The Silver Screen Oasis

The best parts in the film were when Marlene showed her fantastic legs. Mr Cooper was more wooden than usual.

ken123 wrote:The best parts in the film were when Marlene showed her fantastic legs. Mr Cooper was more wooden than usual.

I thought Dietrich dominated every scene with her arch sensuality but didn't notice her legs to be honest. More interested in her really odd but interesting bone structure. She was more striking in that tux with the top hat, when her "scandalous behavior" seemed to irk and entice Cooper's foreign legionnaire.
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I always chuckle at the way that every man in shoe leather tumbles over like a nine pin at just the sight of Dietrich in this movie and most others. It seems to be one of those conventions in old movies, like time passing when pages from calendars fly off the wall. Who else had this instant shorthand with men on film? Maybe Ava. I suppose Elizabeth Taylor for several years there. Did they ever really expect this in real life? Did they get it?

I agree about Gary Cooper being less than natural when he spoke what little dialogue he had to say in this early talkie. Could be that the actor's languid body did most of the needed emoting here as he looks at Amy Jolly (Dietrich) with a lazily expressed blend of desire, contempt and understanding. I wonder if he is meant to be an enigmatic good-bad figure, especially since he is the object of desire that rouses Dietrich from her self-destructive desire to bury her emotions in the sands of Morocco. I also thought that von Sternberg may have asked Coop to improvise his lines, which explains some of the looooonnng pauses between his words. The first film that I've seen that made me realize what a good actor Gary Cooper could be was Peter Ibbetson (1935). I'm not sure if that movie would have been even partially successful without his performance.


Also, do you think that Dietrich really understood English very well at this point?

Hey, did you know that John Gilbert and Fredric March were almost cast in this movie in the Cooper role?? That would have been different, huh?

In an idealized version, John Gilbert would have been perfect. An older wiser Cooper could have probably played this very well.

I was struck at how much was going on under the surface in this film, it was very moving to me. As with A Woman of Paris, I wondered why she ended up going after Cooper instead of Adolphe Menjou, so much more interesting a man. But maybe this is the point - love has no pride, but it also has no reason.

I also could see why MArlene was so much more interesting than the other women - I don't think at this point it was looks, she was simply fascinating. The scene that made me really understand her magnetism was when everyone was booing her, and she simply gazed around the room, taking it in, winning them over with only a look.

That final shot that lingers, with the wind as the only sound over the credits was magnificent.

JackFavell wrote:I also could see why MArlene was so much more interesting than the other women - I don't think at this point it was looks, she was simply fascinating. The scene that made me really understand her magnetism was when everyone was booing her, and she simply gazed around the room, taking it in, winning them over with only a look.

That final shot that lingers, with the wind as the only sound over the credits was magnificent.

I don't think it was ever her looks but her attitude.

moirafinnie wrote:

JackFavell wrote:I also could see why MArlene was so much more interesting than the other women - I don't think at this point it was looks, she was simply fascinating. The scene that made me really understand her magnetism was when everyone was booing her, and she simply gazed around the room, taking it in, winning them over with only a look.

That final shot that lingers, with the wind as the only sound over the credits was magnificent.

I don't think it was ever her looks but her attitude.

IMHO Marlenes attitude was one of a goddess but a vulnerable one.

I love Morocco although I haven't seen it in a couple of years, the thing I remember most of all about Cooper is he also brings a vulnerability, youth and a naiveness to the role, I don't think Gilbert could have brought the necessary vulnerability and youth to the part, Fredric March would have been interesting. Morocco would have been America's first view of Dietrich, I think there is an attitude coupled with a sultriness and also a vulnerability. She was Paramount's answer to MGM's Garbo, I think Garbo was a female phenomemon but Dietrich gave to both sexes, perhaps that explains her longevity.