MOROCCO (1930)

Ninety-five years ago, Marie Magdalena von Losch took the screen by storm when she entered to growl out “Quand l’Amour Meurt” dressed in a tuxedo and smoking a cigarette. At the number’s end, she kissed a woman in the audience, threw a flower to French Foreign Legionnaire Gary Cooper, and the legend that was Marlene Dietrich was born. Under director Josef von Sternberg’s tutelage, she became the epitome of sophisticated glamour: beautiful, sexy, and androgynous. Test footage for her role as the seductive cabaret singer Lola in von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) had brought both director and actress to Paramount for this adaptation of Benno Vigny’s novel Amy Jolly. Dietrich stars as an unhappy singer who runs away to Morocco, where she’s torn between Cooper and the wealthy Adolphe Menjou. Shot by Lee Garmes on sets designed by Hans Dreier, the film is a romantic dream that captivated audiences and made Dietrich an overnight sensation.

d. Josef von Sternberg, 92m, 35mm

Courtesy of Universal Pictures.