Sadly Over-hyped

ridiculous rating

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

In general style, this film much reminds me of the classic Gable/ Colbert romantic comedy "It Happened One Night", released 2 years earlier. It's not quite as good, but how many non-musicals in those days were? For one thing, Marlene Dietrich simply wasn't near as cute nor talented in comedy as was Claudette. I don't know how Madeleine(Marlene) previously got her money to buy fancy clothes and cars. Presumably by exploiting wealthy men, or by lesser heists than the 2,200,000 franc pearl necklace she just maneuvered from jeweler Duvalle, and slipped into the coat pocket of American Tom Bradley(Gary Cooper) when going through immigration at the French/Spanish border. Before and after the border, they have some adventures interacting with their respective autos. Eventually, Marlene steals Cooper's car, then wrecks it, without recovering the necklace. Somehow, she escaped from the wrecked car unscathed, and somehow got on a train to San Sebastian, where her partner Carlos is waiting. But, she's still no closer to getting the necklace back from Cooper, whom she hasn't told about the caper.Cooper tells the police about his stolen wrecked car. They lead him to Marlene, based on his description(unlikely). He's mad about his borrowed car, of course, but he's even madder over Marlene. So, he chooses to forget about the car. Carlos thinks up a clever way to get the necklace from Cooper. Later, Cooper thinks up a clever way to get the necklace back, so that Marlene can return it to the jeweler, and hopefully receive a minimal sentence. On the whole, the first half was more fun, including a nutty dialogue exchange between the necklace salesman: Duvalle, and the psychiatrist Pauquet, as relates to paying for the necklace(which never happens).As far as the prospect of Cooper's character marrying Marlene, as she said at one point, they came from two different worlds, with a high wall between. If I were Cooper, I'd run from this shady lady: a high maintenance gal, for sure.Available in B&W at YouTube. Some filming took place on location, in Spain and France.

Well written for the screen although there are flaws. Gary Cooper is mo re like a country bumpkin rather than a respected architect. Even in 1936, Marlene Dietrich looked far older than he did.Nonetheless, we have a great story here where the jewel thief Dietrich finds love with Cooper, who by accident becomes the patsy of the gang of thieves trying to flee Paris with valuable jewels that she has stolen.I really liked the brief role of Olga by Zeffie Tilsbury. She reminded me so of a Gladys George type in Flamingo Road. The old crone, a former prison inmate, and part of the jewelry-thief gang confesses her lost love to Dietrich in a poignant scene.What a great way to dupe the jeweler and psychiatrist in order to steal the very expensive pearls.Always great to see love win out once more in films.

Directed by Frank Borzage and produced by Ernest Lubitch, that alone is a guarantee of something very special. On top of that, Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich in a fast, furious, magical duet. He is a charming Forrest Gump on vacation, she is a born seductress, a jewel thief, a woman on the verge of being beyond redemption. The dialog could have been written today even their talk about war. The camera had a real love affair with Cooper and Dietrich. Their feelings so visible. He in love like a school boy and she discovering him and herself, bit by bit. There are moments of Dietrich staring at Cooper that are a masterpiece on their own right. She is seeing something she has never seen before - innocence at its purest state. Don't miss it.

Ernst Lubitsch was one of the co-producers of DESIRE with it's director Frank Borzage. Borzage was a good enough director to have handled the material of this delightful romantic comedy, but Lubitsch fans feel that he frequently discussed the film with Ernst, and the famous "touch" has been noted throughout it.Gary Cooper is an ace salesman for the Bronson automobile company in Paris, working under William Frawley. He is about to go on his well earned vacation, but Frawley has a slight plan of his own. He is giving Cooper a new Bronson 8 automobile to use on the trip, which will carry a large sign on it advertising the car. In the meantime, unconnected to this, Marlene Dietrich has been involved in a neat piece of jewelry theft. She goes to the jewelry firm of M. Duval (Ernst Cossart) and arranges for him to deliver his finest necklace to "her home", the address of which is the home of Dr. Pacquet (Alan Mowbray). Later she goes to Dr. Pacquet's office (he is a psychiatrist), and explains she is Madame Duval, wife of the jeweler, and that he is suffering a strange dementia. She says that he insists that purchases are being made by all sorts of people, including the good psychiatrist. She begs Pacquet to let her bring her husband that night to see him, warning him that he will claim that the psychiatrist owes him a huge sum of money for a necklace. Pacquet agrees. So Dietrich sets up a neat confrontation between the two men, leaving with the necklace while they are arguing about who owes money v. who is crazy.Dietrich and Cooper get involved when she hides her stolen jewels in a bag of his at the border, and subsequently steals and wrecks his car. He still has the jewels though, and follows her. She and her suave, if sinister cohort (the wonderful John Haliday) decide to invite him to their home in the mountains, where they plan to retrieve the jewels before Cooper leaves. And that is all of the plot I will discuss.As I once mentioned regarding a later Cooper film (LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON), while Cooper was seen as the great American hero in westerns and adventure films, he was leading an active social life in high society circles. His direct American character, so fitting in THE PLAINSMAN or in HIGH NOON also could shoot off a gentle charm at times, and it works well in DESIRE. He and Dietrich had made MOROCCO six years earlier, but that was set in the deserts of North Africa and was a straight drama. Here they both mingle his American ruggedness and charm against her European sophistication and charm, and it works nicely. They are ably abetted by Haliday, pretending to be Dietrich's uncle but jealously watching Cooper's moves. The results is a well made romantic comedy that never fails to please the audience.