Marlene Dietrich Collection - 6-DVD Box Set ( Morocco / Dishonored / Blonde Venus / The Scarlet Empress / The Devil Is a Woman / A Foreign Affair ) ( Amy Jolly / Catherine the Great / Caprice Espagno )

Marlene Dietrich Collection - 6-DVD Box Set (DVD) (*)

Out of Stock

Original Title: Morocco / Dishonored / Blonde Venus / The Scarlet Empress / The Devil Is a Woman / A Foreign Affair
Alternate Title: Amy Jolly / Catherine the Great / Caprice Espagno
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Oscar Academy Awards
Venice Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Czech ( Subtitles )
Danish ( Subtitles )
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )
Finnish ( Subtitles )
French ( Subtitles )
German ( Subtitles )
Hungarian ( Subtitles )
Norwegian ( Subtitles )
Polish ( Subtitles )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
553 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Box Set
Interactive Menu
Multi-DVD Set
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1930 - 1948 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Josef von Sternberg
Billy Wilder

Written By:
Benno Vigny
Jules Furthman
Daniel Nathan Rubin
Josef von Sternberg
S.K. Lauren
Catherine II
Manuel Komroff
Pierre Louÿs
John Dos Passos
Charles Brackett
Billy Wilder

Actors:
Gary Cooper ..... Légionnaire Tom Brown
Marlene Dietrich ..... Mademoiselle Amy Jolly
Adolphe Menjou ..... Monsieur La Bessiere
Ullrich Haupt ..... Adjutant Caesar
Eve Southern ..... Madame Caesar
Francis McDonald ..... A Sergeant
Paul Porcasi ..... Lo Tinto, Nightclub Owner
Marlene Dietrich ..... Marie Kolverer / X27
Victor McLaglen ..... Colonel Kranau
Gustav von Seyffertitz ..... Austrian Secret Service Chief
Warner Oland ..... Colonel von Hindau
Lew Cody ..... Colonel Kovrin
Barry Norton ..... Young Lieutenant - Firing Squad
Marlene Dietrich ..... Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones
Herbert Marshall ..... Edward 'Ned' Faraday
Cary Grant ..... Nick Townsend
Dickie Moore ..... Johnny Faraday
Gene Morgan ..... Ben Smith
Rita La Roy ..... Taxi Belle Hooper
Robert Emmett O'Connor ..... Dan O'Connor
Sidney Toler ..... Detective Wilson
Morgan Wallace ..... Dr. Pierce
Clarence Muse ..... Charlie, the Bartender (unconfirmed)
Marlene Dietrich ..... Princess Sophia Frederica /
Catherine II ..... Count Alexei
John Lodge ..... Grand Duke Peter
Sam Jaffe ..... Empress Elizabeth Petrovna
Louise Dresser ..... Prince August
C. Aubrey Smith ..... Capt. Gregori Orloff
Gavin Gordon ..... Princess Johanna Elizabeth
Olive Tell ..... Countess Elizabeth 'Lizzie'
Ruthelma Stevens ..... Archimandrite Simeon Todorsky
Davison Clark ..... Chancelor Alexei Bestuchef
Erville Alderson ..... Count Lestoq
Philip Sleeman ..... Marie Tshoglokof
Marie Wells ..... Ivan Shuvolov
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski ..... Lt. Dmitri
Gerald Fielding ..... Sophia as a Child
Maria Riva
Marlene Dietrich ..... Concha Perez
Lionel Atwill ..... Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar
Edward Everett Horton ..... Gov. Don Paquito 'Paquitito'
Alison Skipworth ..... Senora Perez
Cesar Romero ..... Antonio Galvan
Don Alvarado ..... Morenito
Tempe Pigott ..... Tuerta
Francisco Moreno ..... Alphonso
Hank Mann ..... Foreman on Snowbound Train (scenes deleted)
Jean Arthur ..... Phoebe Frost
Marlene Dietrich ..... Erika Von Schluetow
John Lund ..... Captain John Pringle
Millard Mitchell ..... Col. Rufus J. Plummer
Peter von Zerneck ..... Hans Otto Birgel
Stanley Prager ..... Mike
William Murphy ..... Joe
Raymond Bond ..... Pennecot
Boyd Davis ..... Giffin
Robert Malcolm ..... Kramer
Charles Meredith ..... Yandell
Michael Raffetto ..... Salvatore
Damian O'Flynn ..... Lieutenant Colonel
Frank Fenton ..... Major Mathews
James Larmore ..... Lieutenant Hornby

Synopsis:

Morocco (1930)
Parisian chanteuse Amy Jolly has just arrived in Morocco to work in a nightclub. At the club, her scandalous behavior attracts the attention of the womanizing Legionnaire Tom Brown...

Dishonored (1931)
During World War I, a lady spy betrays enemy officers until she falls in love with one.

Blonde Venus (1932)
Helen Faraday is a nightclub singer turned housewife, but when her husband needs money to have a life-saving operation, she decides to resume her career as a singer to raise money...

The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Story of Sophia Frederica (later Catherine II of Russia) who is brought from Germany to Russia to become the wife of the mad Grand Duke Peter. Based on a diary of Catherine the Great.

The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
Film told in flashbacks of an older man's obsession for a woman who can belong to no-one but can frustrate everyone. The backdrop is SternbergÍs surreal and fantastic Carnaval in Spain.

A Foreign Affair (1948)
A congressional committee visits occupied Berlin to investigate G.I. morals. Congresswoman Phoebe Frost, appalled at widespread evidence of human frailty, hears rumors that cafe singer Erika, former mistress of a wanted war criminal, is 'protected' by an American officer...

Morocco (1930)
While traveling from Europe to Morocco by ship, cabaret singer Mademoiselle Amy Jolly meets wealthy Monsieur La Bessiere that offers to 'help' her in Morocco, but May refuses his offer. Mademoiselle Amy Jolly is hired by Lo Tinto to sing in his nightclub and in her debut, she meets Monsieur La Bessiere again having dinner with his friends Adjutant Caesar and his wife Madame Caesar. He invites Amy to stay with him, but the singer feels attracted by the lady-killer Legionnaire Tom Brown. Amy invites Tom to go to her apartment after the show but their encounter does not work very well. Tom leaves her apartment and Amy follows him. Meanwhile Madame Caesar stalks Tom on the street but he returns with Amy to her apartment. However two thieves attack him and he self-defends and kills the guys. Tom is arrested and Adjutant Caesar unsuccessfully tries to force him to confess that he had met his wife. Monsieur La Bessiere offers to help Tom but he is assigned to a suicide mission with the Foreign Legion. La Bessiere proposes marriage to Amy, but she is divided between her true love with Tom and the comfortable life she might have with the millionaire.

Dishonored (1931)
Contemporary viewers who go into Dishonored expecting a musty, dated espionage melodrama will be in for a surprise. Marlene Dietrich delivers a subtle and witty performance as a Viennese prostitute who offers her services as a spy during WWI. As ""Agent X-27"" our heroine proves invaluable to her superiors, seducing and betraying enemy officers with the greatest of ease. But when she falls in love with Russian spy Lt. Kranau (Victor McLaglen), she permits him to escape her clutches, and as a consequence is sentenced to be executed. Ever the mistress of her own fate, ""X-27"" stands proud and tall before the firing squad, even comforting the officer in charge (Barry Norton) who can't bring himself to shoot a woman. The scenes between Dietrich and bemedalled general Warner Oland are in themselves worthy of the admission price; equally as entertaining is the brief sequence in which the jaded heroine disguises herself as a zaftig peasant girl.

Blonde Venus (1932)
Marlene Dietrich stars as Helen Faraday, a German cabaret singer in the States whose husband, Ned, falls ill and his only hope is to receive expensive medical treatment at a clinic in Europe. Struggling to afford his care and to support their son Johnny, she works at a nightclub and succumbs to the advances of wealthy playboy Nick, whose gifts assist in her husband's recovery. Soon Ned recovers and returns, but when he discovers that Helen has been unfaithful, he divorces her, threatening to take their son. After running with little Johnny, she ends up a prostitute in New Orleans, where she is found by the detective hired by Ned. The boy is taken from her and Helen flees to Paris where she becomes a cabaret sensation. Upon witnessing a performance, Nick begins seeing her again and when the show moves to NYC, he secures a meeting between her and her ex -- who is finally made aware of the motivation behind her affair years before. This is the feature containing the well-known scenes where Dietrich performs stage numbers in an ape-suit and a white tuxedo (complete with top hat).

The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Of the two 1934 film versions of the life of Russia's Catherine the Great, Josef von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress was the most opulent and exotic. Marlene Dietrich plays the German-born Catherine, who is required to marry Russia's mad Grand Duke Peter (Sam Jaffe, decked out in a Harpo Marx wig). As if her joke of a marriage isn't torment enough, Catherine must endure the excesses of her new mother-in-law, Empress Elizabeth (Louise Dresser). Eventually, Catherine finds solace -- and romance -- in the form of Count Alexei (John Lodge). But even this balm is denied her when the ambitious Alexei begins wooing the much-older Elizabeth. When the old Empress dies, Catherine ascends to the Russian throne, knowing full well that her addled husband would kill her at the slightest provocation. Soon her power outstrips Peter's, and the opportunistic Alexei now comes back into her life. The finale finds Catherine emerging triumphant over all her enemies -- and, in the film's least subtle sequence (which is saying a lot!), the new Empress is shown astride a horse, to whom she displays far more affection than any of her human compatriots. The Scarlet Empress has even less to do with accuracy than Paul Czinner's Catherine the Great of the same year, which starred Elizabeth Bergner. Watch for Dietrich's real-life daughter Maria Sieber (aka Maria Riva) as the 7-year-old Catherine in the early scenes.

The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
Antonio Galvan (Cesar Romero), a young military officer, meets a mysterious and alluring woman named Concha Perez (Dietrich) and soon falls under her seductive spell. Antonio excitedly confesses his love for Concha to his friend Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill), an older and higher-ranking officer. Pasqual is horrified when he learns of Antonio's infatuation; years ago, he met Concha, and it was the start of a long and disastrous relationship in which the cold-hearted woman would repeatedly lure him into her romantic web, drain him of his wealth, and then leave him for wealthier prospects elsewhere. While he has learned the hard way, Pasqual has never been able to cure himself of his addiction to Concha's charms, and when he encounters Concha with Antonio at a boisterous street festival, Pasqual is overcome with jealousy and challenges Antonio to a duel for Concha's affections. Shortly after The Devil Is a Woman's unsuccessful initial release, the United States State Department and the Spanish government both tendered objections to Paramount Pictures about what they felt were insulting depictions of the Spanish people and their leadership. Paramount pulled the film from circulation, and it was thought to be lost for some time until Dietrich provided a print from her personal collection for a Sternberg retrospective in 1959; the movie has since been released on home video. John Dos Passos co-authored the screenplay, based on a novel by Pierre Louys which Luis Bunuel later adapted as That Obscure Object of Desire.

A Foreign Affair (1948)
A US congressional committee is in Berlin following World War II to investigate rumors of low morale amongst the American troops patrolling the American quadrant of the city. One of those on the committee is Congresswoman Phoebe Frost, a Republican from Iowa who has a singular focus on work, especially when on a mission. Once in Berlin, she believes the committee's military liaison, Colonel Rufus J. Plummer, is providing them with a false report of the issue as she herself has witnessed firsthand what she considers the depravity occurring in the city, especially between American troops and German 'fraulein'. Specifically, she is concerned about an unofficial report of Erika von Schlütow, a singer at an underground cabaret, who was a high ranking Nazi during the war and whose record is being protected and expunged by a high ranking but unknown American military man. To find out who this military man is, Phoebe enlists the help of Captain John Pringle, a fellow Iowan who she met on her travels in Berlin and who she trusts because of his Iowa heritage. She is however unaware that John is Erika's lover and protector. John does whatever he needs to to keep this secret from Phoebe for the few days she's in town. His measures include pretending to have a romantic interest in her himself. Phoebe comes to her own incorrect conclusion of who is protecting Erika. Erika, on the other hand, has her own agenda which she demonstrates in an encounter with Phoebe. Meanwhile, John's secret from Phoebe may become compromised when Colonel Plummer, aware of John and Erika's relationship, asks John to perform a military task concerning hunting down Hans Otto Birgel, a missing member of the Gestapo who was a former companion of Erika's.

Morocco (1930)
Like so many campaigners before him, GARY COOPER joins the Foreign Legion to "forget." At a smoky cabaret in Morocco, Cooper meets café entertainer Marlene Dietrich (making her American film debut). A woman with a very checkered past, Dietrich toys with the callow Cooper, but eventually falls hopelessly in love with him, even to the extent of throwing over wealthy Adolphe Menjou. The now-famous final image of Morocco finds la Dietrich, decked out in her cabaret finery and wearing high heels, heading after Cooper's regiment across the desert with the rest of the "camp followers." There is considerably more to the story than that, but these bare-bones details should be enough to entice anyone familiar with the exotic eroticism of the Josef von Sternberg/Marlene Dietrich vehicles. Should you need more enticement, let us inform you that Morocco is the film in which Marlene Dietrich, dressed in a man's tuxedo for her nightclub act, kisses a female patron squarely on the lips.

Dishonored (1931)
Vienna 1915. Magda, the widow of an officer killed at the front, and a prostitute, is recruited as an Austrian spy after her loyalty has been tested. As agent X27, her first task is to seduce and entrap a traitorous colonel. She is successful, but her love affair with his lieutenant leads to her death.

Blonde Venus (1932)
American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner, she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend. While Ned is away in Europe, she continues with Nick but when Ned returns cured, he discovers her infidelity. Now Ned despises Helen but she grabs son Johnny and lives on the run, just one step ahead of the Missing Persons Bureau. When they do finally catch her, she loses her son to Ned. Once again she returns to entertaining, this time in Paris, and her fame once again brings her and Townsend together. Helen and Nick return to America engaged, but she is irresistibly drawn back to her son and Ned. In which life does she truly belong?

The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Young Princess Sophia of Germany is taken to Russia to marry the half-wit Grand Duke Peter, son of the Empress. The domineering Empress hopes to improve the royal blood line. Sophia doesn't like her husband, but she likes Russia, and is very fond of Russian soldiers. She dutifully produces a son -- of questionable fatherhood, but no one seems to mind that. After the old empress dies, Sophia engineers a coup d'etat with the aid of the military, does away with Peter, and becomes Catherine the Great.

The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
In the carnival in Spain in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the exiled republican Antonio Galvan comes from Paris masquerade to enjoy the party and visit his friend Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar. However, he flirts with the mysterious Concha Perez and they schedule to meet each other later. When Antonio meets Pasqualito, his old friend discloses his frustrated relationship with the promiscuous Concha and her greedy mother and how his life was ruined by his obsession for the beautiful demimondaine. Pasqualito makes Antonio promise that he would not see Concha. However, when Antonio meets Concha, she seduces him and the long friendship between Antonio and Pasqualito is disrupted.

A Foreign Affair (1948)
In a wrecked post-war Berlin, a congressional committee from the United States of America comes to the occupied city to investigate the moral of the American troops. The conservative republican Congresswoman Phoebe Frost from Iowa brings a birthday cake to Captain John Pringle from his girlfriend also from Iowa. Later she splits from the other congressmen and decides to investigate the decadence of the military on her own, and not in accordance with the official speech and visit promoted by Colonel Rufus J. Plummer. She meets two American privates that believe she is German. They take her to the night-club Lorelei, where the lead attraction is the singer Erika Von Schluetow, who is the secret mistress of Captain Pringle. Congresswoman Frost overhears that Erika belonged to the Nazi Party and is protected by a senior officer, and she enlists her fellow countryman Captain Pringle to help her in the investigation of Erika. The officer seduces Frost to protect Erika and himself from martial court, but the jealous former lover of Erika, the Nazi Hans Otto Birgel, is seeking revenge against his competitor.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 08 February, 2012.