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Double Feature: Marlene Dietrich

© K Cruver

Many young starlets in Hollywood have benefited from the guidance and influence of a director who believes in them. Greta Garbo would never have made it to Hollywood without Mauritz Stiller's support and some of Lillian Gish's best performances blossomed under the supervision of the great D.W. Griffith. One of the most famous of these creative unions was the tumultuous relationship between director Joseph von Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich. Like Garbo, Dietrich came to Hollywood because of her mentor, but also like Garbo, she managed to distinguish herself after the pairing ended.

The films that Dietrich made with von Sternberg are her most idol-making body of work. The director lit his protegee to gauzy perfection and Dietrich gave the image a sly, erotic mystery. It seems that he was unable to see her as anything but a fallen woman, and it is tempting to draw parallels between the stories he wrote for her and his real feelings for her. However, Dietrich perfected the morally sketchy woman, she made her worthy by having her regret the life she led, but not the person she was. For this reason, it was not that far a stretch for her to play a mother and a prostitute, as she did in Blonde Venus (1932). At the same time, she is an honest and nuturing prostitute in Shanghai Express (1932).

These seemingly contradictory roles are ultimately also parallel, because they both perfectly display the Dietrich allure, a woman who appears cool and distantly erotic, but who proves to be warm and sincere at heart.

Shanghai Express (1932): Also starring Anna May Wong, Eugene Pallette, Warner Oland, Clive Brook

The Shanghai Express pulls out of the station, and before it gets too far down the tracks, it stops to wait for a cow to clear the tracks. A wide array of passengers lean out of the windows to see what is happening: a prim elderly woman with a dog, a Chinese prostitute, a gravel-voiced American with a round belly, and an Army doctor. The doctor finds himself face to face with a mysterious woman clothed in veils and feathers. She is the "notorious" Shanghai Lily and he is shocked to find that she is also the woman who he once loved as Madaline. She tells him, "it took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily" and that sets things in motion.

Though they have been apart for years, the doctor and Lily are still in love. The only thing keeping them apart is his lack of trust and Lily's refusal to beg for it. A corrupt warlord gives her an opportunity to prove her love for the doctor, though she may lose him forever.