The Devil Is a Woman (1935)

Calificación de los usuarios:

7.3/10   

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Escritores:

Pierre Louÿs (novel)
John Dos Passos (adaptation)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

1935 (Turkey)

Género:

Comedia | Drama | Romance

Frase comercial:

Kiss me .. and I'll break your heart!

Plot:

Film told in flashbacks of an older man's obsession for a woman who can belong to no-one but can frustrate everyone...

Plot Keywords:

Spain | Carnival | Revolutionary | Cigarette Manufacturer | Temptress

Premios:

1 win

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Dietrich, A Devious & Dangerous Delight

Reparto

Marlene Dietrich	...	Concha Perez
Lionel Atwill	...	Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar
Edward Everett Horton	...	Gov. Don Paquito 'Paquitito'
Alison Skipworth	...	Senora Perez
Cesar Romero	...	Antonio Galvan
Don Alvarado	...	Morenito (bullfighter)
Tempe Pigott	...	Tuerta
Francisco Moreno	...	Alphonso (Paquito's secretary) (as Paco Moreno)
listado alfabético del resto del reparto:
Hank Mann	...	Foreman on snowbound train (scenes deleted)
Joel McCrea	...	Antonio Galvan (replaced by Cesar Romero) (scenes deleted)

También conocida como:

Caprice Espagno (USA) (working title)
Carnival in Spain (Spain) [es]
El demonio es una mujer (Venezuela) [es]

Duración:

Germany:75 min | USA:79 min | Portugal:80 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés | Español

Color:

Negro y Blanco

Relación de Aspecto:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Clasificación:

Portugal:17 | Portugal:(Banned) (original rating) | UK:A (original rating) (1935) | UK:U (re-rating) (2006) | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | USA:Approved (PCA #538)

Locaciones de Filmación:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Compañía:

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.

Citas:

Senora Perez: How I worry when I see my daughter leave in the morning.
Concha Perez: How can you say that, Mother, when you sleep all day?

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)

Banda de Sonido:

Three Sweethearts Have I

Dietrich, A Devious & Dangerous Delight

A young Spanish radical in old Sevilla learns that THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN, when he falls hopelessly in love with a mysterious female.

Mesmerizing & hypnotic, this is a film which arouses all the senses. Dreamlike in its visuals & nightmarish of plot, it presents imagery so persuasive as to be practically palpable. Director Josef von Sternberg & writer John Dos Passos constructed a miniature madhouse for the mind, in which the viewer gladly finds himself consigned.

Fascinating, coy, deceptive, utterly alluring, Marlene Dietrich dominates the film as an icy-hearted harlot who strews her pathway with the broken bodies & wasted lives of the men she's betrayed. With heavily lidded eyes peering out of her disturbingly beautiful face, she is the very picture of sardonic seduction. Wisely, the film allows her a moment of amusement (for the viewer), letting her perfectly sum up her philosophy in the comic song ‘Three Sweethearts Have I.'

Dietrich's two leading men are both excellent. Lionel Atwill, sadly ignored today, once again exhibits the depth of his acting talent; Hollywood's propensity to place him in horror films often obscured his abilities. Here, he shows us a man fully aware of his complete degradation. Cesar Romero, in one of the finest roles of his early career, more than adequately carries on the tradition of the Latin Lover, but with a twist - here is a romantic hero who is not strong enough to escape from the web of the female spider.

Peevish & pompous, Edward Everett Horton is thoroughly amusing as a flustered Spanish bureaucrat.

Two wonderful English character actresses enliven the proceedings in small roles: Alison Skipworth as Dietrich's disreputable matriarch and Tempe Pigott as an old one-eyed harridan.

Movie mavens will spot Edwin Maxwell as the manager of the cigarette factory and Charles Sellon as a professional letter writer, both uncredited.

Von Sternberg created a masterwork of cinematic symbolism, with innuendo so rife it is incredible it passed the Production Code. In every way, the film is a worthy follow-up to his previous collaboration with Dietrich, the orgiastic SCARLETT EMPRESS (1934).