JohnHowardReid "Svengali Joe" was the name given to director Josef Von Sternberg at the height of his professional relationship with Marlene Dietrich. Beginning in Germany with The Blue Angel (1929), he had directed her in a number of pictures remarkable for their sensuous visual texture, their decadently erotic content, and their almost obsessive concentration on Dietrich's physical beauty. His dominance threatened to turn one of the screen's most magnetic personalities into a mere subject for exotic camerawork.The series continued in Hollywood with Morocco (1930), and was followed by Dishonoured (1931) and Shanghai Express (1932), in both of which she played fallen women; Blonde Venus (1932), in which she sang "Hot Voodoo" wearing an enormous fuzzy blonde wig; The Scarlet Empress (1933), in which she was Catherine the Great of Russia; and finally The Devil is a Woman (1935), from a script by John Dos Passos, the commercial failure of which brought her association with Von Sternberg to a close.These films had established Dietrich as the personification of aloof, impersonal sexuality (cf. the contemporaneous Mae West), but it was in Desire (1936), her first picture after the break with Von Sternberg, that the femme fatale was seen to have a sense of humor as well. Ernst Lubitsch, Paramount's production head, chose and personally produced this story of genteel robbery in high society with the express purpose of humanizing and revitalizing the legendary figure of the remote Dietrich built up in the public mind by her previous films.This Lubitsch-Dietrich-Borzage combination results in one of the thirties' most representative and entertaining escapist comedies. As befits the best high-class hokum, the film is set in Paris and Spain - Lang's soft, almost delicate black-and-white photography perfectly suiting the prevailing lightweight mood. It is a Europe of shady, slightly seedy aristocrats, whose over-civilized corruption is pitted against the rustically shrewd decency of the American (Gary Cooper). The possibility of war is simply a subject for polite dinner-table conversation, like the weather. (These attitudes, incidentally, are not crudely stated, but form a minor part of the film's polished, professional structure.)From her first appearance, Dietrich dominates the film. She is cast as a glamorous, calculating international jewel thief, every inch a woman of the world, carrying out her brazen confidence tricks with an air of self-assured, well-bred amusement. Every shot in which she appears is composed and lit to emphasize her extraordinary natural beauty; all the close-ups are superb. The potent suggestiveness of Marlene's voice is familiar to those who have heard her mid-1950s Cafe de Paris recording; in Desire she sings one disappointingly indifferent Hollander song, but delivers the script's clever lines with full appreciation of their risque double-entendre implications. The first half of the film is particularly delicious: Borzage's smooth direction keeps it moving at a rapid pace, the situations are pleasantly amusing and artificial without being forced. There is a noticeable slackening of impulse in the last quarter, however, in which Dietrich goes through conventional conscience pangs before returning the jewels.OTHER VIEWS: Lubitsch had no knowledge of the camera. We would sit back to back on special settees and say to the camera "I love you" because he couldn't manage the scene if we sat side by side and looked at each other. And Desire, for which he's often credited, was copied shot by shot from a German picture, Brigitte Helm's The Wonderful World of Angoulême. - Marlene Dietrich.

Kirpianuscus it is one of films who reminds old flavors. in the most inspired manner. and this does it a time trip. for the cultural references. for the meet between Dietrich and Cooper and the seductive chemistry between them. for cultural references. and for mixture of romance and thriller who represents a real delight. a film with references to the war and a fascinating Paris. about Spain and about the choices who are always bizarre. about passion, innocence and the secrets who defines reality. with interesting characters. and an end who is perfect gift for romantics. its humor and elegance, its naivety are good points for discover a world who seems lost, not real or exotic. short, a seductive Lubitch work.

SenjoorMutt Unfortunately now forgotten easy-going crime comedy starring magnificent Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper. Two stars share electrifying chemistry on the screen (although Dietrich herself first mentioned that Cooper was too one dimensional). It's a lighthearted comedy with simple plot about jewel heist, where Dietrich is seductive and thief and Cooper is non suspecting Don Juan who is getting too mixed up. 'Desire' has it's own charm thanks to the witty dialogue and with some laugh out loud moments. It was produced (some scenes were also directed by) great Ernst Lubitsch, and his touch can be felt throughout the film. Probably not the greatest production by Frank Borzage and Ernst Lubitsch, but it's definitely amusing film and all those who love the 1930's type romantic comedies will find it entertaining.

theowinthrop Ernst Lubitsch was one of the co-producers of DESIRE with it's director Frank Borzage. Borzage was a good enough director to have handled the material of this delightful romantic comedy, but Lubitsch fans feel that he frequently discussed the film with Ernst, and the famous "touch" has been noted throughout it.Gary Cooper is an ace salesman for the Bronson automobile company in Paris, working under William Frawley. He is about to go on his well earned vacation, but Frawley has a slight plan of his own. He is giving Cooper a new Bronson 8 automobile to use on the trip, which will carry a large sign on it advertising the car. In the meantime, unconnected to this, Marlene Dietrich has been involved in a neat piece of jewelry theft. She goes to the jewelry firm of M. Duval (Ernst Cossart) and arranges for him to deliver his finest necklace to "her home", the address of which is the home of Dr. Pacquet (Alan Mowbray). Later she goes to Dr. Pacquet's office (he is a psychiatrist), and explains she is Madame Duval, wife of the jeweler, and that he is suffering a strange dementia. She says that he insists that purchases are being made by all sorts of people, including the good psychiatrist. She begs Pacquet to let her bring her husband that night to see him, warning him that he will claim that the psychiatrist owes him a huge sum of money for a necklace. Pacquet agrees. So Dietrich sets up a neat confrontation between the two men, leaving with the necklace while they are arguing about who owes money v. who is crazy.Dietrich and Cooper get involved when she hides her stolen jewels in a bag of his at the border, and subsequently steals and wrecks his car. He still has the jewels though, and follows her. She and her suave, if sinister cohort (the wonderful John Haliday) decide to invite him to their home in the mountains, where they plan to retrieve the jewels before Cooper leaves. And that is all of the plot I will discuss.As I once mentioned regarding a later Cooper film (LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON), while Cooper was seen as the great American hero in westerns and adventure films, he was leading an active social life in high society circles. His direct American character, so fitting in THE PLAINSMAN or in HIGH NOON also could shoot off a gentle charm at times, and it works well in DESIRE. He and Dietrich had made MOROCCO six years earlier, but that was set in the deserts of North Africa and was a straight drama. Here they both mingle his American ruggedness and charm against her European sophistication and charm, and it works nicely. They are ably abetted by Haliday, pretending to be Dietrich's uncle but jealously watching Cooper's moves. The results is a well made romantic comedy that never fails to please the audience.