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My favourite Sternberg-Dietrich vehicle will always be "The Scarlet Empress", but all their films are worth more than a cursory glance. They're, to my mind, the most interesting thing to come out of the early thirties (and, although dated, far less so than more recognized classics of the era because of their unadulterated FUN).

Sternberg made art department COUNTRIES for Dietrich to languish in, true in all their Hollywood films, and still dazzling today. Plot, narrative are shaky, sometimes almost nonexistent, allowing for spectacle to take over, and what a spectacle it all is! Dietrich is probably one of the most macabre, knowingly lewd feminine manifestations ever to grace the silver screen (well, at least Sternberg was knowing, Dietrich herself....?). Highly recommended.

MOROCCO is first and foremost an atmospheric film. Anyone who looks for more didn't understand what Josef von Sternberg created here. It's pure atmosphere. A reverie. The film is at times creaky but it's understandable because it was made over 70 years ago! There are several stand-out scenes in MOROCCO, including the famous kiss scene and the one when Marlene breaks a pearl necklace but what makes this Sternberg film so memorable is the stunning ending. Suddenly, the creaky film looks positively contemporary. Are we really in 1930s and not the wild 1970s?!?! The brilliant ending MAKES the movie. Without it, it would probably have been an enjoyably moody but average 1930s flick. With it, MOROCCO becomes a timeless classic. It's probably the most stunning ending ever made, with so many layers of meaning with that one prolonged static shot. It's visually brilliant and sexy on so many levels.

It's interesting to read other reviews of Morocco. Some people just don't seem to have a clue, and it would be fascinating to learn what they think of as a good film from this era. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see that only one reviewer mentioned the sound, and that was to criticize it. Sternberg's use of sound as a tool jumped right out at me. There are numerous scenes in this film which have the possibility of being overly tedious and run the risk of being boring. Much is made of Sternberg's visual prowess and the rich texture displayed here, but I'm surprised that everyone seems to be missing the effect of the sound. Throughout the film, in scenes which need to build tension yet are visually somewhat tiresome (Legionaires marching in the street for example) Sternberg uses various sound devices artfully. We hear the monotonous drumbeat as the men march. The longer this goes on, the more irritating it becomes and as a result, puts the audience on edge. This adds to the tension of the scene immensely. The same thing happens in other parts of the film when we hear a short nearly monotone musical phrase repeated over and over ad nauseum, or when the sound of the wind blowing through the trees also becomes irritating. Each time, the scene is intended to build tension and each time, Sternberg's use of sound perfectly complements the visual to achieve the desired effect. This movie is on my "you gotta see this one" list.

Marlene Dietrich is aboard ship to Mogador. An officer explains to fellow passenger Adolphe Menjou she's probably a vaudeville performer; they call one-way passages like her a suicide ticket. Her first night performing at Paul Porcasi's place she's a sensation. Soon she's beginning a tentative relationship with Foreign Legion private Gary Cooper. But Menjou is still in there, pitching.

Josef von Sternberg & Miss Dietrich's first American film still shows a lot of hesitancy with sound. There are vast silences between lines, giving this movie an air of being a chapter-heading show, with the lines explaining what is going on.... but you don't need to be told, the heat is palpable: not just the sexual heat, but the desert heat. Unfortunately, the prints available are not in great shape, and Lee Garmes' sharp images of von Sternberg's always rococo set designs are as much inferred as seen.

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.