Morocco (1930)
A world-weary cabaret singer arriving in Morocco is courted by a wealthy admirer and a devil-may-care Foreign Legion private, forcing her to choose between comfort and reckless love.
Morocco marked Marlene Dietrich’s Hollywood debut, directed by Josef von Sternberg, who had discovered her in Berlin the year before. Its closing image — Dietrich kicking off her heels to follow the Legion into the desert — remains one of early sound cinema’s most quoted moments.
Background
Morocco marked Marlene Dietrich’s Hollywood debut, directed by Josef von Sternberg, who had discovered her acting in Berlin the previous year and brought her to the United States specifically to star in this film. It follows a world-weary cabaret singer in French Morocco who is courted by both a wealthy admirer and a reckless Foreign Legion private, forcing her to choose between a comfortable life and a far less certain one.
What to watch for
Watch for Dietrich’s performance in a tuxedo during one of her cabaret numbers, a striking and, for 1930, provocative image of gender-bending stage presentation that became one of her signature looks. The film’s closing image, Dietrich removing her high heels to walk barefoot into the desert after the Legion, is one of the most quoted moments of early sound cinema. Von Sternberg and Dietrich’s collaboration on this film was the first of several they made together in Hollywood, a partnership that shaped much of her early screen persona.
