Strangers in a Strange Land Pt II: Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg?s Shanghai Express (1932) and The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Part II Deceit, Desire, and Survival: Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg?s?Shanghai Express(1932) and?The Scarlet Empress?(1934) A missionary wins the heart of a poetic warlord, a woman of mystery wins back her untrusting lover, and a promiscuous princess wins...
Strangers in a Strange Land: The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), and The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Here are three pre-Code films about women from the West who find themselves in dangerous situations in exotic lands (China in two, Russia in the other). The women are thrown upon their own resources, their ability to adapt and survive, with little or no support or...
?Champagne Ivy?: Miriam Hopkins in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
At first Miriam Hopkins did not want to play ?Champagne Ivy? Pearson, the charmingly carnal little bird who is infatuated with Jekyll and abused and terrorized by Hyde. When director Rouben Mamoulian offered her the part, she set her jaw and said No. She would play...
Musicals: Love Me Tonight (1932)
?If you were to see?Love Me Tonight,? Mamoulian said in an interview in 1970, ?although it is a very light, gay musical, you?d see in it most clearly what motivates me, what I like. The whole of?Love Me Tonight?is a poem, from beginning to end. Everything is rhythm,...