El John
Call me a philistine but, I really don't care about the early movies that primary focus on a star, whether it's Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo or Asta Nielsen. Everybody is raving about their 'marvelous' performances, but a performance alone doesn't make a great movie, especially if the characters are flat and the plot barely existing. The director can spend as much time as he wants to light an actresses face as beautiful as possible,but this time would be better spent on character development or something that makes the movie worth watching.I'm not saying Josef von Sternberg is a bad director, ''Der blaue Engel'', his first collaboration with Dietrich, was a great movie. The difference between this movie and ''Morocco'' is that it has an interesting plot and Emil Jannings character actually has an arc which develops beautifully and is foreshadowed in early scenes.But ''Morocco'' isn't without any merits. The kissing-scene must have been shocking for audiences back then and even if you watch this scene today you definitely won't expect this from a movie from this time. Props to Dietrich to be this daring. Another great moment was the scene when Dietrich rushes to visit Gary Cooper in the hospital and the pearl necklace rips, which is a great moment of character building that, unfortunately, is rare in this film.The scene that will stuck most with me and probably with most people who have seen this film is the ending. The buildup when Dietrich stands at the gate and the soldiers are marching into the desert looks fantastic, which is followed by an even better shot of Dietrich walking behind the last dune and the entire frame is filled with the desert and the sound of a storm approaching.Considering the good scenes, it is a shame that the rest of the film is mediocre at best and could not be saved by the fantastic ending.
Syl
Marlene Dietrich was one of the original film sirens and brilliant actresses in film history. In this film, she plays a singer from Paris in Morocco where she falls in love with two men. The film was directed by Josef Von Sternberg, one of her favorites. The film was filmed in 1930 in the early years of the talking film industry. This film also displayed a rare kiss between Dietrich in a man's outfit kissing a woman in the audience early in the film. It's rare in 1930 but the kiss was shocking then. It's done well without overdoing it. Dietrich's performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and it was well-earned. Gary Cooper played Tom Brown, a member of the Foreign Legion. She falls in love with him although the film's script could have been stronger. Regardless, just watching Marlene Dietrich is a joy in any film. She brings so much to the screen in her facial expressions more than words could ever say.
MARIO GAUCI
Marlene Dietrich's first American film (at this stage, her Paramount contract stipulated that only Sternberg could direct her!) remains, despite its understandably faded air after 8 decades, one of her greatest (in his hefty tome "Have You Seen…?", eminent but provocative movie critic David Thomson called it "one of the most influential films Hollywood ever made"!). She proved an instant hit, even copping a personal Oscar nod – the only time the legendary actress would be so honored in a long and illustrious career! For the record, MOROCCO was also nominated for Sternberg's sturdy direction and Lee Garmes' gleaming cinematography (most notable when shooting through the exposed roof-racks, in the narrow passageways of the Casbah-like town and tracking along the seemingly endless line of departing legionnaires bidding goodbye to their women).In hindsight, it is interesting that the first 3 Sternberg/Dietrich pictures to be released in America were made within the framework of action-oriented genres – a Foreign Legion/desert adventure here (not that we really get any of the expected skirmishes along the way!), WWI espionage (in DISHONORED {1931}) and a train-set, multi-character revolutionary epic (in SHANGHAI EXPRESS {1932}). As with many of the films in the series, too, she forms part of a love triangle with her co-stars which, in this case, offered possibly the best pairing of all: Gary Cooper (top-billed, in a role originally intended for either John Gilbert or Fredric March, as an unruly young legionnaire – in fact, he is also involved with a number of other women throughout, including the wife of his commanding officer!) and Adolphe Menjou (older but typically suave and wealthy to boot, he naturally extends her a marriage proposal she very nearly accepts!).Dietrich arrives in Morocco (for the usual specialized spot at a cabaret – the film, in fact, was based on a play bearing her character's name i.e. Amy Jolly: brought to Sternberg's attention by Dietrich herself, it was a decidedly more explicit prospect, accentuating the lesbianism angle while also incorporating the copious intake of cocaine!) on the same boat as Menjou, who takes an immediate interest in her; she is not of the same opinion, however, and promptly rips and throws away his calling-card! The star performs two numbers in French (showcasing her Cosmopolitan identity) but also "What Am I Bid?", which she sings in drag (sporting top hat and tails!) and, making her way round the audience as she does so, eventually plants a controversial kiss on a blushing local girl's lips! One night after visiting Dietrich at her place, an assassination attempt is made on Cooper's life, which she ends up witnessing; in the ensuing military hearing, it is obvious the hero's superior intends making him pay for the dalliance with his wife, but his plan of sending Cooper on a suicide mission rebounds on himself as, accompanying him to make sure he does not return, it is the officer who succumbs to an enemy bullet!The film provides a rare display of the Surrealist concept of amour fou in Hollywood's Golden Age (such another was Henry Hathaway's PETER IBBETSON {1935}, also with Cooper, which would actually be championed by cinema's foremost exponent of the form, and my own favorite auteur, Luis Bunuel!): Dietrich compulsively abandons Menjou, halfway through an ennui-ridden society dinner, upon hearing the arriving legionnaires; accompanied by her now-resigned protector, she frantically searches for the reportedly wounded Cooper (but is unable to track him down, having been made a prisoner in the interim); ultimately, the female protagonist follows her true love – along with other similarly devoted women, known as "camp followers", and whose apparently irrational act she had earlier found perplexing – on his next patrol (making for a prolonged final shot, which is among the most memorable of the early Talkie era). By the way, on the strength of this (which I had watched twice on Italian TV over the years since, bafflingly, it was never issued on VHS in my neck of the woods!), I acquired the reputedly routine George Raft vehicle OUTPOST IN MOROCCO (1949; a film I do recall missing out on when shown on local TV in the 1990s).
JLRMovieReviews
Gary Cooper meets Marlene Dietrich in this good-looking film. Need we say more! But I will say that Gary has never looked so appealing and so young. He was very much a pretty boy in his younger days. And, Marlene is a great entertainer with the help of memorable songs.The plot, who cares! But seriously, there is very little to know. Adolphe Menjou is in love with her, but she basically won't have much to do with him, as long as Coop is around. My favorite little detail is the way it opens and closes. Look closely at the people walking and the animals by them. Its predictable premise may not be much to intrigue the hard to please, but with Marlene who's so good she was nominated for Best Actress, it should be a great way to spend a night at the movies.
