The Devil Is a Woman (1935)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Pierre Louÿs (novel)
John Dos Passos (adaptation)

Release Date:

1935 (Turkey)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Kiss me .. and I'll break your heart!

Plot:

Film told in flashbacks of an older man's obsession for a woman who can belong to no-one but can frustrate everyone...

Plot Keywords:

Spain | Carnival | Revolutionary | Cigarette Manufacturer | Temptress

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Marlene Dietrich	...	Concha Perez
Lionel Atwill	...	Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar
Edward Everett Horton	...	Gov. Don Paquito 'Paquitito'
Alison Skipworth	...	Senora Perez
Cesar Romero	...	Antonio Galvan
Don Alvarado	...	Morenito (bullfighter)
Tempe Pigott	...	Tuerta
Francisco Moreno	...	Alphonso (Paquito's secretary) (as Paco Moreno)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hank Mann	...	Foreman on snowbound train (scenes deleted)
Joel McCrea	...	Antonio Galvan (replaced by Cesar Romero) (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Caprice Espagno (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

Germany:75 min | USA:79 min | Portugal:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:17 | Portugal:(Banned) (original rating) | UK:A (original rating) (1935) | UK:U (re-rating) (2006) | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | USA:Approved (PCA #538)

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Concha Perez: Listen to me, Pasqualito. You never loved me or you couldn't do this.
Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar: You know very well that I loved you.
Concha Perez: You've always mistaken your vanity for love. It's your final mistake. Go and kill the only man I ever cared for.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Three Sweethearts Have I

"It's no pleasure for me to talk about the past"

This was the last of the eight Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations and, like their off-screen relationship, their on screen partnership was by now turning a little sour. It shows.

One thing that sets the Devil is a Woman apart from the pictures that preceded it is that von Sternberg seems less keen to show off Marlene's beauty. Whereas in the Blue Angel, Morocco or indeed any of the others he would use scintillating light patterns to give her face an other-worldly glow – something he would never treat the other actors to – she is now like the rest of the cast shot as if she were part of the set. Also, Dietrich's interpretation of her character is rather dull; all pouting and melodramatics, a far cry from the assured performances she gave in Morocco and Scarlet Empress. This is particularly significant for this of all pictures. For the story to work, Marlene needs to appear seductive to the audience, so we can see what the attraction is for her lovers. As it is her portrayal is unsympathetic and uninteresting, making it considerably less credible for men to be shooting each other for her attention.

Aside from that there is little else going on here. The story is a loose knock-off of Carmen. Sternberg's visual constructions are pretty as always, and with the carnival setting he really gets to have fun with trailing streamers and garish masks, although the metaphor of Concha as a spider, with the streamers her web is perhaps stretched a little thin. As with the Scarlet Empress there is an attempt to choreograph the action to famous pieces of classical music, in this case Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, but it is not particularly well-developed.

There are however a few treats on the acting front. Lionel Atwill is particularly good. Atwill was one of those rare character actors who would normally deliver an over-the-top supporting performance, and yet was fully capable of reining things in a bit when cast in a more serious dramatic role. And yet he still retains that "character actor" sparkle, that actually makes good comedy of lines like "A most outstanding pleasure…" In fact one of the strong points of the Devil is a Woman is that, through its cast, it manages to make comic relief out of serious moments. For example the casting of Edward Everett Horton (probably best known as Fred Astaire's sidekick) as an authority figure might seem ill-advised, but when he too confesses an obsession with Concha the scene plays for laughs. Don Alvarado is also great in an almost mute – and consequently funny – role. It's just as well these supporting players are good, as the second lead man Cesar Romero unfortunately delivers a leaden lump of a performance.

It seems that with their personal and professional relationships on the way out, both Dietrich and von Sternberg were simply going through the motions on this one (although strangely Dietrich named this as her favourite of her films). Of course some might say that even a half-arsed effort from a great director and a screen icon should be pretty good, but coming after the magnificent Scarlet Empress (the one Dietrich-Sternberg film that really works) this is something of a disappointment.