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Desire
Madeleine steals a string of pearls in Paris and uses American engineer Tom, who is driving on his vacation to Spain, to get the pearls out of France. But getting the pearls back from him proves to be difficult without falling in love.
Release : | 1936 |
Rating : | 7.1 |
Studio : | Paramount, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Marlene Dietrich Gary Cooper John Halliday William Frawley Ernest Cossart |
Genre : | Drama Comedy Crime Romance |
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You won't be disappointed!
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Well written for the screen although there are flaws. Gary Cooper is mo re like a country bumpkin rather than a respected architect. Even in 1936, Marlene Dietrich looked far older than he did.Nonetheless, we have a great story here where the jewel thief Dietrich finds love with Cooper, who by accident becomes the patsy of the gang of thieves trying to flee Paris with valuable jewels that she has stolen.I really liked the brief role of Olga by Zeffie Tilsbury. She reminded me so of a Gladys George type in Flamingo Road. The old crone, a former prison inmate, and part of the jewelry-thief gang confesses her lost love to Dietrich in a poignant scene.What a great way to dupe the jeweler and psychiatrist in order to steal the very expensive pearls.Always great to see love win out once more in films.
There seems little information about this 1936 showcase for Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper at their most brilliant. A trailer or film clip is not available. The acting, directing and storyline are brilliant. The photography of France and Spain is delicious. Keeps your interest at all times in every way. The only familiar names in the supporting cast are I LOVE LUCY's William Frawley as well as Alan Mowbray and John Halliday of general supporting Hollywoode fame.. Moves quickly in an unexpected direction. Always delightful in the visual, the storyboard and the performances.
No doubt of it, in Desire Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich were definitely fated to be together from the first time they had that fender bender in Paris before Coop got a good look at Dietrich and those celebrated gams.Marlene Dietrich is a countess, but one of those members of the nobility upon whom hard times have fallen. She and a partner John Halliday support themselves through some clever jewel robbery. In fact she pulls one classic scam on jeweler Ernest Cossart and psychiatrist Alan Mowbray and winds up with a valuable pearl necklace.The getaway proves to be a bit of a problem and she hooks poor innocent Gary Cooper at the customs inspection between France and Spain. She slips the swag into his pocket and at that point she's stuck with him. But it soon proves to be a very pleasant experience.Desire was produced by Ernest Lubitsch and directed by Frank Borzage. There's definitely more Lubitsch than Borzage in this film. Borzage normally directed heavy duty romantic tragedies and his favorite leading lady was Margaret Sullavan in films like Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm. It's unusual for someone not die in one of his films. I'm not sure Lubitsch didn't direct a lot of this himself.This was Dietrich and Cooper's second teaming, the first being the far more serious Morocco in which Dietrich made her American film debut. For some reason Desire was something the American movie public wasn't all that crazy about. I'm not sure why it's light and entertaining and should have done better.
Maybe some of the others have viewed a different film, or neglect the fact that this was filmed over 60 years ago. To me this is a brilliant movie --- at times witty, exciting, sensual and altogether satisfying. Dietrich and Cooper, how promising (again) and Borzage, sophisticated and classy, who could ask for more?