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Transatlantic Lessons
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On the opening night of DER BLAUE ENGEL,
Marlene Dietrich left Berlin for America. Paramount had
succeeded in getting her to sign a contract with them in
Berlin.
Hollywood hired German stars, among other reasons, for making
German versions of American films. In the first years of
sound films, many technical uncertainties still existed
in what was later to become the common synchronization process.
As a consequence, French, Spanish and German actors often
went to Hollywood for a brief spell to film - in their mother
tongues and in original settings - the scenes their American
colleagues had played. Foreign actors who had five-year
contracts and were to play in one such version could almost
be sure that their studios did not know what to do with
them afterwards. Marlene Dietrich's first job in Hollywood
was to host the German version of the film Paramount on
Parade (1930). This version has apparently been lost and
so we can only speculate that although her part in this
film directed by Josef von Sternberg was short, it must
have been quite effective. A photo has survived: for the
first time we see her wearing black tails; she is that elegant
being between the genders whose provocative appearance was
to cause a stir in conservative America in the years to
come. The fact that this image is generally first associated
with MOROCCO, her first international
hit, is certainly due to the strategy later followed by
the Sternberg/Dietrich duo: small parts had never existed
for Marlene Dietrich.
Immediately following her arrival in Hollywood, Sternberg
took charge of his personal discovery. Though only shortly
before, upon her arrival in New York, an overly zealous
member of the Paramount staff had booked a session for her
at photographer Irving Chidnoff's studio. The resulting
series of portraits show Marlene Dietrich in the usual poses
of a film actress, from coy to dreamy. These were the first
photographs made by Paramount of its new star. And in no
way did they correspond to the image which Sternberg had
wanted to give her. In the coming years, no picture of Dietrich
was to leave the Paramount offices without Sternberg giving
his okay. This was the first of many lessons which Marlene
Dietrich was to learn.
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