Dishonored
Dishonored • 1h 31m
Directed by Josef von Sternberg • 1931 • United States
Starring Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen, Gustav von Seyffertitz
In Josef von Sternberg’s atmospheric spin on the espionage thriller, Marlene Dietrich further develops her shrewd star persona in the role of a widow turned streetwalker who is recruited to spy for Austria during World War I. Adopting the codename X-27, Dietrich’s wily heroine devotes her gifts for seduction and duplicity—as well as her musical talents—to the patriotic cause, until she finds a worthy adversary in a roguish Russian colonel (Victor McLaglen), who draws her into a fatal game of cat and mouse and tests the strength of her loyalties. Reimagining his native Vienna with customary extravagance, von Sternberg stages this story of spycraft as a captivating masquerade in which no one is who they seem and death is only a wrong note away.
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In this video essay, created in 2018, film scholars Adrian Martin and Cristina Álvarez López consider the visual style and formal brilliance of the Hollywood films of Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich.
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In this interview from 2014, director Josef von Sternberg’s son, Nicholas, discusses his father’s work with actor Marlene Dietrich.
