Editing Marlene Dietrich (section)

=== Association with von Sternberg ===
[[File:The-Blue-Angel-Dietrich.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Marlene Dietrich as Lola: "She straddles a chair...imperiously, magisterially, fully the measurer of men in the audience..."<ref>Sarris, 1966. p. 28</ref>]]
In 1929, Dietrich landed her breakthrough role of Lola Lola, a [[cabaret]] singer who caused the downfall of a hitherto respectable schoolmaster (played by [[Emil Jannings]]), in the [[UFA GmbH|UFA]] production of ''[[The Blue Angel]]'' (1930) shot at [[Babelsberg Studio|Babelsberg film studios]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.studiobabelsberg.com/en/filming-in-germany-film-production-services-soft-money-incentives-germany/100th-anniversary-of-studio-babelsberg/|title=100th anniversary of Studio Babelsberg|website=www.studiobabelsberg.com|access-date=6 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/der-blaue-engel_ea43d4a69a155006e03053d50b37753d|title=filmportal: The Blue Angel|publisher=www.filmportal.de|access-date=6 May 2018}}</ref> [[Josef von Sternberg]] directed the film and thereafter took credit for having "discovered" Dietrich. The film introduced Dietrich's signature song "[[Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)|Falling in Love Again]]", which she recorded for [[Electrola]]. She made further recordings in the 1930s for [[Polydor]] and [[Decca Records]].

In 1930, on the strength of ''The Blue Angel's'' international success, and with encouragement and promotion from Josef von Sternberg, who was established in Hollywood, Dietrich moved to the United States under contract to [[Paramount Pictures]], the U.S. film distributor of ''[[The Blue Angel]]''. The studio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer to [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]'s Swedish star [[Greta Garbo]]. Sternberg welcomed her with gifts, including a green [[Rolls-Royce Phantom II]]. The car later appeared in their first U.S. film ''[[Morocco (film)|Morocco]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Ex-Marlene Dietrich, Multiple Best in Show Winning 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom|url=http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22530/lot/170/|publisher=Bonhams|access-date=18 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223074337/https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22530/lot/170/|archive-date=23 February 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Dietrich starred in six films directed by von Sternberg at Paramount between 1930 and 1935. Von Sternberg worked effectively with Dietrich to create the image of a glamorous and mysterious [[femme fatale]]. He encouraged her to lose weight and coached her intensively as an actress. She willingly followed his, sometimes imperious, direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted.<ref>See e.g., {{harvp|Thomson|1975|p=587}}: "He was not an easy man to be directed by. Many actors—notably [Emil] Jannings and William Powell—reacted violently to him. Dietrich adored him, and trusted him. ... "</ref>

In ''[[Morocco (film)|Morocco]]'' (1930) with [[Gary Cooper]], Dietrich was again cast as a cabaret singer. The film is best remembered for the sequence in which she performs a song dressed in a man's white tie and kisses another woman, both provocative for the era. The film earned Dietrich her only [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Academy Award]] nomination. ''[[Morocco (film)|Morocco]]'' was followed by ''[[Dishonored (film)|Dishonored]]'' (1931) with [[Victor McLaglen]], a major success with Dietrich cast as a [[Mata Hari]]-like spy.
[[File:Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932) by Don English.png|thumb|right|[[Josef von Sternberg]] used [[Portrait photography#Butterfly lighting|butterfly lighting]] to enhance Dietrich's features in ''[[Shanghai Express (film)|Shanghai Express]]'' (1932).]]

''[[Shanghai Express (film)|Shanghai Express]]'' (1932) with [[Anna May Wong]], which was dubbed by the critics "''[[Grand Hotel (1932 film)|Grand Hotel]]'' on wheels", was another major success, earning $1.5 million in worldwide rentals.<ref name=Lucas>{{cite book |last1=Block |first1=Alex Ben |last2=Wilson |first2=Lucy Autry |title=George Lucas's blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success |url=https://archive.org/details/georgelucassbloc00alex/page/164/mode/2up?q=City+Lights |url-access=registration |date=30 March 2010 |pages=164–165 |publisher=[[It Books]] |isbn=978-0-06-196345-2}}</ref>

Dietrich and von Sternberg again collaborated on the romance ''[[Blonde Venus]]'' (1932) with [[Cary Grant]]. Dietrich worked without von Sternberg for the first time in three years in the romantic drama ''[[The Song of Songs (1933 film)|Song of Songs]]'' (1933), playing a naïve German peasant, under the direction of [[Rouben Mamoulian]]. Dietrich and Sternberg's last two films, ''[[The Scarlet Empress]]'' (1934) with [[John Davis Lodge]] and ''[[The Devil Is a Woman (1935 film)|The Devil Is a Woman]]'' (1935)—the most stylized of their collaborations—were their lowest-grossing films. Dietrich later remarked that she was at her most beautiful in ''[[The Devil Is a Woman (1935 film)|The Devil Is a Woman]]''.

Von Sternberg is known for his exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect, so much so, that even 50 years later, one of ''[[Shanghai Express (film)|Shanghai Express's]]'' production stills became the inspiration of the cover of rock band [[Queen (band)|Queen]]'s album ''[[Queen II]]'' which was integrated into the music video of their single "[[Bohemian Rhapsody]]".

His signature use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted window blinds, combined with the scrupulous attention to [[set design]] and costumes makes the films they made together among cinema's most visually stylish.<ref>See, for example, {{harvp|Thomson|1975}}.

The entry for Dietrich: "With him [von Sternberg] Dietrich made seven masterpieces [i.e., ''Blue Angel'' in Germany and the six in Hollywood], films that are still breathtakingly modern, which have no superior for their sense of artificiality suffused with emotion and which visually combine decadence and austerity, tenderness and cruelty, gaiety and despair."</ref>

Critics still vigorously debate how much of the credit belonged to von Sternberg and how much to Dietrich, but most would agree that neither consistently reached such heights again after Paramount fired von Sternberg and the two ceased working together.<ref>See, for example, the entries for Dietrich and Sternberg in {{harvp|Thomson|1975}}.</ref>

The collaboration of one actress and director creating seven films is still unmatched in motion pictures, with the possible exception of [[Katharine Hepburn]] and [[George Cukor]], who made ten films together over a much longer period but which were not created for Hepburn the way the last six von Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations were.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/28/archives/after-making-nine-films-together-hepburn-can-practically-direct.html|title=After Making Nine Films Together, Hepburn Can Practically Direct Cukor; Hepburn Helps Cukor Direct The Corn Is Green'|first=Benedict|last=Nightingale|date=1 February 1979|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>{{sfn|Spoto|1992}}