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Morocco (1930)
In Josef von Sternberg's melodramatic, exotic romance
with a love triangle - his US debut film - adapted by Jules Furthman
from the play "Amy Jolly" by Benno Vigny, about a love
affair in the exotic French protectorate of Morocco in W. Africa:
- the introduction of a sultry, independent-minded,
world-weary ship passenger bound for Morocco, who was thought to
be a vaudeville actress by the ship's deck officer - Mademoiselle
Amy Jolly (Marlene Dietrich in her American film debut); the officer
was asked about her identity: "Do you know who that woman
is?" by interested wealthy painter Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe
Menjou); the answer foreshadowed her character as doomed: "We
carry them everyday. We call them suicide passengers. One way tickets.
They never return"
- the bewitching, headlining androgynous seductress-singer
Amy Jolly - newly hired as a chanteuse in Lo Tinto's Moroccan cabaret
during the Second Moroccan War in the 1920s (in the coastal town
of Mogador, now known as Essaouira), who was first booed by the audience
for appearing in a gender-challenging, tuxedo-clad, cigarette-smoking
cabaret act; the bisexual chanteuse was encouraged to proceed by
admiring, womanizing French Foreign Legionnaire Pvt. Tom Brown (a
young Gary Cooper) clapping in the audience
- the scene of Amy's singing of "Quand L'amour
Est Mort" ("When Love Dies") with smoky, world-weary
eroticism; after the song, she longingly looked at a young lady named
Anna Dolores (Juliette Compton) in the audience, and she took a flower
from her hair (after asking: "May I have this?"); she inhaled
it suggestively, and then stole a kiss from the woman that was full
on the mouth - one of the earliest (if not the first) female-to-female
kisses on screen; the woman blushed behind her hand-held fan, as
Amy tipped her hat; after wild applause, the bisexual chanteuse playfully
tossed the flower away into the hands of Pvt. Brown, who had stood
up to applaud her
- in a slightly later second performance, the seductive
Amy reappeared wearing a skimpy black dress and with a feathery boa
draped over her shoulders and carrying a basket of apples; her second
number was: "What Am I Bid for My Apple?": ("What
am I bid for my apple? The fruit that made Adam so wise; On the historic
night when he took a bite, he discovered a new paradise; An apple
they say, keeps the doctor away, while his pretty young wife has
the time of her life, with the butcher, the baker, the candlestick
maker, Oh what am I bid for my apple?"); the first gesture of
Tom was to put the flower behind his ear; she sold one of her expensive
apples to Tom (after at first offering it for free: "You can
have it for nothing, if you like" but he refused), and he briefly
coaxed her to sit in his lap as he bit into the apple (filmed in
closeup during his lusty third bite); she discreetly passed him her
room key when she gave him change
2nd Stage Performance: "What Am I Bid For
My Apple?"
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Singing and Offering Apples for Sale
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Briefly Sitting in Tom's Lap
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Tom's Lusty Third Bite Into Purchased Apple
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- afterwards, during their later "hot"
rendezvous after Tom let himself into her apartment, she appeared
from behind a beaded bedroom curtain and asked: "Oh, who
are you?"; they were both obviously bitter, "tired
of life," and melancholy: (he warned that he couldn't help
cure her feelings about men: "Not me. You've got the wrong
man for that. Anybody who has faith in me is a sucker");
she demurely told him: "You'd better go now, I'm beginning
to like you" - to which he responded: "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 ten years
ago"
Tom with Amy in Her Apartment
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- the love triangles that developed between Amy, Tom,
Monsieur La Bessiere, and the Adjutant Caesar's (Ullrich Haupt)
cheating wife Mme. Caesar (Eve Southern); La Bessiere offered an
expensive bracelet and marriage to Amy ("I'd like to take
you away from here...My offer is highly respectable: marriage")
but she initially was put off and politely declined: "You're
a strange man...I don't think I care to take advantage of your
tempting offer"
- La Bessiere suspected that she loved the Foreign Legion Private
instead
- when Amy heard of Pvt. Brown's departure in his company's
detachment the next morning (through the Amalfa-Pass and into the
Sahara), she kissed him and whispered in his ear: "Don't go!";
he speculated that he could desert the Legion and board a freighter
for Europe to escape with her that evening; when he stated: "I
would in a minute if you'd go with me" - she replied that she
would join him; but a few moments later, he wrote on her dressing
room mirror: "I changed my mind. Good luck!" (he believed
she would be better off with a rich man such as Bessiere)
- before the return of Tom's detachment from their desert
mission, Amy was disconsolate and drinking heavily - but was inclined
to accept Bessiere's insistent proposal to be engaged to marry; during
her engagement dinner party, she learned about Tom's company's return,
and expectantly rushed out from the party to greet Tom in the street;
not finding him, she returned to the party and announced: "I
must go to him. They left him at Amalfa...I'm going now" - believing
that he had been injured
- in the conclusion, Amy found out that Tom had actually
faked an injury and was in a canteen at Amalfa; the heartbroken Tom
had drawn a heart with Amy's name - carved with his knife into a
wooden table; he admitted to one of the Moroccan woman that he loved
Amy very much
- the scene of Tom's challenge to Amy in the canteen
where she found him - he asked if she wanted to be with him rather
than marry La Bessiere: ("Aren't you gonna marry that rich friend
of yours?"); when she said she would: ("Of course"),
he asked again: "Are you sure?"
and she affirmed: "I don't change my mind"; he then dismissed
her: ("Well then, I wish you all the luck in the world, Mademoiselle")
- although he invited her to see him off for his departure - " a
thirsty march" with his column that was leaving at dawn: ("We
leave at dawn. Come and see us off, will you?")
- the concluding send-off scene the next morning, including
Amy's decision to remove her high-heeled shoes and run after him
(joining other ragged Moroccan women with heavily-laden donkeys)
across the windblown desert sands to uncertainty and possible death
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Amy Expectantly Awaiting Tom's Return From Deployment
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Amy's Discovery of an Uninjured Tom in a Canteen
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Tom's Carving of Amy's Name in Wooden Table
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Amy Watching Tom's
Second Disembarkment
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Amy Running After Him Barefoot in the Sand
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Amy Jolly On Board Ship to Morocco
Ship's Deck Officer: "One way tickets - they never
return"
Amy Jolly's Androgynous Cabaret Act
Pvt. Tom Brown in Audience
Jolly's Lesbian Kiss
Admiring French Pvt. Tom Brown Applauding and Receiving
Amy's Tossed Flower
La Bessiere's Rejected Proposal of Marriage to Amy
Amy to Tom: "Don't go!"
Tom to Amy: "I changed my mind. Good luck!"
Amy with Bessiere During Tom's Absence
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