seems be silly today, to pink or childish but the technique aspects, the construction of characters, the ambiguous aspects of Dietrich role and the precise references to classic stories are the good point.

The arrival of a sultry cabaret singer on the coast of MOROCCO arouses the interest of a young French Foreign Légionnaire.Marlene Dietrich made her American movie debut in this intriguing & lavish film directed by her German mentor Josef von Sternberg.

I generally enjoy these romantic adventures in foreign lands, as perceived in the Hollywood of the 1930s. I mean, everybody is always dressed for dinner.