Dishonored (1931)

Too much of everything

It is a performances centric movie

hyped garbage

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This was made as a response to Greta Garbo's Mata Hari from the previous year about the exotic dancer turned WWI spy. Dietrich's film is also about a woman turned spy, it involves deceit and sexual danger, a woman acting, an intoxicating performance, all these things that Dietrich naturally breathed by simply being herself; but it also had what the other film didn't, von Sternberg directing, here in the space that would later come to characterize the best of Hitchcock.We know that it was Sternberg who seduced the persona of the femme fatale out of Dietrich, later claiming he had discovered her. Seduced what he wanted to be seduced by, no doubt. So it is only natural that we should expect an excellent film here, about Dietrich seducing an audience of eager men. The effort is not for realism, never was with these two. It was always about staging the circumstances that would enable us to dream this woman. It was so in Der Blaue Engel. So it makes a lot of sense that the actual films would exude the scent of movie fantasy, for example here the pure gaudiness of the ball masque with seduction behind masks, or that Dietrich would be allowed a piano in a wartime prison cell. She is playing for us of course, because she and Sternberg knew we wanted to see.Why this isn't then up to par compared to earlier Sternberg, has a lot to do I think with the film lacking a more carefully woven self-reference; what made The Last Command such a breathtaking venture in the space between staged image and tortured heart. There is some that I find tantalizing, namely two consecutive scenes in the end where Dietrich bares her soul from behind long eye-lashes before a military court and soon after before a firing squad. Two audiences where every member would rather hold her in his arms than do what he has to do.The rest is too overt. The message against war is noble but trite, a forced humanism that is not among the rest of the film's agenda. And Victor McLaglen gives one of the weirdest performances I've seen, a leering that borders on perverse. It was originally intended for Gary Cooper, but it's perhaps better that we have it as it is; it adds to the feverish sexual brew.Still, this being Sternberg's temple of worship, we get to dream about this woman. She only concedes to touch the world by playing the piano, this is proper I think. We get to fall madly in love, an instrument at her fingers, herself an instrument for music and the fates.

To begin with, this was another Marlene Dietrich production to rival a Greta Garbo vehicle – namely the same year's MATA HARI (which I own as an original DVD, through Warners, but have yet to check out). It is actually the most overlooked of the 7 collaborations between star and director; even so, German 'enfant terrible' film-maker Rainer Werner Fassbinder once named it one of his all-time Top 10 films! The reasons for this neglect being its inherently archaic quality (the film seems to belong to the Silent era as, indeed, the plot – ironically, supplied by Sternberg himself! – lacks substance and, even more so, credibility: we are told that Dietrich could have been WWI's greatest spy but she only handles two assignments before being captured, her risking life and honor – hence the title – for the sake of uncouth enemy agent and co-star Victor McLaglen and, just as incongruously, an obviously infatuated young officer is shown flipping at her execution!) and cornball tone (Austrian Dietrich disguised as a naïve Russian cleaning lady and cringe-inducingly meowing like a cat in order to flirt with her 'targets', not to mention having McLaglen irritatingly sport a constant grin throughout!). The film does look forward to subsequent (and superior) entries in the 'series': Dietrich would be re-united with both Warner Oland and Gustav von Seyffertitz in her very next venture with Sternberg, SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932), while the carnival scenes early on (in which McLaglen feigns to be a cripple!) would be reprised in their last effort, THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (1935)! Dietrich is literally picked off the streets by Seyffertitz, but he is immediately impressed with her when, offering the protagonist the opportunity of spying against her fatherland, she asks to be excused and summarily fetches the Police! Oland's womanizing weakness (actually an Austrian traitor in cahoots with Russian McLaglen) naturally makes her the ideal choice to expose him: when she does, he congratulates her and, in a nice reversal of the above-mentioned scene with Dietrich's superior, absents himself to commit suicide! Next, she goes after Oland's contact but, having fled back behind his own lines, Dietrich follows in pursuit: they engage in a game of cat-and-mouse but their mutual attraction holds them at bay; when McLaglen is eventually captured, she asks that the two be left alone, ostensibly for questioning…but he is given a chance to escape instead! Tried and condemned to death by firing squad, Dietrich bravely faces her destiny: surprisingly, the actual shooting is not flinched upon (no loving final close-up for the star here!), the camera resting on a dejected Seyffertitz passing by the country's insignia embedded in the walls as he walks out of the barracks, his shadow hanging tall over the scenery.Exquisitely lensed by Lee Garmes, it is mainly in moments such as this that the film really comes to life; with this in mind, while it may not hang together dramatically nowadays, DISHONORED shows off the director's uniquely pictorial sense, as well as moulding the mythic Dietrich image of a mystery woman who could turn men's heads with her alluring beauty but is herself driven by love above all else...

Never saw this Dietrich film before. It is wonderful, considering that it was made 41 years ago. Two sequences stand out--- the party sequence (catch the costume in all the splendor black and white can provide) and the hilarious Dietrich/peasant scene. I couldn't believe it was Marlene at first. This film is a small gem!

Most will dislike Josef von Sternberg's Dishonored. The plot is often ridiculous, and that's what most people like to comment on. I found it hypnotic. The inconsistencies didn't annoy me so much as entertain me. In a way, this could be called a camp classic. Whatever type of classic it is, though, it is an amazing film. Confer the scene nearer the beginning when Marlene Dietrich walks right up to the camera, within inches of its lense. How about the scene where she plays a Russian peasant girl to infiltrate the Russian army (she's an Austrian spy)? She climbs up on a high ledge and starts meowing at the man whom she is seducing. The final sequence is stunning and audacious. I'm skipping a few lines in order to give sufficient room to write thisSPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who else but Marlene Dietrich would insist that her lipstick were on straight before she was executed by firing squad?