The Devil Is A Woman (1935)

It's carnival time in turn of the century Spain. A revolutionary (Cesar Romero) sees a beautiful woman (Marlene Dietrich) and becomes enthralled and plans on seeing her again. But when he meets an old friend (Lionel Atwill in a rare sympathetic role), the friend tells him of the true nature of the woman. She uses men and breaks their hearts without pity. Perhaps the most insane of the collaborations of director Josef von Sternberg and his muse, Marlene Dietrich. Based on the novel THE WOMAN AND THE PUPPET by Pierre Louys, it's hard to tell how much of this overheated melodrama we're supposed to take sincerely. I'm still not sure if it's another bad Dietrich performance or if she's not winking her eye at us as if to say, "Don't take all this too seriously, darlings". It's all rather silly but in a good way and the film is an art director's dream and it's a stunning looking film (von Sternberg was also the film's cinematographer). Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol is used as the underscore. With Edward Everett Horton and Alison Skipworth.