Morocco (1930)

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Benno Vigny (play)
Jules Furthman (adaptation)

Release Date:

6 diciembre 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Drama

Plot:

The Foreign Legion marches in to Mogador with booze and women in mind just as singer Amy Jolly arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto's cabaret...

Plot Keywords:

Cat | Lesbian Kiss | Desert | Foreign Legion | Love Triangle

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 2 wins

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Marlene Comes to America

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Légionnaire Tom Brown
Marlene Dietrich	...	Mademoiselle Amy Jolly
Adolphe Menjou	...	Monsieur La Bessiere
Ullrich Haupt	...	Adjutant Caesar
Eve Southern	...	Madame Caesar
Francis McDonald	...	A Sergeant
Paul Porcasi	...	Lo Tinto, Nightclub Owner

También conocida como:

Amy Jolly (USA) (working title)
Marruecos (Spain) [es]

Duración:

92 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English | French | Español

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Clasificación:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Spain:18 | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Guadalupe Sand Dunes, Santa Barbara County, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivialidades:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Amy Jolly: Every time a man has helped me, there has been a price. What's yours?
La Bessiere: My price? A smile.
Amy Jolly: I haven't got much more.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Love-Tails of Morocco (1931)

Soundtrack:

Give Me the Man

Marlene Comes to America

After her stunning international success in The Blue Angel, Marlene Dietrich was open to all kinds of film offers from all countries. She shrewdly negotiated with Adolph Zukor at Paramount Pictures in the USA and made her feature film debut in Morocco co-starring with Paramount's number one leading man Gary Cooper. She couldn't have predicted it, but it was a permanent move away from Germany.

Dietrich was a package deal for with her came the director of The Blue Angel Joseph Von Sternberg. No doubt Von Sternberg created the image that we now know her for, sensual, alluring, and standing by her man when she does make her choice.

One thing about Morocco I found different than most of the films I've seen of Dietrich is that she's not in control of the situation. In most films she usually is, but in Morocco Cooper's very much in charge. She's got a wealthy man in Adolphe Menjou panting after her, but she can't see him for beans. It's Gary Cooper an ordinary dogface Foreign Legionaire that she's fallen for.

Cooper in fact plays a part Tyrone Power would affect great success with later, a hero/heel. Cooper is carrying on an affair with the wife of one of the officers at his post when he meets Dietrich. The man must have had something going for him.

Von Sternberg did a great job in creating the atmosphere of not only Morocco, but of the Foreign Legion. Men with forgotten pasts and dubious futures, living only for the moment.

Although I think Marlene Dietrich did better films than Morocco in her Hollywood years, Morocco was a grand and auspicious beginning for her.