''Morocco '' is a 1930 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

romantic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major ...

and starring

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

, and Adolphe Menjou. Based on the 1927 novel ''Amy Jolly'' (the on-screen credits state: from the play 'Amy Jolly') by

Benno Vigny Benno Vigny (real name Benoit Philippe Weinfeld; 28 October 1889 – 31 October 1965) was a French-German novelist and screenwriter. Life and works Vigny was born in Commercy and grew up in Vienna. He moved to Berlin in the 1920s. There he b ...

and adapted by

Jules Furthman Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was an American magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter. Biography Furthman was born in Chicago. His brother was the writer Charles Furthman. During World War I he w ...

, the film is about a cabaret singer and a Legionnaire who fall in love during the

Rif War The Rif War () was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by France in 1924) and the Berber tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco. Led by Abd el-Krim, the Riffians at first inflicted several de ...

, and whose relationship is complicated by his womanizing and the appearance of a rich man who is also in love with her. The film is famous for a scene in which Dietrich performs a song dressed in a man's

tailcoat A tailcoat is a knee-length coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt, known as the ''tails'', with the front of the skirt cut away. The tailcoat shares its historical origins in clothes cut for convenient horse riding in the Early Mode ...

and kisses another woman (to the embarrassment of the latter), both of which were considered scandalous for the period. Dietrich was nominated for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Actress in a Leading Role, von Sternberg for Best Director, Hans Dreier for Best Art Direction, and

Lee Garmes Lee Garmes, A.S.C. (May 27, 1898 – August 31, 1978) was an American cinematographer. During his career, he worked with directors Howard Hawks, Max Ophüls, Josef von Sternberg, Alfred Hitchcock, King Vidor, Nicholas Ray and Henry Hathaway, whom ...

for Best Cinematography. In 1992, ''Morocco'' was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Mogador Essaouira ( ; ar, الصويرة, aṣ-Ṣawīra; shi, ⵜⴰⵚⵚⵓⵔⵜ, Taṣṣort, formerly ''Amegdul''), known until the 1960s as Mogador, is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

in the late 1920s, a unit of the French Foreign Legion returns from a campaign. Among the legionnaires is Private Tom Brown. Meanwhile, on a ship bound for Mogador is the disillusioned

nightclub singer A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...

Amy Jolly. Wealthy La Bessière tries to make her acquaintance, but she rebuffs him. Amy becomes the headliner at a nightclub. After a performance, she sells apples to members of the audience, including La Bessière and Brown. When Amy gives the latter his "change", she slips him her key. On the way to Amy's house, Tom encounters Adjudant Caesar's wife. She clearly has a clandestine relationship with him, which she desires to maintain, but Tom rejects her. He enters Amy's house and he and Amy become acquainted. She is embittered with life and men after repeated betrayals, and asks if Tom can restore her faith in men. He answers that he is the wrong man for that. Unwilling to risk heartbreak yet again, she asks him to leave before anything serious happens. Back in the street, Tom encounters Caesar's wife again, while her husband watches undetected from the shadows. Meanwhile, Amy changes her mind and comes after Tom, who heads back with her to her house. Madame Caesar hires two ruffians to attack Tom, but he manages to seriously wound both. The next day, Tom is brought before Caesar, who is Tom's commanding officer, for injuring the two natives. Amy helps Tom's case by testifying that he was attacked, but Caesar makes Tom aware that he knows about Tom's involvement with his wife. La Bessière, whose affections for Amy continue unabated, knows of her feelings for Tom and offers to use his influence to lighten Tom's punishment. Instead of a court-martial, Tom is reassigned to a detachment commanded by Caesar that is leaving soon for Amalfa Pass. Suspecting that Caesar intends to rid himself of his romantic rival while they are gone, Tom decides to desert and run away with Amy. Tom goes to Amy's nightclub dressing room. He overhears La Bessière offer to marry Amy, and her politely reject the proposal, before knocking on the door. La Bessière leaves Amy alone with Tom, who tells her that, if she will join him, he will desert and board a freighter to Europe. She agrees to go along and asks Tom to wait while she performs. Once he is alone, he notices a lavish bracelet that La Bessière has given to Amy. Though he has fallen in love with her, Tom decides Amy would be better off with a rich man than with a poor Legionnaire. He writes on the mirror, "I changed my mind. Good luck!" and leaves. In the morning, Amy arrives in the town square with La Bessière so she can bid Tom farewell. She asks La Bessière about some women following the company, remarking that the women must be mad. La Bessière responds, "I don't know. You see, they love their men." On the way to Amalfa Pass, Tom's detachment runs into a machine-gun nest. Caesar orders Tom to deal with it, and Tom suspects it is a suicide mission. To his surprise, Caesar decides to accompany him. After drawing his pistol (apparently to kill Tom), Caesar is shot and killed by the enemy. Back in Mogador, Amy accepts La Bessière's marriage proposal and tries to make herself love him, but she still pines for Tom. At an engagement party, she hears the return of what is left of Tom's detachment. She leaves the party and is told Tom was wounded and left behind to recuperate in a hospital. She informs La Bessière that she must go to Tom, and, wanting only her happiness, he drives her to the hospital. It turns out Tom had been faking an injury to avoid combat and, when this was discovered, he was assigned to a new unit in the Legion. The next morning, Amy and La Bessière watch Tom's new unit march away. She catches Tom's eye and the two wave goodbye. When Amy sees the handful of women following the legionnaires they love, she leaves La Bessière, kicks off her high-heeled shoes, and follows Tom into the desert.

Cast

as Légionnaire Tom Brown *

as Mademoiselle Amy Jolly * Adolphe Menjou as Monsieur La Bessière * Ullrich Haupt as Adjutant Caesar *

Eve Southern Eve Southern (born Elva L. McDowell; August 23, 1900 – November 29, 1972) was an American film actress. She appeared in 38 films from 1916 to 1936. In 1930 she was selected by portrait artist Rolf Armstrong as one of the film industry's ...

as Madame Caesar * Francis McDonald as Sergeant Tatoche * Paul Porcasi as Lo Tinto Uncredited (in order of appearance) * Albert Conti as Colonel Quinnovieres *

Thomas A. Curran Thomas A. Curran (May 29, 1879 – January 24, 1941), was an Australian-born American actor on the stage and in motion pictures. Between 1915 and 1941 he appeared in 60 films, the last of which was ''Citizen Kane'', in which he played the u ...

as a nightclub patron *

Émile Chautard Émile Chautard (7 September 1864 – 24 April 1934) was a French-American film director, actor, and screenwriter, most active in the silent era. He directed more than 100 films between 1910 and 1924. He also appeared in more than 60 films ...

as French General *

Michael Visaroff Michael Simeon Visaroff (December 18, 1889 – February 27, 1951) was a Russian American film character actor. Biography Visaroff was born Mikhail Semenonovich Vizarov ( Russian: Михаил Семёнович Визаров) in Moscow, ...

as Colonel Alexandre Barratière *

Juliette Compton Juliette Compton (May 3, 1899 – March 19, 1989) was an American actress whose career began in the silent film era and concluded with ''That Hamilton Woman'' in 1941. Career Compton was born in Columbus, Georgia, on May 3, 1899. She was a ...

as Anna Dolores, a woman who clings to Tom *

Theresa Harris Theresa Harris (December 31, 1906 – October 8, 1985) was an American television and film actress, singer and dancer. Early life Harris was born on New Year's Eve 1906 (some sources indicate 1909) in Houston, Texas, to Isaiah and Mable Harris ...

as a camp follower

Background

Even before Josef von Sternberg's '' The Blue Angel'' was released to international acclaim in 1930, Paramount Pictures took a keen interest in its new star, Marlene Dietrich. When the Berlin production was completed in January, Sternberg departed Germany before its premiere on April 1, confident his work would be a success. Legend has it that Dietrich included a copy of author

's story ''Amy Jolly'' in a going-away gift package to Sternberg when he sailed for America. He and screenwriter

would write a script for ''Morocco'' based on the Vigny story. On the basis of test footage Sternberg provided from the yet unreleased ''The Blue Angel'', producer B. P. Schulberg agreed to bring Dietrich to Hollywood in February 1930 under a two-picture contract. When she arrived in the United States, Sternberg welcomed her with gifts, including a green

Rolls-Royce Phantom II The Rolls-Royce Phantom II was the third and last of Rolls-Royce's 40/50 hp models, replacing the New Phantom in 1929. It used an improved version of the Phantom I engine in an all-new chassis. A "Continental" version, with a short wheel ...

, which featured in some scenes of ''Morocco''. Dietrich "was subjected to the full power of Paramount's public relations machine", launching her into "international stardom" ''before'' American moviegoers had seen her as Lola Lola in ''The Blue Angel'', which appeared in U.S. theaters in 1931.

Production

Sternberg's depiction of "picturesque" Morocco elicited a favorable response from the Moroccan government, which ran announcements in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' inviting American tourists to enjoy the country "just as Gary Cooper as seduced by theunforgettable landscapes and engaging people." However, the film was filmed entirely in southern California, and Sternberg felt compelled to personally reassure the Pasha of Marrakesh that ''Morocco'' had not been shot in his domain. Cinematographer Lee Garmes and Sternberg (himself a skilled camera technician) developed the distinctive lighting methods that served to enhance Dietrich's best facial features, while obscuring her slightly bulbous nose. According to Robert Osborne of

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

, Cooper and Sternberg did not get along. Sternberg filmed so as to make Cooper look up at Dietrich, emphasizing her at his expense. Cooper complained to his studio bosses and got it stopped. Shooting for ''Morocco'' was completed in August 1930. The final scene of ''Morocco'' is recreated in the 1946 Mexican film '' Enamorada'', directed by

Emilio Fernández Emilio "El Indio" Fernández Romo (; 26 March 1904 – 6 October 1986) was a Mexican film director, actor and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific film directors of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. He is best kn ...

Home media

Morocco was released by Universal Studios in DVD on April 25, 2011 under label Universal Vault Series.

Reception

Premiering in New York City on December 6, 1930, ''Morocco''s success at the box office was "immediate and impressive". Accolades for the film were issued by Soviet director

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, scree ...

, screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood, and filmmaker

Charles Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consid ...

, who said of the film, "yes,

ternberg Ternberg is a municipality in the district of Steyr-Land in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography Ternberg is part of the upper Austrian region Traunviertel. Its area from North to South is 9,5 km, from West to East 11,7 km. ...

is an artist ... it is his best film o date" The film garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Director (Sternberg), Best Actress (Dietrich), Best Art Direction ( Hans Dreier), and Best Cinematography (

), though it did not win any awards. Titled ''The Legionnaire and the Lady'', Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable performed the story on radio as the first Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on June 1, 1936.

Critical response

Charles Silver, curator at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

's Department of Film, offers this assessment of ''Morocco'':

Theme

With ''Morocco'', Sternberg examines the "interchange of masculine and feminine characteristics" in a "genuine interplay between male and female."

"When Love Dies": Dietrich's male impersonation

Dietrich's "butch performance" dressed in "top hat,

white tie White tie, also called full evening dress or a dress suit, is the most formal in traditional evening western dress codes. For men, it consists of a black tail coat (alternatively referred to as a dress coat, usually by tailors) worn over a wh ...

and tails" includes a "mock seduction" of a pretty female cabaret patron, whom Dietrich "outrages with a kiss." Dietrich's costume simultaneously mocks the pretensions of one lover (Menjou's La Bessière) and serves as an invitation to a handsome soldier-of-fortune (Cooper's Tom Brown), the two men being presented by Sternberg as contrasting conceptions of masculinity." This famous sequence provides an insight into Dietrich's character, Amy Jolly, as well as the director himself: "Dietrich's impersonation is an adventure, an act of bravado that subtly alters her conception of herself as a woman, and what begins as self-expression ends in self-sacrifice, perhaps the path also of Sternberg as an artist."

La Bessière's humiliation

Dietrich's devoted suitor, Menjou's La Bessière, "part stoic, part

sybarite Sybarite may refer to: * Sybarite, a native of Sybaris, an ancient Greek city in southern Italy * Sybarite (musician) Sybarite is the solo project of musician Xian Hawkins, who played with the Silver Apples for a number of years in the 1990s. Sybar ...

, part satanist", is destined to lose the object of his desire. Menjou's response to Dietrich's desertion reveals the nature of the man and presents a key thematic element of the film: {{blockquote, "In Menjou's pained politeness of expression is engraved the age-old tension between

Apollonian and Dionysian The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by ...

demands of art, between pride in restraint and passion in excess ... when Dietrich kisses him goodbye, Menjou clutches her wrist in one last spasmodic reflex of passion, but the other hand retains its poise at his side, the gestures of form and feeling thus conflicting to the very end of the drama."{{sfn, Sarris, 1966, p=30 The La Bessière character has autobiographical overtones for Sternberg, as Menjou has looks and mannerisms that resemble the director.{{sfn, Baxter, 1971, loc=p. 79: "... no doubt ternberg'smotive for casting Menjou ..." Critic Andrew Sarris observed: "Sternberg has never been as close to any character as he is to this elegant expatriate."

Dietrich's high-heeled march into the dunes

The "absurdity" of the closing sequence, in which Dietrich, "sets out into the desert sands on spike heels in search of Gary Cooper", was noted by critics at the time of the film's release.{{sfn, Sarris, 1966, loc=p. 29: "C.A. Lejeune of ''The London Observer''" The image, however odd, is part of the "dream décor" that abandoned "documentary certification" to create "a world of illusions." As Sarris points out, "The complaint that a woman in high heels would not walk off into the desert is nonetheless meaningless. A dream does not require endurance, only the will to act."{{sfn, Sarris, 1966, pp=29–30 Film historian Charles Silver considers the final scene as one that "no artist today would dare attempt": {{blockquote, "The film's unforgettable ending works dramatically because it comes at a moment of panic, one in a series of such moments that have brought Dietrich to the brink. Sternberg says, 'The average human being lives behind an impenetrable veil and will disclose his deep emotions only in a crisis which robs him of control.' Amy Jolly had hidden behind her veil for many years and many men, and her emergence, the sublimation of her fear and pride to her desire, is one of the most supremely romantic gestures in film."

Accolades

{, class="wikitable" , - ! scope="col", Award ! scope="col", Year ! scope="col", Category ! scope="col", Recipient ! scope="col", Result , - , National Board of Review Awards , 1930 , Top Ten Films , ''Morocco'' , {{won , - , rowspan="4",

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

{{cite web, url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1932 , title=The 4th Academy Awards (1931) Nominees and Winners , access-date=February 6, 2014, work=oscars.org , rowspan="4", 1931 , Best Director ,

, {{nom , - , Best Actress ,

, {{nom , - , Best Art Direction , Hans Dreier , {{nom , - , Best Cinematography ,

, {{nom , - , Kinema Junpo Awards , 1932 , Best Foreign Language Film , Josef von Sternberg , {{won , - ,

{{cite news, title=25 Films Added to National Registry, newspaper=The New York Times, url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/15/movies/25-films-added-to-national-registry.html, date=November 15, 1994, access-date=July 22, 2009, url-access=subscription, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205024608/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/15/movies/25-films-added-to-national-registry.html, archive-date=February 5, 2018, url-status=live , 1992 , Narrative feature , ''Morocco'' , {{Won The film was ranked 83rd on the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

's 2002 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions.

References

{{Reflist

Bibliography

{{Refbegin * {{cite book , last=Baxter , first=John , author-link=John Baxter (author) , year=1971 , url=https://archive.org/details/cinemaofjosefvon0000baxt , title=The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg , series=The International Film Guide Series , location=New York , publisher= A.S. Barnes & Co. , isbn=978-0-3020-2136-1 , url-access=registration * {{cite book , last=Sarris , first=Andrew , author-link=Andrew Sarris , year=1966 , title=The Films of Josef von Sternberg , location=New York , publisher=

, asin=B000LQTJG4 * {{cite book , last=Sarris , first=Andrew , year=1998 , url=https://archive.org/details/youaintheardnoth00sarr , title="You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet": The American Talking Film History and Memory, 1927–1949 , location=New York , publisher=

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, isbn=978-0-1950-3883-5 , url-access=registration * {{cite book , last=Weinberg , first=Herman G. , author-link=Herman G. Weinberg , year=1967 , title=Josef von Sternberg: A Critical Study , location=New York , publisher= Dutton {{Refend

External links

{{commons category, Morocco (film) * {{IMDb title * {{AllMovie title * {{AFI film * {{TCMDb title *
Morocco
' at Virtual History
''The Legionnaire and the Lady''
on Lux Radio Theater: June 1, 1936. Radio adaptation of ''Morocco'' starring Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich. *
Morocco
' at filmsufi * ''Morocco'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN, 0826429777, pages 173-17

{{Josef von Sternberg {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Morocco (1930 Film) 1930 films 1930 romantic drama films 1930s American films 1930s English-language films 1930s LGBT-related films American black-and-white films American LGBT-related films American romantic drama films Films about the French Foreign Legion Films directed by Josef von Sternberg Films scored by Karl Hajos Films set in the 1920s Films set in deserts Films set in Morocco Films with screenplays by Jules Furthman LGBT-related romantic drama films Paramount Pictures films United States National Film Registry films