My Friday night movie fix, courtesy of Netflix, traveled all the way back to 1930.
Morocco was Marlene Dietrich's American debut, and she is mesmerizing as a cabaret performer who falls for a Legionnaire played by Gary Cooper. Both were in their late 20's at the time. Dietrich does a number each in French and English. In the film's most famous scene, she is in top hat and tux, and kisses a woman during the performance. This, of course, was in Hollywood's pre-code days. The situation is complicated by the soldier's ambiguous attitude toward woman, which allows a rich man, played by Adolphe Menjou, to make it a love triangle. Menjou seemed the same age, fortyish, throughout his long career. I chuckle whenever I see him, having read what a nasty piece of work he was off screen. Anyway, I was surprised at how modern the acting was. Usually, in work from this period, the techniques used in the recently ended silent era linger, are obvious and seem out of place. Dietrich does wonderful, subtle things with her hands throughout the narrative. She was nominated for an Oscar, as was director Josef von Sternberg, with whom she worked seven times. The pace is measured. The major flaw is a lack of character development, back stories. Although there are leaps in the plot, the story is easy to follow through its 92-minute running time. The closing sequence is awesome, despite being open ended. Jules Furthman adapted the screenplay from the novel
Amy Jolly by Benno Signy. The sets seem authentic, although I've never been to Morocco. Filming was done in California and Arizona. Obviously, von Sternberg and cinematographer Lee Garmes were great artists. According to his bio at IMDb, the auteur was also a hardcase. I wonder how he and Menjou got along during the shoot. To my chagrin, I was unable to find specifics on a piano solo that plays in the background at several points. Man, it fit perfectly. 4600+ folks at IMDb have rated
Morocco, forging to a consensus of 7.2 on a scale of ten. The print is first rate. If there were any flaws, I didn't notice. Kudos to the restorers. Here's a pic of the stars in character:
From
Yahoo's Odd News, edited by yours truly: After seeing reports of meteorite pieces selling for thousands of dollars, a Michigan man took his doorstop to be examined. He'd found it in a barn he bought in 1988. The farmer who owned it said the rock landed in his backyard in the 1930's and was dug out of the crater created upon impact. It's worth $100,000. The Smithsonian and a mineral museum in Maine are considering purchasing it. It weighs 22.5 pounds. Here's a pic:
My thanks to the kind folks who bought books today on Bay Parkway. Here's what sold:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Stephen King's
Cujo and
Firestarter, three books in Russian, and a young adult novel about a pro baseball catcher.
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