grade Movie Reviews

• Reviewed by artzau grade 8 / 10

  Die Marlene-- Always great!

  This is a delightful old film with a cast of characters, from Bruce Cabot, who plays the captain and romantic interest, to Andy Devine, Frank Jenks, Mischa Auer and a whole bunch of studio character actors. Roland Young, who delighted us in the original Topper with Cary Grant, plays the befuddled count who plans to marry Die Marlene on the pretext she's an innocent young darling. The scene where the New Orleans ladies take Marlene aside to give her a little lecture on the "burden of womanhood she'll have to endure" after her marriage is priceless, with the tiny smirk that plays across Marlene's face (given her well-known history, it makes it doubly funny). While this little film isn't (and wasn't)a great shake at the box office at the time, it is delightful to see Die Marlene, always beautiful in that classic, classy European sense, at her best.

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• Reviewed by theowinthrop grade 7 / 10

  Possibly the Best film set in old New Orleans

  This is not a great film but it is entertaining and frothy. Rene Clair, like Jean Renoir, fled France for the United States and made movies in Hollywood. But Renoir concentrated on serious films, like "This Land is Mine" and "The Southerner". Clair made comedies, of which this and "I Married a Witch" were the best ones. In "Flame of New Orleans" Clare tackled a sex romp in the Big Easy of the 1840s. He succeeds in capturing the charm of the great town, and (with maybe one or two exceptions) produced the best film about New Orleans and it's Gallic flavor.Marlene Dietrich is an international adventuress (we subsequently realize she has been as far from New Orleans as St. Petersburg, Russia). She is as sexually alluring as ever, and has got the pleasant attention of Roland Young a rich banker. While Young woos her she also attracts the attention of ship captain Bruce Cabot, who is more to her taste in form, but not in terms of money. She plays her game with Cabot and gets him into debt. Meanwhile she pursues a willing Young, only to first find a number of men who knew her in the past, and then find that Cabot is getting into her hair. So she tries to create a twin cousin situation. But this complicates the situation even more.The character actors like Mischa Auer (frantically trying to retrieve his top hat before he gets challenged to a duel), or Melville Cooper (cornered by his loveless marriage wife, and ending up being unexpectedly blunt), or even Shemp Howard (who has the freshest wine cellar in New Orleans) have excellent moments to shine in this film's comedy. It is a marvelously funny confection which I recommend

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• Reviewed by zetes grade 9 / 10

  Surprisingly excellent

  René Clair lost some of his charm when he went to Hollywood, but chances were good that he couldn't lose it all. I quite love his 1942 film I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake. I think I like this Marlene Dietrich vehicle even better. Oh, this is a charmer, all right. The plot is too complicated to describe here, but the story is very clever and very entertaining. The film is sweet, romantic and quite funny. The cast is exceptional. Bruce Cabot is surprisingly great as the leading man. You might remember him as the block of wood who won out over the monkey in King Kong. He must have gained some talent as he aged; he's much more handsome at this point, and has an effortless charm, reminiscent of Clark Gable. Roland Young plays his rival. One thing I'll always love about Golden Age Hollywood is the bevy of character actors, something we have entirely lost in the present. Here we have Mischa Auer, Anne Revere, Andy Devine, Theresa Harris and Franklin Pangborn. I had thought for sure Morocco was the best reason to own Universal's Marlene Dietrich set, but, so far, this is the best.

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