Morocco
About Morocco
In Mogador in the late 1920s, Foreign Legion private Tom Brown and the singer Amy Jolly arrive on separate paths. Wealthy La Bessière wants Amy. She slips Tom her key after a nightclub turn. He tells her he is the wrong man to restore her faith, then comes back with her. The wife of his officer, Adjutant Caesar, has two men attack him. Tom wounds them and is spared a court-martial, but Caesar sends him out with a detachment bound for Amalfa Pass. Tom offers to desert with Amy, then sees La Bessière's bracelet, writes "I changed my mind. Good luck!" on her mirror, and leaves. Caesar is killed on the march. Amy accepts La Bessière and then leaves her engagement party when she hears the detachment is back. The next morning she watches Tom's new unit form up, kicks off her high heels, and walks into the desert with the women who follow the legionnaires.
Cast & crew
More about Morocco
Josef von Sternberg directed. Jules Furthman wrote the screenplay and the dialogue. Lee Garmes was director of photography and Lucien Ballard additional photographer. AFI lists the release date as 6 December 1930, with a New York opening on 14 November 1930. The length is 8,237 feet, twelve reels. Marlene Dietrich's first American film, it followed her Lola Lola in The Blue Angel, also directed by Sternberg. Sound is Movietone.
Themes
In film history
In 1992 the Library of Congress placed Morocco on the National Film Registry. In 2002 AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions ranked it 83rd.
Reviews
Charles Chaplin said of Sternberg, "yes, he is an artist ... it is his best film," speaking of Sternberg's work to that date.
Look
Lee Garmes was director of photography, with Lucien Ballard as additional photographer. The Moroccan settings were filmed in Southern California.
Music
Karl Hajos is credited, uncredited on some sheets, with the score. Amy sings "Quand l'amour meurt."
Preservation
Selected for the National Film Registry in 1992.
Notes
- Gary Cooper plays Tom Brown, Marlene Dietrich plays Amy Jolly, and Adolphe Menjou plays Kennington, called La Bessière in the plot summaries. Ullrich Haupt plays Adjutant Caesar and Eve Southern plays Madame Caesar.
- Dietrich sings "Quand l'amour meurt," by Millandy and Crémieux.
- Wikipedia says the picture was filmed entirely in Southern California.
- In his autobiography Sternberg wrote that Adolph Zukor told him Paramount had been saved from bankruptcy by the film's business.
- A Universal Vault Series DVD came out on 25 April 2011. Criterion later included it in Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood, spine 931.
Awards
- National Board of Review Top Ten Films (1930)
- Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film (1932)
Scenes
- Amy, in a tailcoat, kisses a woman in the nightclub audience.
- She kicks off her high-heeled shoes and follows the legionnaires into the desert.
Influenced by
- The Blue Angel
Also available
- Internet Archive (morocco-30-1538596735589)
- Wikimedia Commons (Morocco (1930).webm)
- Criterion Collection (Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood, spine 931)
- Universal Vault Series DVD (2011)
Quotes
I changed my mind. Good luck!
