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Malak Dabcha: Hi Sugar. Hi kiddo, how are you doing? You know, can't wait to leave this place. kind of a merry calm. Yeah, you could say that. Well, it's a good thing we have an exciting movie to watch today. Well, I'm getting introduced to someone today. You are getting introduced to someone today and somebody very exciting. Somebody who is very alluring. Let's go. My favorite kind. That's our whole persona. is our whole thing. And we are also getting introduced to the man who crafted that persona. We are talking, of course, about Marlena Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg. In? In? Morocco. So what do we know about the movie Morocco? Well, I haven't seen it yet. We know that it came out in 1930, which is fantastic news for everybody who wants to watch movies on YouTube, because that means that it is this year in the public domain. So it is readily available everywhere. It was filmed in Southern California and Yuma, Arizona for the exterior desert shots. It is ⁓ directed by Josef von Sternberg. The screenplay is by Jules Ferthman, adapted from the novel Amy Jolly, Divchal Aus Marrakesh by Benno Fini. It is the second of seven collaborations between Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg. The first being the absolutely fascinating ⁓ The Blue Angel, which was, well, which we'll have to do at some point. It's totally, it's one of the most interesting pieces of cinema. It was shot simultaneously in German and English. It's important to give some context to this collaboration because it goes on for a long time and through it you watch both of their careers, both of Marlena Dietrich's and Josef von Sternberg's careers change drastically. A little backstory here is that Josef von Sternberg was already a very established filmmaker when he was asked to go to Berlin and shoot The Blue Angel. At the same time, Marlena Dietrich had done a couple of movies she wasn't doing so great, but he insisted that she be in The Blue Angel and he fought for her and he worked very closely with her to craft this new persona. And while they were shooting, the blue angel, he sent the tapes back, their like, test shoot back to his boss's a paramount in Los Angeles and they said, yeah, you have to bring her back with you. And he gave her five minutes to decide whether she wants to go back with him or not. Instant yes. Well, it annoyed the crap out of her, but she eventually said yes. And they ended up going back to Los Angeles where They shot Morocco, the movie that we're watching today, and then shot five more, which were Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman, which incidentally, I have fun facts about all of those, but then we would be here all day. Well, we're gonna have to make a whole series about those. We might have to. Yeah, totally. Because it's interesting. This is Marlena Dietrich's only Oscar nominated performance. Of the seven or of in total? because I saw that in this of the seventh, so ever. she was only nominated this one time. She sings in this. Later in her career, Marlena Dietrich ended up doing a lot more cabaret acts, or like, not cabaret acts, but like ⁓ a live show where she sings, you know. And ⁓ that was most of her from maybe the 60s until she passed away in the 90s. I mean, she was a big deal. as a film star but she also has a big deal as this like beautiful siren which is so interesting because i know this is blasphemy and i shouldn't be saying this out loud but she was a kind of bad singer but like in the nicest way like in the cutest way like people wanted to see her because she was so hot and cool you know anyhow here's another fun fact that i think is fascinating and speaks so much to how cool she was. Sid Grauman, who was like a big theater owner. He was a big entrepreneur, but he owned a bunch of theaters, including the Chinese theater and the Egyptian theater, like all these big ones. He had an anti-paramount policy, like no movies coming out of paramount screened at his theaters. But when he saw Marlena Dietrich, he was like, yeah, no, we need this movie here. And that was the first paramount film to screen at one of his theaters. it's hard not to when you watch her even at this young age anyway well you know marlena detrick aside from my own proclivities marlena detrick is very well known for her very sultry like middle-aged lady kind of vibe you know so he or she was only like i don't know like 29 or something was quite young yeah and she she still has that thing that's so captivating that feels very mature but she is a young girl anyway also gary cooper is in this and boy do i have opinions about gary cooper love your opinions let's see if they come up in this in this episode ⁓ we're in for a treat we should have brought popcorn to this this is gonna be interesting. morocco. so the movie opens in morocco and we see ⁓ the legion which is like a i guess the foreign legion how do you explain the foreign legion i'm not sure what they are it's a military group but they were notoriously underpaid and i'm not entirely sure but i think they sort of came from everywhere they're like the french foreign legion but i think they just like came from everywhere these guys i you know fact check me on this i'm not sure but the legion is in morocco and one of the the legionnaires is gary cooper's character whose name is ⁓ it's criminal how handsome he is for being such a piece of shit i know he's so beautiful well he aged kind of like a like an avocado i was gonna say like milk but that just sounds more disgusting i don't so yeah one of One of the Legionnaires is Gary Cooper's character, Tom. And so we're introduced to him. He's kind of a ladies man. And then we see on the ship over to Morocco, Adolf Menjoo's character, who is Monsieur Labessiere, meet our leading lady Marlene Dietrich as Mademoiselle Amy Jolly, who is, or Ami Jolly, who is a vaudevillian actress coming to Morocco to find work. And we're told that She's a one-way ticket
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kind of girl. They never come back. Monsieur Abusiel offers her his address. He's totally taken by her. She rips it up immediately. And then we cut to the scene where she is now at the club where she's going to put on her show. And guess who's there? Both Tom and Monsieur Abusiel are there. And we're going to see what happens. Lord be with us. All the booze in the world made for us and the women thrown in. There's Coop. He's cute. I feel like you're baiting me. No, I don't have anything about him. Okay, Gary Cooper. Let's talk about Gary. That took 10 seconds. You know what you're doing when you say things like that. Gary Cooper. What can I say about Gary Cooper? I'm not going to go into too much detail, but all I can say is that he was one of those guys who did not have a ton of range, but was a big, huge star and was so abusive and unkind. He was a cheater and he made his wife and daughters' lives total hell with his philandering. he not a fan not only was he abusive to his family but also to some of the women that he was cheating with but you're right he is kind of cute well not anymore i can attract my statement I don't know whether to be offended by this or to think it's totally hilarious, I kind of think it's totally hilarious. It's the operatic call to prayer and the immediate dropping to their knees in like whatever they think the Muslim prayer looks like is so so funny. It's fucking wild actually. They're all out of sync, you know. And there's just like two random dudes walking through. Well, well, well, what do we have here? I love this first shot of her so much because it showcases exactly why their collaboration was so successful. And it's because he was so obsessed with her. Like, Josef von Sternberg was so obsessed with the way she looked and the way she behaved. And he lit her just the right way always to the point where when she started working with other directors, it became kind of a problem that they couldn't light her the same way or shoot her the same way. because he had just done her such a service by by always capturing her in her best light. I will say however that their relationship was really intense and probably not great. ⁓ She listened to him like he there was they called the Pygmalion effect where it's like my fair lady sort of thing where she just like listened to his advice and his direction like it was Bible and it it did great things for her. But he kind of became obsessed with her and his reputation started to suffer later on. While her because she listened to him, she became that image of the muse and people started to like her more and more. Wow. You can always reach me this address. Merci, monsieur. Here's my address if you ever need it immediately. We'll be needing that. Thank you though. And now he's obsessed with her because that's what happens when a man is told no. Terrifying. It's like a fun party. Marlene Dietrich's character is introduced with two great musical numbers. One of which I just, okay, I have to say that I actually love these little vaudeville acts like the one of my bit for my apples. Gosh, I just love this stuff. Anyway, so she is introduced with these great musical numbers through which you learn that La Bessière is very rich and the Tom is very poor. and she is very alluring. La Vissière sees her and he says, can we have some time together? And she says, no. But then she willingly goes to Tom and offers him an apple even for free, but he pays for it. And she pretends to give him back change. But in reality, she's giving him the key to her place. We're also introduced to somebody called Caesar and his wife. And we're going to learn later on that Caesar is kind of like Tom's boss. He's like the commander or like the leader of, I guess, a part of the Legionnaires or the entire Legion. It's not very clear, but we see the two of them in that same party. This is important information. The officers in the Legion are unimportant. The Com Legionnaires will tell you the private so-and-so is a Russian prince or an ex-general. that he joined the Legion to forget his past. Don't believe it. The private in the Legion is nobody at the 75th Sun Teams per day. Thank you. She's already prepping and putting on her fabulous tuxedo in this scene. Wow, that was iconic! ⁓ my god, that's literally you. It's so funny you say that because we have a friend, the two of us, who always says I'm kind of like her. In actions especially. Yeah, I totally see it. ⁓ She's so funny. My god. She's so funny. I love this. I let this scene play out because I wanted you to go through the whole thing to see how cool she is. I have this. Okay, we need to talk about that kiss though because this is a big part of why she has always remained this like queer icon. ⁓ She actually, this kiss was actually her idea and it was for sure going to get censored because even though this is pre-code, it still would have been like not the sort of thing that you put on in a movie. And so the reason that she plucks the flower out of this woman's hair is that then later on in the scene she gives it to Tom. And so if they had cut the kiss, would have made no sense how this flower ended up in his hand. So she knew they couldn't censor, they couldn't cut it. I did research on this part, but I didn't understand it. I was like, okay, I guess I'll see it in the movie. But now, like, totally, I'm like smitten. I'm over him now. He needs to go. ⁓ 10 % is yours, 90 % is mine. You'll make a fortune! Get you a girl who can do both. This is you! You always want you! You always want... oh boy. I just love the way she smokes. I know. Such a fabulous way of punctuating her... her speech. And non-speech. Amen. me that. On the historic night when he took a bite, they discovered a new... you An apple, they say, keeps the doctor away While his pretty young wife has... Let's go. We're going apple picking. Legs for days, baby. Look at this same fucking guy. Look how annoying he is. This is 1930. This woman
was so far ahead of her time. Nuts. In any other movie, if this had been anybody else, it would have just been the sort of thing where it's like, oh, you know. Yeah, totally brushed off. Yeah, like men just assault women for fun. No problem. She was just like, what are you doing? Like, don't touch me. Winning. Tom's a heartbreaker, huh? So after the party he goes to her and they have a very strange conversation that's really contentious and weird and if anybody spoke to me like that I would just be like get out. Why are you here? But finally they sort of have this moment where she's like okay I think I you know I'm beginning to like you or whatever and he leaves having given given her back her and he's like, he's sort of out. And it's established that both of them are running away from something. We don't know why he joined the Legion and we don't know why she ran away to Morocco and became a bot billion, but something is happening. On his way out, he runs into this woman who had stopped him earlier and who we discover is the wife of Caesar, the commander. and Caesar is actually watching the whole thing go down. While he's standing there talking to her, Marlena Dietrich's character, Amy, comes in, comes to find him, and he walks her back to her place because he thinks it's unsafe. And sure enough, Caesar's wife ends up hiring two Moroccans to follow them, but he beats them up and gets arrested. No, he does not. girl. Run for the hills my girl. This literally, this line was, could not have been written better about this actor. I've told women about everything a man can say. I'm gonna tell you something I've never told a woman before. I wish I'd met you 10 years ago. You mean when she was 19? There's your key, If I were you, I wouldn't have handed her... Poet, Temptress, Entertainer, First Senna Griefing, Tensea, ⁓ ⁓ here comes trouble please goodbye you better beat it there's gotta be trouble what a lie tom gets arrested for beating up those guys and we have the most bizarre questioning scene we've ever seen in our lives where they bring in la bestia for absolutely no reason and amy also for absolutely no reason but they question him and then they lock him up and amy and la bestia have this like moment together he says you know i have some pull with Caesar and if you need anything, whatever, I can help you out." And she's like, well, what's your price? And we'll find out later what his actual price is. But you see that they've locked up Tom and that this, part of the Legion that he's a part of, I don't know what they call them. I'm not a military person. Somebody help. Whatever. his group is moving out tomorrow. He either has to go with them. or if he leaves that's desertion but that's what he actually wants to do he wants to leave and be with Amy She has the body language of a lesbian it's crazy I do have to say I'm not understanding why this guy is present to this questioning like what is he doing here when has it ever happened that somebody was
being questioned by the police about his about this woman that he's seeing and then they brought in another guy who likes her just to bear witness that's so random it's very strange and it makes no sense you look charming this morning well she looks charming every day you know i carry some weight with ceasar possibly i can help you Every time a man has helped me, there has been a price. What's yours? My price? a smile? oh how original hey i thought you were a pass you're a free man door is wide open you can do as you like so seven o'clock in the morning what's the idea of this? you're leaving for a mouthful of pasta i hate it i hate that i'm so attracted to him he's such an ugly person she's getting ready for her show and la besiere is there and he gives her a gift he gives her this beautiful diamond bracelet and he says i like you very much and and i want to offer something honorable i would like to marry you and she says no so he sort of he's like like knows that it's because he she likes ⁓ tom but tom hears him he was listening as he's eavesdropping the little prick That's exactly right. And then he knocks and walks in and he says, I'm leaving tomorrow, so I've come to say goodbye. And La Bessière leaves to give them some space to talk to each other. And he says, well, I'm leaving tomorrow. And she says, no, don't leave. I want you to stay. And he says, well, we could leave tonight together to Europe. And she says, okay. And then she goes to do her number, but he sees that La Bessière bought her this bracelet and he writes her this super obnoxious little note on the mirror that says, I changed my mind. Good luck. Disgusting. Despicable. I can't accept this. I'm having a lot of trouble having this movie play for me because I would pick Adolf Menger in a minute. Are you kidding me? I would never even look at Gary Cooper. Yeah, it's the Taylor's oldest time though. They always end up picking the broke, one. ⁓ I think you two want to be alone. He's such a gentleman. ⁓ my god. I understand you are leaving on rather strenuous journey. May I wish you good luck? Thanks. I don't know about today, they would throw hands. They wouldn't be wishing each other good luck. They'd be fighting right now. They'd be on the floor. Fists out. It would be a bloodbath. Go, boss. That's just what I was thinking. Like a dessert and border freighter for Europe tonight. Why don't you? I wouldn't a minute if you'd go with me, will you? Yes. Why do I get the feeling he's gonna disappoint her? Indeed, my girl. No. No. ⁓ The troops are saying their goodbyes to everybody. He has like three chicks wrapped around his arms. She goes up to him to say goodbye, asks him if he could spare a hand. He gives her a little measly handshake. Goodbye. And then they go into the desert and then he tells his friend that he's in love. Goodbye. And then Monsieur goes to see her and she's getting drunk in her dressing room. That's right. She shows him the mirror. He says it's probably for the best. And they kind of have this moment. And then they leave together with their little baby doll. He calls the chauffeur and he's like, I'm getting her out of here. Like, it's time to go. We're wrapping this up. I'm going to take care of you now because I'm a man. Let's skedaddle. Pop in the Rolls Royce, my girl. So this is the car that you did some research on. You know the story of this car? Yeah, I remember doing the research but I forgot it was like it belonged to somebody I just don't remember. So this car was given to Josef von Sternberg ⁓ when he arrived to Hollywood by Paramount Studios and he gave it to Marlena Dietrich when she arrived and they used it in this movie. He gifted it back to her? Yeah. Rolls Royce Phantom. Indeed. She looks like a painting every time he does a panning on her. He was obsessed with framing her. It's crazy. So good. I would call them the rear guard. This scene is actually significant. It comes up later. So hold on to this scene. Tom and company are out in the desert and they get shot at and like half of their group gets annihilated including Caesar. Meanwhile, the two of them, Amy and La Bessière are preparing to get married. It's their engagement party night thing. It's like a dinner. And while she's getting ready, he goes to her, he gives her pearls and he says, Tom and company are supposed to be coming back into town. And then they're at the dinner. and she hears their little troop-y sound and what happens? This bitch runs off. She gets all up out of there and she walks around asking every guy if he knows or has seen Tom and one of them finally says, say the line again. Not so rough, mademoiselle, I'm liable to fall apart. ⁓ But then he tells her that Tom is still out on, still out in the desert. And so she decides she has to go to him now. Beautiful man drives her across the desert in the middle of the night. Someone explain this to me. He takes her and she's going through this infirmary looking for him until she finds one guy who tells her that he's somewhere around the corner and he owes him 60 francs. And he's scum and he's a cheater and he's a liar and she loves him. I don't get it. I know. You want to thank me for making you happy. You want to thank me for giving you those pearls this morning. You want to thank me for this and you want to thank me for that. The way she snatches cigarettes out of men's hands and takes one puff. I just can't take those. The way she smokes is driving me nuts. I love it. She's so arresting. Yeah, totally. But he's also so charming. He was clearly the choice from the beginning. No, she did not. What is she doing? I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. This is literally Ridge Bay. Yup. don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it little bit. I'm sorry. This is his house. I'm sorry. You are leaving this premises to go to a crusty dusty that left you a note on the mirror that said good luck. Good luck, Chuck. And you are leaving the castle. Are you are you ready to
mind? She needs to be medicated. Yeah, I agree. What is going on here? Well, this movie should have ended with OK, Caesar's dead. He was cheating with his wife. Tom should have ended up with Caesar's wife. And then these two could have lived happily ever after in this beautiful, gorgeous. friggin space that I would do anything to have. ⁓ well. Pick up those pearls and take them to my room please. Not his ass sitting back down is a floating cow. Pick up my pearls, bring them to my room, and let's have dinner please. Mustard heart. ⁓ I live for lines like this. That's so rough, Mademoiselle. I'm liable to fall apart. I love things like this. I live for this writing. You need to start saying that more often. Yeah. I must go to him. I left him at Amalfa. Not you having the audacity to melt Spock in. If I were La Bessière, I would just be like, get out. Get out. You need to go. You need to cut it. You need to cut it. Cut it. Cut it. Someone's going to give me a stroke. No. I refuse. I refuse. Nobody has ever been less deserving of this man's goodwill. 100 % agree. She deserves that crusty man out in wherever field he's in. to rot together. Agree. Goodbye. Never come back here, ya heard? Can we just talk about the fact that this man brought her to see him? He literally drove her in the middle of the night. Across the desert. So that she can get to this man at the ass crack of dawn and find him. And find him before he dies. Say another goodbye. When he shushes, she just let him. Goodbye. I hope she stays with him at this point. The ass crack of dawn. I'll get him one bit so she's clearly gonna go look for him. I'm sorry, but like, am I supposed to feel anything for this? Like, the other guy offered to marry her, proposed to her, bought her pearls, bought her diamonds, keeps her safe, drives her across the desert in the middle of the night to see her idiot lover. who doesn't deserve it. And this guy carves her name on a table and she goes to him. Go The bar's in hell. Who is this girl? Wouldn't do me any good if I told you. You love her very much? Girlbot, he's literally at a bar. With a chick on his lap. You good, bro? she finds him in this bar which i don't know if christine is a person or a bar i don't know but she finds him in a bar and he has carved her name into the wooden table like a bum and uh and he's got a girl on his lap for some reason and she sits down he hides the little little name with the cards and he says aren't you gonna marry your rich guy and she's like yeah i don't change my mind. Are you sure? I don't change my mind. This girl lies as she breathes. Well, they deserve each other. They're both liars. Indeed. Such a lesbian it's not even funny. There has never been a more lesbian lesbian in the history of lesbianism than She is more masculine than he is. She's actually more masculine than every man in this entire fitz insanity Rassembleman back to the base! Yes! and finally he gets out they call like whatever this military stuff happens and they're called back so they're off to somewhere else now and he's like i hope you come see us in the morning say goodbye why couldn't you just say goodbye right there so then she moves the cards around and she sees that he's carved her name into the table and she goes the next morning to say goodbye to him but of course she sees him and she decides to do what all the other crazy ladies do and follow him into the desert and that's how the movie ends so that's where we are. I'm pissed. I like it. I think it started off so strong and then it took a turn for the worst. It went real. What would your ⁓ what would your letterbox review be? What the fuck did I just watch? I never want to see it again. Excellent. So let's look at some. The movie should have ended when she kissed the girl. That's what I would rate. No the movie should have ended with him going off with Caesar's widow. And her staying with this beautiful man who protected her and took care of her and wanted to make her a lady. I'm so upset right now. He just drove to the middle of bumpfuck nowhere to take her to see her lover and then she abandoned him there. Lady! ⁓ no. ⁓ no. And he just lets her go because he's a gentleman. He's just like, alright. That's what you want. No reaction. You go and live like a camel. Well. let's find our favorite letterbox reviews somebody wrote the tuxedo that launched a million lesbians highlight reel gary cooper eating an apple and marlena dittrich kissing a woman 100 % agree no one smoked a cigarette like marlena dittrich really cannot take how she was smoking it was driving me nuts i think this is my favorite one the least believable thing about this is marlena dittrich playing a woman named amy ⁓ it's so good. What is this, sort of love square? Gary Cooper has more chemistry with the apple he greedily devours. That's actual. Okay, you want to close us off with how the movie was received? It was included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 400 movies nominated for the top 100 greatest American movies. This film was selected to the National Film Registry Library of Congress in 1992. Morocco received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress and Best Director. Morocco became a smash hit and audiences became enamored with Marlene. In interviews, she spoke of Von Sternberg's total control over her performance and her fans ate it up. It won top 10 films in 1930 at the National Board of Review Awards. It won Narrative Feature in 1992 at the National Film Industry. Josef von Sternberg won best foreign language film in 1932 at the Kinema Jumpo Awards. I'm tempted to talk some more about him, but I think we should actually leave it and try to do like a little thing about the two of them. Because they made all these other movies together and they were actually so interesting. Okay, kiddo. Well, categories. me your categories. So our categories are, what the f that I just watched, let's watch it again. This is the kind of movie I've watched 800 times in a week and then never again. This is not a classic. This is two hours, I'll never get back. I'm pissed about it. I'm putting it in. This is two hours, I'll never get back, and I'm pissed about it. What was that? I'm so mad. ⁓ gosh. This is now a classic for me. Of course it is. Of course it is. Well, it's Marlena Dietrich, so obviously it is. No, she was great. She was great. I loved her. But I'm so mad about her character being so stupid. I can't stand it. That's fair. OK, so what were your revelations in Heart Palpitation? Hmm, Revelation. I'm gonna have to circle back on that one. Heart Palpitations. How did you choose this crusty death map? I don't understand. I'm so mad right now. This literally just ruined my day. I don't know how I'm gonna function for the rest of the day, because this is all I'm gonna be thinking about. Okay, Revelation. What was the Revelation in this movie? It really doesn't matter how nice you are, because good guys really do finish last, clearly. That is also my Revelation, is that life is not fair. This guy is nice, and he's... kind to her and he's the most eligible bachelor and he's not bad looking and he's he's all the things he's all the things and life is just not fair that's my revelation my heart palpitation is the amount of racism in this movie it's friggin wild it's so intense 1930s all right well i guess uh i guess that's it thanks for watching come back if you want see you next time baby