Screen Mirror (January 1931)

4 Sceen Mirror • For January A Stranger in Hollywood who has captured and conquered the heart of the motion picture industry and is destined to become a sensation of the cinema . . . • A STRANGER is the talk of Hollywood. A stranger who has given the thrill-lov- ing motion picture colony more to admire and more to envy than any personality since Rudolph Valentino crashed through to be- come a one-day sensation. She—for this stranger is a woman — is the exotic, glamorous, mysterious, talented, and surpassingly beautiful Marlene Dietrich. Such adjectives need explanation. Ordi- narily they might require an apology. But not when they are used to describe this girl of the Continental background and the Con- tinental up-bringing. Pick up any motion picture magazine as you have this one. The chance is nine to ten that Marlene Dietrich's lovely features will grace its cover. No actress who has come to Hollywood within the last five years has created such a stir among editors, critics, artists and the general initiate as she. It has taken Marlene Dietrich but one picture to reach her present commanding place. She was an actress on the Berlin stage when “discovered’' there by Josef von Sternberg, an American director who had gone there to direct Emil Jannings’ first all-talking picture, “The Blue Angel.” Von Sternberg, under contract to Paramount in Hollywood, urged that his company retain her when he returned. She came to Hollywood. Von Sternberg directed her in “Morocco" with Cary Coop- er, and she became an immediate sensation. So great, in fact, that “Morocco,” largely because of her beauty and inspired talents as an actress, has been chosen to play an unlimited run in the world’s most exacting motion picture theater: the famous Grau- man’s Chinese in Hollywood. Only those pictures that are really great are shown at this exclusive house. Marlene Dietrich is the daughter of a German army officer; a girl who has had every advantage of position and training. She learned English and French when she was a child. She is a talented musician, her works as an author have been printed, her ability as an artist is more than ordinarily good. By nature she is friendly. She also is amazingly frank. Outwardly calm, at the same time she gives the impression of a consuming energy held in check; an inward fire that manifests itself only in the sudden- ness of a gesture, a direct and rapid stride across a room. Her eyes reveal nothing. They are the most striking feature of her perfect face—- su i, all women in one • . . f“1 ustenous . . . AH uring . . . | ns-cr>uta Ue . . . Darlene Dietrich i? a flaming M eteor on a starlit j—(ollqwooJ h loriTon. Jon hijron been Hollywood's beautiful mysterious stranger not because of any voluntary aloofness, but because Hollywood itself delights in casting an aura of romance about itself and those things which interest and concern it. It likes to pretend it does not understand. It likes to feel that there are hidden meanings in bold glances, that there are secrets to be discovered between spoken or written lines. Marlene Dietrich is a stranger because she fails to understand Hollywood. That she says, frankly and calmly. Hollywood twists this around to mean that Miss Dietrich knows all, sees all, and Hollywood fairly aches to know her real opinion. “Many of the women of Hollywood are aware of the fact that they are well- gowned,” she explains. “The town is dis- tinctly clothes-conscious. As-for jewels, I never saw so many in my life. Half the peo- Photo by Paramount wide set and unwavering. Her voice is magnetic; a warm, mellow note which she uses as a flutist uses his reed. Without seeing her, one could tell that hers is the voice of a beautiful woman. Sound recorders at the studio have remarked that this voice lends itself almost perfectly to their purpose. First of all Miss Dietrich has long been accustomed to the micro- phone; not in a motion picture studio, but in the phonograph laboratories. She has sung many songs for phonograph records and these discs have achieved tre- mendous popularity throughout Europe. It is understood that an American company already has made a flattering offer for her recording of songs in English. Marlene Dietrich has • Cary Cooper as the Legionaire and Mar- lene Dietrich as the dancer are the two principal characters in “Morocco,” a story of life and love in a country of flaring pas- sions and smoulder- ing hates. The pic- ture was directed by Josef Von Stern- berg, who is the discoverer of Miss Dietrich.