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René Clair lost some of his charm when he went to Hollywood, but chances were good that he couldn't lose it all. I quite love his 1942 film I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake. I think I like this Marlene Dietrich vehicle even better. Oh, this is a charmer, all right. The plot is too complicated to describe here, but the story is very clever and very entertaining. The film is sweet, romantic and quite funny. The cast is exceptional. Bruce Cabot is surprisingly great as the leading man. You might remember him as the block of wood who won out over the monkey in King Kong. He must have gained some talent as he aged; he's much more handsome at this point, and has an effortless charm, reminiscent of Clark Gable. Roland Young plays his rival. One thing I'll always love about Golden Age Hollywood is the bevy of character actors, something we have entirely lost in the present. Here we have Mischa Auer, Anne Revere, Andy Devine, Theresa Harris and Franklin Pangborn. I had thought for sure Morocco was the best reason to own Universal's Marlene Dietrich set, but, so far, this is the best.

This is a delightful old film with a cast of characters, from Bruce Cabot, who plays the captain and romantic interest, to Andy Devine, Frank Jenks, Mischa Auer and a whole bunch of studio character actors. Roland Young, who delighted us in the original Topper with Cary Grant, plays the befuddled count who plans to marry Die Marlene on the pretext she's an innocent young darling. The scene where the New Orleans ladies take Marlene aside to give her a little lecture on the "burden of womanhood she'll have to endure" after her marriage is priceless, with the tiny smirk that plays across Marlene's face (given her well-known history, it makes it doubly funny). While this little film isn't (and wasn't)a great shake at the box office at the time, it is delightful to see Die Marlene, always beautiful in that classic, classy European sense, at her best.

French director, Rene Clair, went to Hollywood to direct German Marlene Dietrich in this role where she played a con-artist known as the Countess and/or Lili. The story is set in New Orleans in the 1800s and has a fabulous art direction with costumes and set designs that are first rate. The problem with this film is really in the writing. It never holds up to me. While I love the cast, Dietrich is supported by a first rate cast and crew of Hollywood's golden age of cinema where even character parts were done brilliantly. I enjoyed the relationship between the Countess and her African American maid, Clementine, in the film as her friend and confidante. The countess has too many suitors much like any Marlene Dietrich film. The one suitor is a poor sailor with a pet monkey and the other is Giraud, an older, wealthy but unattractive man. In this film, the Countess is expected to get married like all women are expected to do in this day and age. The film begins with a mystery of a wedding dress found in the Mississippi River. There are plenty of light hearted moments as well. Still, this film is fine to watch.

Sandwiched in between some of her great films at Universal with John Wayne is this modest programmer for Marlene Dietrich that depends considerably on her charms to carry it off. Perhaps it might have been a much better film had the two leading men she wanted been available.

According to a recent biography of Marlene Dietrich, the two men she wanted for The Flame Of New Orleans were Cary Grant and Adolphe Menjou. She had worked with both before, Menjou in Morocco and Grant in Blonde Venus. She liked Menjou and sad to say MGM wouldn't make him available. At the time she and Cary Grant did not get along all that well, he played the other man in Blonde Venus. But in the interim he had gotten superstardom so Dietrich thought that Grant might prove to be a good screen partner now. Alas, that screen team was never to be.

Marlene and her maid Theresa Harris arrive in New Orleans where from the outset it's made plain to the viewer that Dietrich is out to hook a rich fish from the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The one she looks to land is rich and fussy Roland Young and she does bait a trap for him. But a roistering sea captain played by Bruce Cabot spoils it all for her though eventually Young falls for her as expected.

Now if you can't figure out who she winds up with, there's something terribly wrong with you.

Cabot does give a strong performance as the captain, I'm sure he was a rougher type than Cary Grant would have been. Of course as was usual with Marlene and her leading man, the obligatory affair was had. But she also said she found Cabot to be something of a boor and dropped him quickly.

Theresa Harris had a very interesting and unusual role for a black actress of the time. She might be a maid, but she functions more like a partner in crime with Dietrich's schemes. She's nobody's fool in this film and even gets a love interest of sorts in Young's driver Clarence Muse.

The film did get an Oscar nomination for Best Art&Interior Direction and the sets were grand. Rene Clair did a very good job of conveying New Orleans of 1841. Still the film is minor league Dietrich and it could have been a lot better if she had gotten the players she wanted as co-stars.

The Flame of New Orleans (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Claire Ledeux (Marlene Dietrich) is the most beautiful and most wanted woman in New Orleans. She can pretty much have her pick of any man and sure enough there are two of them wanting her. One is a successful and rich businessman (Roland Young) who could offer her anything. The other is a sea captain (Bruce Cabot) with plenty to offer.

The "flame" had clearly ran out by the time this movie was made. If you've never seen a Dietrich movie then you'll probably enjoy this one slightly more but if you've seen many of her films then you're going to notice this plot from pretty half a dozen earlier films. Once again we get a pretty standard plot that has Dietrich looking beautiful, seducing two men and of course she also gets a song to sing.

The biggest problem with THE FLAME OF NEW ORLEANS is the fact that there's just nothing here that we haven't already seen before. This certainly gives the film a very dull flavor because there's just nothing here to keep us overly amused and especially when you consider that the Dietrich-Cabot-Young love triangle isn't nearly the best we've seen from the previous films. All three cast members certainly do a good job with their performances but when there's no much of a story there's just so much you can do.

Director Rene Clair adds a little style to the picture but there's just nothing overly special here.