Michael_Elliott Morocco (1930) *** (out of 4)Marlene Dietrich plays cabaret singer Amy Jolly who comes to Morocco where she soon finds herself wanted by two very different men. Legionnaire Tom Brown (Gary Cooper) is a bit wild and has very little money whereas Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) has everything that could give Jolly a great life.After the success of THE BLUE ANGEL star Dietrich and director Josef von Sternberg ended up in America and this here was their first release. The film certainly has some flaws along the way but there's no denying that it contains some wonderful cinematography, a good enough story as well as some excellent performances, which is the main reason to watch the film.I really thought there were some terrific sequences scattered throughout the picture but the highlight has to be the one where we first see Dietrich inside the cabaret. I thought the entire section of her coming onto the stage, getting booed and then us meeting the Cooper character was very well-done. Even better is the sequence that followed with the apples. I know some say that the story is cliché and it is even for 1930 standards but it's still good enough to let the star's do their thing.Speaking of the stars, there's no question that the three leads are what makes the film. Dietrich is ravishing in her role as she has no problem making you believe that these two men would fall in love with her. She's able to give off so emotion with what appears to be such ease. Menjou was always good at playing these smart gentlemen. As for Cooper, he too is very good her as he has a certain flair that works perfectly well with Dietrich.MOROCCO isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it's a very good gem.

blanche-2 Marlene Dietrich made her American debut in "Morocco," directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou. Dietrich plays a sexy cabaret performer who has two men in love with her, Cooper, a member of the foreign legion, and Menjou, a wealthy man who can give her the world.This is an early talkie so the rhythm is a bit off and it moves somewhat slowly. Dietrich is beautiful and quite sexy, and she is equaled by the tall, gorgeous Cooper, about 30 years old here and a true hunk if there ever was one.The end of the film is absolutely stunning and worth the whole film. The restless beating of the drums is really something, too.

barter2009 Why should we watch now this eighty years old film, made in black and white, slow moving forward, with only latent developing story? I'll try to answer this question. The thrill of "Morocco" lies in the characters of the protagonists, played by unforgettable Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper. I believe, Voltaire said once that the most beautiful thing in the world is a human face, and it seems to be true, when you watch their faces.The sparkles between a legionnaire Tom Brown (Cooper) and a singer Amy Jolly (Dietrich) are immense, it's love from the first sight, we see this on his face and we see it in her handling him the key from her flat, just in the first evening.While the rich gentleman Le Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) is at the beginning just curious about her and her further fate, and only later gets really involved with her, the young legionnaire seems to be blown off by her first appearance on stage. Amy Jolly has certainly no "stage fright", she knows very well how to play audience, and doesn't need any advice from the owner of the place. She attracts attention by wearing her extravagant costume and then by taking a flower from a woman's hair and kissing her (rather teaching her manners than anything else). And then suddenly this flower will be given away: to Tom Brown. So we see the very beginning of the romance, and we see the reactions of the audience.The thrill is in the nuances, in the play of shadows and light. Perhaps, the pauses in the dialogs are as meaningful as the words: when Tom Brown says: "Nothing... yet!", we know already what kind of fellow he is, or even more famous example: Amy Jolly says after a long pause: "I'll be back... wait for me." It's more impressive than those dozen words she could fill in this empty time space. But the intensity of the scene would be lost! I must also stress the brilliance of the love dialogs in "Morocco". For instance it's a wonderful line, when Amy Jolly says to Tom Brown: "You should go now... I'm beginning to like you." It's a deeper insight into a woman's soul.About the rich man: somehow he seems rather playing games with Amy Jolly, so he provokes her by saying about the women following the legion into the desert that they love their men. I guess the meaning of his words was that she, Amy, does not love anyone really, and then she belongs to him, into his world. If she does, she should make her choice.Cooper gives a genius imitation of the way Tom Brown speaks: he speaks like a soldier, in a hacked, simple, straight forward manner.At the end of the film Amy Jolly takes off her shoes to follow her man; maybe this scene has influenced the other film makers ("The red shoes" (1948) and "The river of no return" (1954)).What is also interesting about "Morocco" is a multilingual surrounding: we hear English, French, German, Arabic and Spanish.In my opinion it's the best not only of Dietrich, but also of the young Cooper, because only after seeing "Morocco" I start to believe in him as a charming Casanova from Hollywood.

Steffi_P There were two kinds of star in the early 30s. There were the down-to-earth, likable types such as Marie Dressler and Will Rogers, and then there were the exotic and seductive charmers. Among the women of the latter variety, the brightest were undoubtedly Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Between them they played a gallery of maneaters, heartbreakers and, more often than not, prostitutes.Here the similarities between the two end. A solitary recluse offscreen, Garbo was an impeccable actress who presented a kind of romantic expression of blazing passion. With Dietrich however there is no such glamorisation. She brings a naturalistic and knowing weariness to her performances, and an inner feistiness, in contrast with Garbo's melancholy ennui. Dietrich's heroines have tough lives, not tragic ones. In this, her second leading role, she solidifies her screen persona. When she does her stage performance, she is certainly alluring and captivating, but there is also something in her body language that says "This is just my job; this is not me". And that is essential for the story of Morocco, because it allows us to accept that a dancer in a sleazy nightclub will leap at the chance to run off with Gary Cooper.Speaking of Coop, he is cast somewhat against type here (not that his type was really firmly established yet at this point) and he almost pulls it off. His stance and mannerisms are spot on, and his relative youth at this point certainly helps, although his vocal delivery falters here and there. Perhaps it's only in retrospect, now that we all know him as the principled Mr Deeds, Sergeant York, Will Kane and dozens of other Honest Joes, that makes it hard to accept him as a fallen man of the foreign legion. Adolphe Menjou on the other hand is ticking the box he always ticked, playing the suave and wealthy playboy. Roles like La Bessiere were bread and butter to Menjou, but it's a shame that he seems a little bland in Morocco.The three stars are directed by the renowned Joseph "von" Sternberg. It's known that Sternberg did not work too closely with his cast, spending more time on the technical aspects of the shot, to the extent that the actors were treated almost as part of the set (the exception being Dietrich, whom he always allows to stand out). But besides Marlene, the director's focus is all on lighting patterns, rhythms of movement, foreground business and so forth. His efforts here do at least pay off. As Dietrich and Cooper eye each other up in the nightclub, they are themselves very still, and their stillness is emphasised by lots of background movement from clouds of smoke or flapping fans. At the beginning of that scene, there is often some kind of barrier – a table or a railing – between the camera and the players, making us feel like voyeurs rather than participants, and making the eventual close-ups of Marlene seem all the more intense. Unfortunately the tendency to hang back sometimes makes dialogue scenes a little awkward, as it seems very unnatural to hear conversations when we are further away from the speakers. This was quite a common mistake in early talkies.So Sternberg was, if nothing else, a great image maker. But did he create the image of Marlene Dietrich, as he often claimed? I believe Marlene was more in control of her persona than Sternberg would have liked to admit, and that she was more his muse than his puppet. It is clear that she has put much of her own experience and knowledge into the character of Amy Jolly, and all a smitten Sternberg can do is follow her with his camera.