Desire
Desire
NR | 11 April 1936 (USA)
Desire Trailers

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.

Reviews
Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Kirpianuscus it is one of films who reminds old flavors. in the most inspired manner. and this does it a time trip. for the cultural references. for the meet between Dietrich and Cooper and the seductive chemistry between them. for cultural references. and for mixture of romance and thriller who represents a real delight. a film with references to the war and a fascinating Paris. about Spain and about the choices who are always bizarre. about passion, innocence and the secrets who defines reality. with interesting characters. and an end who is perfect gift for romantics. its humor and elegance, its naivety are good points for discover a world who seems lost, not real or exotic. short, a seductive Lubitch work.
OldAle1 VHS rental. The second of a Borzage double bill (after A Farewell to Arms), this was something of a disappointment. Gary Cooper again, a charming somewhat countrified American engineer who gets mixed up with pearl thief disguised as petty noblewoman Marlene Dietrich in Paris and then in flight to Spain. The early scenes of Dietrich scamming both pearl merchant and psychologist into believing that the other is her husband are well-played, and the meet-cute moments on the road though a little labored are still -- cute. But around the time Dietrich's partner in crime Margoli (John Halliday) enters the scene the film slows to a deadly crawl, and knowing how it's going to finish I can't wait for it to do so. This seemed much lighter and less intense than the other Borzage films I'd seen, so I wasn't surprised to learn that Ernst Lubitsch was the producer (and rumored director of some scenes); the Lubitsch touch mixed with the Borzage romanticism doesn't really come off. Worth seeing for the two stars though, by all means, especially Dietrich who is as magnetic as ever.
theowinthrop Ernst Lubitsch was one of the co-producers of DESIRE with it's director Frank Borzage. Borzage was a good enough director to have handled the material of this delightful romantic comedy, but Lubitsch fans feel that he frequently discussed the film with Ernst, and the famous "touch" has been noted throughout it.Gary Cooper is an ace salesman for the Bronson automobile company in Paris, working under William Frawley. He is about to go on his well earned vacation, but Frawley has a slight plan of his own. He is giving Cooper a new Bronson 8 automobile to use on the trip, which will carry a large sign on it advertising the car. In the meantime, unconnected to this, Marlene Dietrich has been involved in a neat piece of jewelry theft. She goes to the jewelry firm of M. Duval (Ernst Cossart) and arranges for him to deliver his finest necklace to "her home", the address of which is the home of Dr. Pacquet (Alan Mowbray). Later she goes to Dr. Pacquet's office (he is a psychiatrist), and explains she is Madame Duval, wife of the jeweler, and that he is suffering a strange dementia. She says that he insists that purchases are being made by all sorts of people, including the good psychiatrist. She begs Pacquet to let her bring her husband that night to see him, warning him that he will claim that the psychiatrist owes him a huge sum of money for a necklace. Pacquet agrees. So Dietrich sets up a neat confrontation between the two men, leaving with the necklace while they are arguing about who owes money v. who is crazy.Dietrich and Cooper get involved when she hides her stolen jewels in a bag of his at the border, and subsequently steals and wrecks his car. He still has the jewels though, and follows her. She and her suave, if sinister cohort (the wonderful John Haliday) decide to invite him to their home in the mountains, where they plan to retrieve the jewels before Cooper leaves. And that is all of the plot I will discuss.As I once mentioned regarding a later Cooper film (LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON), while Cooper was seen as the great American hero in westerns and adventure films, he was leading an active social life in high society circles. His direct American character, so fitting in THE PLAINSMAN or in HIGH NOON also could shoot off a gentle charm at times, and it works well in DESIRE. He and Dietrich had made MOROCCO six years earlier, but that was set in the deserts of North Africa and was a straight drama. Here they both mingle his American ruggedness and charm against her European sophistication and charm, and it works nicely. They are ably abetted by Haliday, pretending to be Dietrich's uncle but jealously watching Cooper's moves. The results is a well made romantic comedy that never fails to please the audience.
MartinHafer First, I give kudos to both the camera man as well as the makeup artists. They did an exceptional job in presenting Ms. Dietrich--she's as pretty as I've ever seen her in a film. While I have never been a fan of her work and never found her particularly attractive, they make the absolute most of what she's got in this film. She did appear appropriately tantalizing and her acting was excellent. Maybe I need to see a few more of her films so I might re-appraise her work.The plot is very hard to believe--not so much as having Dietrich play a jewel thief, but that she would steal and destroy Gary Cooper's car and he wouldn't be a lot more angry about it! In fact, soon they are both head-over-heels in love!! I remember the last time some lady hit my car (she didn't even steal it)--I was much more likely to punch the lady in the nose than fall her her! Oh well, that's Hollywood of the 1930s. If you suspend disbelief about this, the rest of the film is a very entertaining romance. Plus, the end of the film will surely satisfy everyone. It's a very good effort only hampered by a few difficult to swallow story devices.