Morocco (1930) User Reviews

Marlene Comes to America

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 11 March 2006]

After her stunning international success in The Blue Angel, Marlene Dietrich was open to all kinds of film offers from all countries. She shrewdly negotiated with Adolph Zukor at Paramount Pictures in the USA and made her feature film debut in Morocco co-starring with Paramount's number one leading man Gary Cooper. She couldn't have predicted it, but it was a permanent move away from Germany.

Dietrich was a package deal for with her came the director of The Blue Angel Joseph Von Sternberg. No doubt Von Sternberg created the image that we now know her for, sensual, alluring, and standing by her man when she does make her choice.

One thing about Morocco I found different than most of the films I've seen of Dietrich is that she's not in control of the situation. In most films she usually is, but in Morocco Cooper's very much in charge. She's got a wealthy man in Adolphe Menjou panting after her, but she can't see him for beans. It's Gary Cooper an ordinary dogface Foreign Legionaire that she's fallen for.

Cooper in fact plays a part Tyrone Power would affect great success with later, a hero/heel. Cooper is carrying on an affair with the wife of one of the officers at his post when he meets Dietrich. The man must have had something going for him.

Von Sternberg did a great job in creating the atmosphere of not only Morocco, but of the Foreign Legion. Men with forgotten pasts and dubious futures, living only for the moment.

Although I think Marlene Dietrich did better films than Morocco in her Hollywood years, Morocco was a grand and auspicious beginning for her.

Masterful use of early primitive sound

[terryhill-1 · 8/10 · 8 August 2010]

It's interesting to read other reviews of Morocco. Some people just don't seem to have a clue, and it would be fascinating to learn what they think of as a good film from this era. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see that only one reviewer mentioned the sound, and that was to criticize it. Sternberg's use of sound as a tool jumped right out at me. There are numerous scenes in this film which have the possibility of being overly tedious and run the risk of being boring. Much is made of Sternberg's visual prowess and the rich texture displayed here, but I'm surprised that everyone seems to be missing the effect of the sound. Throughout the film, in scenes which need to build tension yet are visually somewhat tiresome (Legionaires marching in the street for example) Sternberg uses various sound devices artfully. We hear the monotonous drumbeat as the men march. The longer this goes on, the more irritating it becomes and as a result, puts the audience on edge. This adds to the tension of the scene immensely. The same thing happens in other parts of the film when we hear a short nearly monotone musical phrase repeated over and over ad nauseum, or when the sound of the wind blowing through the trees also becomes irritating. Each time, the scene is intended to build tension and each time, Sternberg's use of sound perfectly complements the visual to achieve the desired effect. This movie is on my "you gotta see this one" list.

Dietrich, given us by von Sternberg--could it get better than this?

[gaityr · 7/10 · 20 October 2002]

MOROCCO is the second of seven collaborations between Marlene Dietrich and the director that discovered her and probably photographed her the best, Josef von Sternberg. In fact, it is Dietrich's first English-language film, and she stars in it as the world-weary, man-weary French entertainer Amy Jolly. She's never had a reason to trust a man, much less love one, until she sees Legionnaire Tom Brown (Gary Cooper) defend her honour the first time she arrives onstage--this is surely a classic movie moment, Marlene Dietrich arriving in full top hat and tails. Tom is just as cynical about women as Amy is about men, but from their first encounter over the price of an apple, you know that these two have met the one person of the opposite sex who could change everything. Much as he loves her, however, Tom believes that Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) could bring Amy more happiness and stability through his marriage proposal... so he leaves, to march off with the Foreign Legion.

To be frank, the story really isn't all that important--it's pretty one-note, with the sole amusement being provided by the zings Amy and Tom trade each time they meet. That's a nice touch, the slightly wry way in which they both approach the budding relationship, both because they've been hurt before, and because there's also no conventional way for the two of them to stay together. This is brought out very nicely by the ending of the film.

Whatever other reason you might have to watch MOROCCO, there's no denying that Marlene Dietrich is very clearly the star of the entire enterprise. The way von Sternberg photographs and captures her makes her appear mysterious, beautiful and yet achingly vulnerable at the same time. You couldn't talk about Dietrich in this film without also mentioning von Sternberg in the same breath, since she is so very evidently portrayed in the way he sees her at her best. Some shots of Dietrich, more than others, are breathtaking. Even if her character isn't particularly well-fleshed-out and her lines not too great (von Sternberg fed her most of her lines during filming, partly because that's how he works and partly because Dietrich apparently knew very little English), Amy/Dietrich--both creations of the same directorial genius--is a fine work of art. Whether it's Dietrich creating a furore of gasps when she emerges in her tux, or when she plants a firm kiss on another lady's mouth (this film was made in *1930*!), she is a simply captivating screen presence--Cooper seems bland in his role in comparison, and Menjou is adequate but certainly doesn't steal the picture. The sound for the whole film isn't that great, and Dietrich does have to sing over the noise of the crowd so you really have to struggle to make out what she's saying... but just looking at her really is enough in this film.

Watch this film for Dietrich, the meticulously-created Moroccan atmosphere (von Sternberg excels at this, and evidently took great pains to make it as authentic as possible--to the detriment of plot and character), the sweet romance with a nice final twist... but mostly for Dietrich. She makes it all worth it. 7.5/10.

That Hot Kiss!

[Piafredux · 18 September 2003]

Of course Morocco has dated - mostly in its scripting, yet if one is willing to fantasize a little, to place oneself in a 1930 sensibility, the film works brilliantly. Even without taking that delicious mindstep Morocco is a delectable cinema classic, even if it isn't the finest of the Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations.

That hot kiss the white-tie-and-tails-clad Dietrich plants on the lips of a woman seated, helplessly, at a cabaret table is still breathtaking. Seeing that kiss still sizzle nowadays makes one wonder why so much hubbub ensued after 2003's gratuitous, lackluster liplock shared by Madonna and Britney Spears (which, as it made me yawn also made me think of Madeline Kahn's Dietrich-parodying Lilli von Shtupp dismissing Hedley Lamar's bouquet offering: "Oh. How odinawy."). Moreover, Dietrich's Amy Jolly deliberately ignores the luststruck man who handed a flower to her following her cabaret act, and instead humiliates him by kissing his startled, but not at all displeased - and rather persuaded to complaisance, date. No penis envy nonsense here: its all Marlene being woman almighty flexing woman's timeless power.

One ought not, as one amateur reviewer has, to judge myopically this film by today's anal PC standards by dint of sanctimonious judgments about colonialism - and by taking a badly mistaken swipe at Gary Cooper's character speaking American English instead of affecting a French accent when, in fact, Cooper was playing an American in the Foreign Legion (did the character's name, Tom Brown, not clue that reviewer to Brown's nationality?); further, the uniform of enlisted legionnaires wasn't tailored to fit handsomely - it was made mostly of coarse wool and issued "as-is," quite often ill-fitting, to men who volunteered for arduous service. Instead one ought to see Morocco's characters for what they are: broadly-painted archetypes of white colonialists behaving as white colonialists behaved, indeed as people in archetypal roles since Sophocles still behave - albeit in the cinematic mannerist modality of the film's period.

Missed too often, but not to be missed here is how Morocco, in its own stylized Sternbergian way, deals with enduring human nature: lust and love; jealousy and covetousness; pettiness and spite, anger and beneficence; harshness and tenderness; not to mention the ineffable human wont to go head over heels, round the bend, over a lover: what we have in Morocco is not a didactic narrative but an epoch-bridging fable. And despite the dated dialect of its dialogue language, it's remarkable how much and exactly what this 1930 film dared to show and got away with showing. (Anyone with a matured world-view ought to be aware that, seventy years hence, rap star films of the two thousand-aughts - as well as films employing the standard English of the early twenty-first century - are likely to be ridiculed or dismissed for their peculiarities of dialect.)

Give yourself a huge wink and watch Morocco, and savor its seductive lenswork, its atmopsheric sets and and costumes and lighting, and its timeless, classical themes which, over all these years since its shooting, remind us that "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."

Dietrich's Hollywood debut with Cooper in the Foreign Legion

[SimonJack · 7/10 · 17 August 2020]

"Talkies" had been around just a couple years when Paramount made "Morocco," but watching this film one might think it was a late silent movie. That's because of the dialog - or paucity of it. "Morocco" is a film with few lines and even fewer words in those few lines. But then, the two leads in this early desert flick never were known for their verbosity or lengthy lines of dialog. Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich both grew up in the silent era, and had many films under their belts by 1930. And, both of their careers were noted for roles with little dialog. As very good actors, their expressions and movements spoke a lot.

This is a good movie that gives a feel for the desert, a foreign legion setting, and life in colonial Africa. The time is during the Rif war of 1911-27, between Spain with France as an ally, and Berber tribes from the Rif (mountainous) region of Morocco. The film is based on German novel, "Amy Jolly, the Woman from Marrakesh," by Benno Vigny. Dietrich plays Mademoiselle Jolly, who is a cabaret singer. She is the woman of a love triangle that includes Cooper. Cooper is in a sultry role as Legionnaire Tom Brown.

Cooper was 29 and Dietrich 28 when this film was made. Both got their starts in silent films - Cooper in the U.S. and Dietrich in Germany. Cooper had been in some 50 movies before this and Dietrich had been discovered in Berlin. This was her Hollywood debut.

This is a good early look in sound films of two great stars of the silver screen. Jolly performs a couple of numbers that are risqué.

Legionnaire's Love

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 1 October 2011]

While traveling from Europe to Morocco by ship, the cabaret singer Mademoiselle Amy Jolly (Marlene Dietrich) meets the wealthy Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) that offers to "help" her in Morocco, but Amy refuses his offer. Mademoiselle Amy Jolly is hired by Lo Tinto (Paul Porcasi) to sing in his nightclub and in her debut, she meets Monsieur La Bessiere again having dinner with his friends Adjutant Caesar (Ullrich Haupt) and his wife Madame Caesar (Eve Southern). He invites Amy to stay with him, but the singer feels attracted by the lady-killer Legionnaire Tom Brown (Gary Cooper). Amy invites Tom to go to her apartment after the show but their encounter does not work very well. Tom leaves her apartment and Amy follows him. Meanwhile Madame Caesar stalks Tom on the street but he returns with Amy to her apartment. However two thieves attack him and he self-defends and kills the guys. Tom is arrested and Adjutant Caesar unsuccessfully tries to force him to confess that he had met his wife. Monsieur La Bessiere offers to help Tom but he is assigned to a suicide mission with the Foreign Legion. La Bessiere proposes marriage to Amy, but she is divided between her true love with Tom and the comfortable life she might have with the millionaire.

"Morocco" is the first film of Marlene Dietrich in America with a strange triangle of love among a cabaret singer, a legionnaire and a millionaire. The romance has a daring scene for a 1930 film, when Marlene Dietrich kisses Eve Southern on the lips and a magnificent conclusion, unusual in Hollywood movies. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Marrocos" ("Morocco")

Passion under the hot African sun

[nnnn45089191 · 6/10 · 2 April 2007]

When "Morocco" came in 1930, the American public finally got to see the star of the German movie "The Blue Angel" That movie wasn't ready for the American market when "Morocco" came out,but rumors about Dietrich's performance were already flying. Dietrich is very good in "Morocco",a atmospheric story of passion and love.She is more natural looking then she would be in her later movies with von Sternberg. Gary Cooper, young and handsome at the time, is the young legionnaire she falls deeply in love with.Who would blame her for deserting her other suitor,who's rich and a very nice fellow, for this hunk of a man. The other part of the love triangle is played by Adolphe Menjou.He's almost Dietrich's equal in this movie.I always feel sorry for him and his unrequited love for Dietrich. "Morocco" is an entertaining movie you have to see several times to enjoy completely.I found it hard to sit through the first time,the second time I really enjoyed it.

Stunning Ending

[Maciste_Brother · 9/10 · 9 February 2003]

MOROCCO is first and foremost an atmospheric film. Anyone who looks for more didn't understand what Josef von Sternberg created here. It's pure atmosphere. A reverie. The film is at times creaky but it's understandable because it was made over 70 years ago! There are several stand-out scenes in MOROCCO, including the famous kiss scene and the one when Marlene breaks a pearl necklace but what makes this Sternberg film so memorable is the stunning ending. Suddenly, the creaky film looks positively contemporary. Are we really in 1930s and not the wild 1970s?!?! The brilliant ending MAKES the movie. Without it, it would probably have been an enjoyably moody but average 1930s flick. With it, MOROCCO becomes a timeless classic. It's probably the most stunning ending ever made, with so many layers of meaning with that one prolonged static shot. It's visually brilliant and sexy on so many levels.

True love involves sacrifice

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 5 December 2018]

I like the idea of Gary Cooper in the role of a libertine as opposed to some of his 'aw shucks' type parts, but he has a way of delivering his lines that is awkward and slow in Morocco, and unfortunately he doesn't come close to keeping up with Marlene Dietrich. As you might guess she's as electric as ever, and sure, has that moment in top hat and tails kissing a woman in the crowd that gets a lot of attention (as I suppose it should), but there are also many others where her eyes and subtle smile command all attention. I thought she had a little less to work with in this collaboration with Josef von Sternberg, but the message the film offers is touching. von Sternberg gives us a little of the 'exoticism' of the setting, though it's not as beautiful as many of his other films, and has a few problematic bits (e.g. referring to the enemy army as 'those walking bed sheets'). The pacing is also a little on the slow side.

There are a couple of things in the film that caught my eye (you know, aside from Dietrich, who I would pretty much see in anything). When Cooper is sent off on a difficult mission he realizes it might be orchestrated to kill him, since he's also carrying on with the commander's wife. As he's called to go take out a machine gun nest, an officer follows him with a pistol, and Cooper realizes he has to keep an eye on him as well as the enemy. This is a real phenomenon in war that the military doesn't generally want publicized, and I thought the whole scene was handled brilliantly. The other thing, which is more central to the point of the film, is in how Adolphe Menjou deals with his love for Dietrich. He knows he's the weak link in the triangle, and that her real affection lies with Cooper. There is such grace and understanding in his acceptance of her, that if he can have her even knowing this, it's ok with him, and if she wants to leave, he'll let her go. When she's about to rush off to the hospital to see Cooper, leaving behind a dinner party for her engagement with Menjou, he's forced to leave them too. "You see, I love her," he says with such dignity, "I do anything to make her happy."

And that is essentially the message: true love involves sacrifice. In a film that alludes to Cooper's philandering and has Dietrich giving scandalized viewers of 1930 a little taste of bisexuality, it's really about the purity of love, and those pre-code elements are somewhat minor. It was subtle how Cooper abruptly changed his mind, but he had been willing to leave, knowing that she would have more material wealth with Menjou. (We have to set aside the fact that he's enjoying the physical comforts of a bevy of dark-haired local women immediately afterwards, but hey, go with it.) Menjou is then later willing to step aside, knowing that she loves Cooper. Thus the two men show their love by letting love go, and interestingly enough, Dietrich shows it by refusing to let go, even if it means giving up everything and going into the desert barefoot. I guess sometimes you have to let go, and other times you have to cling tight. That big moment is beautiful, though it wasn't quite as powerful for me as it should have been, because I didn't feel the chemistry between the pair, or think Cooper's character was one she would do that for. With a stronger leading man I would have rated it higher, but even as it is, it's worth seeing.

Cooper Dietrich Gender Bender

[francozeff · 9/10 · 13 May 2018]

What a sinister delight, Josef Von Sternberg guided Marlene to become Dietrich. He knew something about her that nobody knew, maybe not even her. But whatever it was it's still magic. When Gary Cooper sees her for the first time, she's dressed as a man and look at what happens in Cooper's eyes. Von Sternberg knew what he was doing. Deliciously twisted. She's in charge and yet she allows herself to surrender. Her masculinity blends to perfection with Cooper's femininity - It is clear now in 2018, I wonder how the 1930 audiences saw it. If you love movies, Morocco is a gift.

A total classic

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 5 July 2020]

Morocco is such a classic of the early silver screen, if you've never seen it, you've got to rent it. It doesn't make Gary Cooper look like a very nice guy, but if you know about his personal life, you already know he wasn't a very nice guy. This is the film famous for Marlene's tuxedo clad performance before she kisses a woman in the audience. This is one raunchy movie! Marlene does look very ravishing in it, so if you're a fan of the German actress, you've got to see one of her classics.

Gary Cooper joins the French Foreign Legion, and he has a fling with a nightclub singer who takes their bedroom romp more seriously than he does. He's a playboy, and he warns her that anyone who falls for him is asking for trouble, but she doesn't listen. This Pre-Code movie spells everything out for the audience. When Gary's superior catches him making sign language at a native girl, he orders him back in line. "What are you doing with those fingers?" he demands. "Nothing...yet," is Gary's answer. Pre-Code, people! In her nightclub, Marlene Dietrich bestows Gary Cooper a flower from her basket. He thanks her but insists the price is too expensive. "You can have it for free, if you like," she offers. Gary smirks and tells her he always pays for what he gets.

Poor Adolphe Menjou, the impeccably dressed (of course), wealthy suitor of Marlene, who offers to marry her. Why he would want to marry a trampy singer, I don't know. But he offers her everything in the world, and she can't give him an answer because she's hung up on Gary. How does this love triangle end? You'll have to watch this famous classic to find out.

Wonderful!

[nandoferrer · 9/10 · 9 December 2009]

Morocco was the first 'American' movie ever made in Hollywood by Marlene Dietrich under her 'master' Von Sternberg's direction and, as a follow-up to their extraordinary work in 'The Blue Angel', it consistently helped create a new myth on the cinema's horizon, the image, sensuality and androgyny of Marlene Dietrich.Cinematographically speaking the movie is a wonderful piece of art, with Sternberg's talent for shades in the black and white variation taken to a wonderful depiction of a love story in the Moroccan landscape.But it is above all else Marlene's true introduction to American audiences in the English language, and it is quite visibly a great effort by both director and actress in the creation of a new feminine myth which Marlene would represent throughout her career: the new sensual goddess, accessible and inaccessible at the same time, wonderfully and apparently aloof and distant, but also carnally at hand, sometimes paying the price of love in her own flesh.That image is ever-present in this beautiful film, from the first moment Dietrich appears on the big screen, arriving in 'Morocco' and refusing the help of a tentative lover.The androgyny which pervades the whole movie, especially her cabaret scenes are fundamental in the creation of the androgynous image of Marlene, especially as she sang the french waltz at the cabaret. Her love scenes with Cooper were ardent and unforgettable, and her final surrender, as she leaves everything behind in order to pursue her love for him, clearly represents the creation of the undying femme fatale who kills for love but can die for love.'Morocco' comes off as a great movie between director and actress, notwithstanding great performances by the others actors, especially the sensual presence of Gary Cooper, still a young man and a very charming one.Quite wonderful!

Dietrich's American debut

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 11 November 2010]

Marlene Dietrich made her American debut in "Morocco," directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou. Dietrich plays a sexy cabaret performer who has two men in love with her, Cooper, a member of the foreign legion, and Menjou, a wealthy man who can give her the world.

This is an early talkie so the rhythm is a bit off and it moves somewhat slowly. Dietrich is beautiful and quite sexy, and she is equaled by the tall, gorgeous Cooper, about 30 years old here and a true hunk if there ever was one.

The end of the film is absolutely stunning and worth the whole film. The restless beating of the drums is really something, too.

Marlene Dietrich's American Film Debut

[iquine · 4/10 · 19 March 2019]

(Flash Review)

This tale is about a relationship love story with some twists and chicanery. The ubiquitous woman falls for a man who isn't able to be with her at his stage in live. The woman marries a rich man because she has the style and persona yet never forgets the other guy whom she truly has feelings for. Will she sacrifice wealth for true love? During her romantic turmoil Dietrich finds her way into a cabarets club as a singing act, which is what earned Dietrich much notoriety as she dressed in a tux (risqué for the time) and got 'full attention' of everyone in the audience; not to give anything away. Overall the film has some nice location shots and with lots of Arabian elegance. I was not entranced by the drama or intrigue. However, the final scene is tremendously powerful! See this for early Dietrich and her persona, singing and attire; who I only really know about from being used in a lyric in the song Vogue by Madonna. Ha

Marlene wears a tux

[Fourstar · 3 February 1999]

The above one-line summary is the only reason to watch this movie - a great reason, too. Forget the story. Forget Gary Cooper's most lame acting ever. The ten-minute nightclub scene packs more unabashed eroticism with Marlene fully clothed, than any two hours of Demi Moore completely undressed.

Cooper and Dietrich size each other up in sultry "Morocco"...

[Doylenf · 7/10 · 24 November 2010]

MOROCCO is exactly the sort of film you'd expect to find MARLENE DIETRICH in at this early point in her career as the seductress working as a cabaret singer where she attracts the attention of a young legionnaire GARY COOPER and a wealthy older man, ADOLPHE MENJOU. There's never any doubt that the screen chemistry between Dietrich and Cooper in the first cabaret scene will lead to their ultimate romantic attachment, but some viewers will be surprised at the film's memorable ending.

It's easy to see that sound was new when this was made. Some of the dialog sounds stilted and words are spoken more slowly than necessary even by pros like Menjou to make sure the microphone catches every syllable. But the story moves at a nice pace, the exotic settings are photographed in subtle shadings of B&W, and Dietrich gets to warble a few songs in that inimitable style, although her voice sounded much better later on in her career when technical improvements in sound helped improve the quality of her husky vocalizing.

It's a pleasure to see the young GARY COOPER in an early understated performance opposite the sizzling MARLENE DIETRICH--both contribute to the eye candy appeal of a rather sultry epic from Von Sternberg.

Marlene at Her Best

[JLRMovieReviews · 7/10 · 11 February 2010]

Gary Cooper meets Marlene Dietrich in this good-looking film. Need we say more! But I will say that Gary has never looked so appealing and so young. He was very much a pretty boy in his younger days. And, Marlene is a great entertainer with the help of memorable songs.

The plot, who cares! But seriously, there is very little to know. Adolphe Menjou is in love with her, but she basically won't have much to do with him, as long as Coop is around. My favorite little detail is the way it opens and closes. Look closely at the people walking and the animals by them. Its predictable premise may not be much to intrigue the hard to please, but with Marlene who's so good she was nominated for Best Actress, it should be a great way to spend a night at the movies.

You'll fall for her...

[Artemis-9 · 9/10 · 10 June 2003]

Either if you're a man or a woman, you'll fall for Amy Jolly, that would be read 'amie jollie' = beautiful friend, in French speaking Morocco. Marlene Dietrich not exactly at her best, but very sexy, playing gracefully from a man-eater 'Carmen' (plenty of suggestions linking both characters) to a female sutler, following 'her man' into the desert. First, on high heels shoes, than taking her shoes off, and going on naked feet, along with a handful of native women, and donkeys, and she-goats. One tends to forget the great director (von Sternberg) behind this great woman-star, and that's unjust. The script may have been good, but it would not develop onto this smooth running 90 minutes of relative inaction (for 21st century standards), but for the cleverly devised sequences, photography, and dialogues.

I'm so glad I finally saw this movie yesterday on the big screen, at a special session. Those who can't afford this luxury, certainly can afford renting, nay, buying this video?

Pretty good film but the ending is pretty formulaic and a let-down

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 25 July 2006]

This was Marlene Dietrich's first American-made film. Because it was done so early, she looks a lot different from the person she played in films just a few years later. She frankly looks less "bizarre"--with less makeup and her painted eyebrows about an inch lower. She was, in my opinion, prettier in this film than in later productions. Additionally, because it was released in 1930, the sound quality is understandably poor. Like many films of the day, they were still trying to "get it right" with the sound--and many scenes are just too loud but most are too soft. Plus, oddly, there are several songs Ms. Dietrich sings, but there is absolutely no incidental music in the film otherwise. I didn't notice it for about fifteen minutes, but once I noticed, the film seemed strangely stark.

The performances of Dietrich, Gary Cooper and Adolph Menjou were fine and the cinematography of Dietrich's mentor, Josef von Sternberg, was lovely. BUT, there are major problems with the incredibly simple plot. Dietrich and Cooper fall in love--even though the film gives reason after reason that this never should have occurred OR that it should have died a natural death due to the lousy way Cooper treated his "lady love". Considering that Menjou was extremely kind, sophisticated, in love with Dietrich and mega-rich, it just made no sense for her to be so taken with Cooper! Now, in movies (as well as in real life) sometimes people CAN make foolish choices, but when it is used as a plot device so often as well as "love at first sight", it just takes away from the film's impact. Very good acting, very clichéd script.

Sultry pre-Hays Code Dietrich vehicle

[wlkrrch · 8/10 · 27 March 2008]

Of course it's a vehicle for Dietrich, but what makes this early Hollywood Dietrich-Sternberg outing fascinating is its sensuality. It simply reeks of sex: as when a sexually provocative, confident Dietrich in a tux kisses a girl, in its depiction of Dietrich's obsession with the Gary Cooper character and perhaps above all in the way the film treats Cooper - the most beautiful man in Hollywood at the time - almost as an inanimate sex object. So many movies over the years have given their female leads little to do but look gorgeous, but here it's Cooper who plays second fiddle, and reminds modern viewers that good looks were not invented by Brad Pitt. To quote the song, he's simply 'super duper' here. And Dietrich, of course, is simply incomparable: she has that mixture of upfront toughness and unspoken vulnerability that made her utterly watchable throughout her long screen career.

Good

[AAdaSC · 6/10 · 8 August 2009]

On the way to perform as a singer in Morocco, Amy (Marlene Dietrich) meets with Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) on the boat. He falls in love with her but she seems disinterested. That evening she performs in a club and their paths cross once again. Also at the club is Tom (Gary Cooper) who is part of a Foreign Legion troop that is temporarily staying there. Tom and Amy are clearly destined to come together - and they do. The film follows Tom's dalliances with different women and shows the love triangle between Bessier, Amy and Tom. When Tom does not return after the Legion comes back from battle, Amy takes things into her own hands...........

The film is well acted, and both Cooper and Dietrich have star quality. The story is about Cooper's nomadic lifestyle with the Foreign Legion and the effect this has on Dietrich who has the choice of going with him or settling with Menjou. Dietrich has some excellent scenes, eg, her first appearance on stage which includes the kiss she gives to a female audience member and ends with her throwing a flower to Cooper. The songs aren't very good but Dietrich is compelling to watch as she delivers them.

The film is a love story so it strives for atmosphere more than action.

Best film by Dietrich-Sternberg team.

[jmanuelsl · 10/10 · 5 November 2005]

A classic. One of those magic films in which everything works. The casting is a miracle: Dietrich and Cooper, the hottest couple in film history. Marlene never was better than in this film (well, in Shangay express perhaps), even if she looks too big (anyway not as much as in Der blaue engel). It retains the atmospheric brilliance and fascination of that famous (and overrated) first collaboration. Improuvements since that film: much better rhythm (the main problem with Der Blaue Engel, which at times looks completely dead), it gives more importance on gestures, faces and PEOPLE (not just icons or characters). One wonderful song and one of the best love scenes in all history (the one in the bedroom with Cooper playing with a fan and Dietrich showing her legs, neither of them were ever better than in here). The ending is appropriate, and you feel that after all that beauty and magical scenes, in that one hour and a half three people have changed, they just have a different attitude in life and a better understanding of what they need and what they look for). From my point of view the other masterpiece by Sternberg-Dietrich is Shangai Express.

Marlene's best

[SMcCourt · 7/10 · 18 June 2002]

'Morocco' is definitely Marlene's best film. Most of her acting is done without even using words-she didn't have to. Her mannerisms and facial expressions say it all. Her singing, while mediocre, fits the style perfectly and you forget that she was never trained as a vocalist. Everything about this movie just falls into place. An over-looked film classic.

Mediocre melodrama

[Philipp_Flersheim · 4/10 · 12 February 2022]

Wealthy Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) and poor Amy Jolly (Marlene Dietrich) arrive on the same boat at Mogador in Morocco where Amy takes up a job as bar singer. La Bessiere quickly falls for her but has a rival in foreign legionary Tom Brown (Gary Cooper). This film is far from perfect and probably the worst of Dietrich's pictures I have seen so far. But let's first see, what do I like about it? The photography is good; hold out to the final scene: that is really great. Menjou is good. Anything else? Cooper and Dietrich do decent jobs. But that's about it for my taste. The plot is less than compelling. It is slow moving and fails to generate much suspense (vulgo, it is pretty boring), probably at least in part because none of the characters is really likeable. Both Cooper and Dietrich play people bruised by their past, but how they were bruised is never explained and their acting is too melodramatic for their emotional baggage to be convincing. The dialogues are terrible, with long pauses (fraught with significance) between what people say to each other. Hardly anyone gives a straight answer to what someone else is saying. Everything is oblique and seems to hint at a hidden subtext which I failed to discover, probably because I am just not perceptive enough as a moviegoer. The ending? Some reviewers interpret Cooper as a cad, but here I disagree. I think his decision is supposed to be noble. But do I care one way or the other? I don't. The film fails to make me care, and that's another reason why I don't like it. 4 stars.

Who can forget that kiss?

[tategarbo · 26 November 2001]

This is without a doubt the film that set Marlene Dietrich up as a Major American star, THE BLUE ANGEL was released after MOROCCO in the USA and was a hit for both her and her director Joseph Von-Sternberg, From Marlene's first scene in the film the transformation from Berlin cabaret girl to sophisticated woman of the world was startling. MOROCCO gave Dietrich some fine songs to croon including "When love dies" in that infamous Nightclub scene where Dietrich plants a kiss on the lips of another woman whilst dressed in her soon to be trademark Tuxedo. The film got all women over America jumping into there husbands suits, as Paramount publicity said "The woman even women can lust after".