Stupendous!!

source: Morocco

I suppose people's opinion of this movie is coloured by aspects other than the plot because it is strictly formulaic - and extremely dull. It must be the glamour of the stars - Cooper and Dietrich in their perfect prime - that has earned it a relatively high rating on this site. That and Lee Garme's superb cinematography. Oh yeah, and the set design which really has you believing the cast are sweating beneath a Moroccan sun instead of a bank of klieg lights on a Paramount sound stage. The story was old back in the 30s, and this could easily have been a silent movie. The story is told largely through its imagery of sex and money and death, and the plot is relegated to a minor framework onto which von Sternberg can project his imagery. As usual, his cinematic eye dwells lovingly on Dietrich's flawless face. She and Cooper make a good looking couple, even though they rarely create sparks in their scenes together. Cooper is a cavalier legionnaire with an eye for the ladies, Dietrich a 'suicide passenger,' weary of men but instantly attracted to Cooper - which, given his character, probably explains why she is so weary of men. They both know the other isn't good for them, but their heads are over-ruled by their hearts. That ending might put off some modern-day viewers: a barefoot Dietrich, rejecting kindly millionaire Adolph Menjou's wealth to follow Cooper's platoon into the Sahara, subjugating her own life to his. It's a crude form of symbolism that would be considered risible today but, because of the film's age, it has acquired the spurious status of a classic.

This was Marlene Dietrich's first American-made film. Because it was done so early, she looks a lot different from the person she played in films just a few years later. She frankly looks less "bizarre"--with less makeup and her painted eyebrows about an inch lower. She was, in my opinion, prettier in this film than in later productions. Additionally, because it was released in 1930, the sound quality is understandably poor. Like many films of the day, they were still trying to "get it right" with the sound--and many scenes are just too loud but most are too soft. Plus, oddly, there are several songs Ms. Dietrich sings, but there is absolutely no incidental music in the film otherwise. I didn't notice it for about fifteen minutes, but once I noticed, the film seemed strangely stark. The performances of Dietrich, Gary Cooper and Adolph Menjou were fine and the cinematography of Dietrich's mentor, Josef von Sternberg, was lovely. BUT, there are major problems with the incredibly simple plot. Dietrich and Cooper fall in love--even though the film gives reason after reason that this never should have occurred OR that it should have died a natural death due to the lousy way Cooper treated his "lady love". Considering that Menjou was extremely kind, sophisticated, in love with Dietrich and mega-rich, it just made no sense for her to be so taken with Cooper! Now, in movies (as well as in real life) sometimes people CAN make foolish choices, but when it is used as a plot device so often as well as "love at first sight", it just takes away from the film's impact. Very good acting, very clichéd script.

This was Marlene Dietrich's American film debut. It shows off her beauty but the film offers little else, except some good atmosphere at times. Only the first 20 minutes of the 92 total time were interesting. The story starts a downward descent after that and never really comes back to life. In fact, it gets agonizingly slow as it goes on, as slow as Gary Cooper's dialog delivery. Man, for one of the all-time Hollywood greats, Cooper was horrible actor in his very early days. He delivered his lines in here in such wooden-like fashion it was embarrassing to watch. Thankfully, he got a lot better by the end of the decade. Overall, considering the two leading actors, this was very disappointing. Some films stand the test of time; this one doesn't.

I suppose I'll find a Deitrich movie to like eventually. I've just started surveying her. This one has cheap sets, poor sound, wooden acting and a miraculously simple-minded story. Deitrich is all about the ambisexual adventure, the exotic allure of practiced indifference. The coolness of the confidence of aloof loneliness. But here in her first Hollywood picture, she is made up less oddly than in the past — and I think in the future. This does have a particularly strong and much referenced night club performance. Its the one with her in male formal attire and solid nonchalance in the face of a jeering crowd. It ends with her kissing a woman in the crowd, a kiss she fought with censors to leave in. It has her poise, but her face is oddly womanish, not like you remember. Still, you can get a lot of value out of this movie if you just watch that one scene and read the following summary, which is more powerful in the reading than the seeing. Jolly comes to Morocco with nothing; we learn only that she has had some terrible past. She becomes a bit hit at a cabaret, seedy but the best in town. She falls in love with a randy loser from the French Foreign Legion. Meanwhile, a rich European bachelor, a painter has fallen in love with her and offers to marry. The legionnaire gives her up for her own good and is sent afar into danger. She agrees to marry the painter. Eventually, she hears her true love is hurt and she goes to him. Her painter, who loves her follows, seeking only her happiness. As her legionnaire goes off into the desert with his command, she in bare feet joins the Arab camp followers without a care, following love. Unfortunately, the drama as presented is dull stuff. Dull. Dull, even for the time. I put this in my category of films that suffer because the filmmaker is sleeping with the star. The only value is in that scene where we watch her watching the audience, us. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Stilted and lifeless love triangle picture. Gary Cooper acts a little too gormless; it's not charming, because he's not in a comedy. Adolphe Menjou has an interesting character to play -- the type of rich sugar daddy who we expect to be a simple bad guy, but ends up with more emotion and dimension -- and the actor botches it, never quite communicating tone and seeming nervous for all the wrong reasons. Dietrich, of course, has classic screen presence, but the film hardly lets her use it, and gives her some of the least well-staged musical numbers of the era (the film stops as she sings without musical accompaniment, for the length of whole songs, over rooms full of mumbling). The picture was a big hit, received Oscar nominations for its cinematography and art direction, and became famous for its exoticism and style. But the production values were eclipsed as Hollywood style developed, and "Morocco" looks like just another old Arabian-set star vehicle today. Films like "Casablanca" do a much better job of showing the chaos of Morocco through shots that are balanced and composed.

Of course it's a vehicle for Dietrich, but what makes this early Hollywood Dietrich-Sternberg outing fascinating is its sensuality. It simply reeks of sex: as when a sexually provocative, confident Dietrich in a tux kisses a girl, in its depiction of Dietrich's obsession with the Gary Cooper character and perhaps above all in the way the film treats Cooper - the most beautiful man in Hollywood at the time - almost as an inanimate sex object. So many movies over the years have given their female leads little to do but look gorgeous, but here it's Cooper who plays second fiddle, and reminds modern viewers that good looks were not invented by Brad Pitt. To quote the song, he's simply 'super duper' here. And Dietrich, of course, is simply incomparable: she has that mixture of upfront toughness and unspoken vulnerability that made her utterly watchable throughout her long screen career.

This film should be seen strictly as a dated example of the beginning of what by now is film's long history. It represents more than anything a period piece when the talkies were just developing. As with other films of the day, this one represents a stereotypical, overly exotic land in the northern of Africa, namely Morocco, where the Europeans rule with unquestioned superiority. The colonizing aspects of such event are simply taken for granted. Spanish women, for example, are treated like garbage; Arabs, too, are simply disposable. No attempt what-so-ever is made to show what the culture of the country is like other than through the romanticized and distorted points of view coming from the denizens who inhabit the local cabaret. These men cannot help but drool at the sight of a recently arrived Parisian cabaret singer appropriately named Mademoiselle Amy Jolly. How can Gary Grant [Tom Brown] be believable in his role? He looks and talks every bit like a nice blond boy from Iowa, instead of the rugged Frenchman he is supposed to look like. His very height betrays him as not belonging to the area! A man so tall would definitely be an easy target for any attacks! Needless to say, it can be argued that he could have been a hired as a mercenary working for the French army. But if the critic Leonard Maltin found the character of Marlene Dietrich `improbably stuck in Morocco,' what can we say about Gary Cooper dressed up in a the wrong size uniform, while drinking, smoking, and shamelessly womanizing his way around? The only rescuable parts of this dated film are the cabaret scenes in which Marlene Dietrich dresses up like a man, while captivating her audiences with her mere presence. Her acting is all right; her singing is also all right. But what she does to take control of her public is what may amaze even contemporary viewers. At one point-beware of a small spoiler coming-she even kisses another woman in the mouth! Now, that is daring continental cinema, even though this was her first Hollywood feature. See this film only if you love to see a sentimental story of love in the grand style of the ninetieth century, which by now is all but alien to our contemporary sensibilities.

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.