Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17630 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-09-29
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
One of the most sophisticated films in the Josef von Sternberg-Marlene Dietrich canon, The Devil Is a Woman is an alluring romance about a cold-hearted temptress who destroys the lives of two best friends (Cesar Romero and Lionel Atwill) during the Spanish revolution. What do you expect? It's carnival week in the port town of Seville. Supposedly this film was Dietrich's personal favorite because of the way it captured her beauty. Interestingly, the script was by John Dos Passos and the same source material was used as the inspiration for Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire. --Bill Desowitz

Customer Reviews

Beauty and Pain
Josef Von Sternberg was in love with, and frustrated by, Marlene Dietrich. His obsession reached its apotheosis in "The Devil is a Woman". Miss Dietrich declared it her personal favorite of their 7 films together ("I was at my most beautiful"), and vehemently denied that the film was a reflection of their somewhat strange relationship. Since Miss Dietrich's passing, it has come to light that this film was a reflection of their relationship. Von Sternberg photographed this film himself, and Dietrich does look impossibly beautiful, like an evil goddess. Her costumes (co-designed by Travis Banton and Dietrich) are masterpieces of fantasy Hollywood/Spanish. The sets, lighting, photography, costuming, et al combine to make a glittering vision of a very sad and painful story. Von Sternberg announced that he and Miss Dietrich were to go their separate ways-(their last few films, this one especially, did poorly at the box office-the Spanish government wanted this film DESTROYED!) To call this film "exaggerated" is like calling opera "exaggerated". Oh course it is! This wasn't intended to be a documentary, or a "slice of life". However, under all of its baroque extravangance ,lies "The Awful Truth". I think all of us have either been in a similar situation, or know someone who has been in a similar situation. Maybe the individuals who disliked the movie couldn't admit that the film "touched a nerve"-foreshadowing the critics' violent, horrified reactions to Hitchcock's "Psycho" 25 years later.

Marlene's Personal Favorite Film
This is the 7th and final film Dietrich made under the direction of Joseph von Sternberg. Set in Spain in the 1890's during Carnival, Dietrich plays a Spanish "wench" breaking mens hearts. As usual, von Sternberg supplied the magnificent photography, while costumer Travis Banton supplied the fabulously outrageous Dietrich costumes. Dietrich was given one song to sing in the film. When the film was released in 1935, the government of Spain was so outraged by the portrayal of Spanish officials, that they asked Paramount Studios to take the film out of the world market and destroy the negatives. They finally removed the film from circulation when the U.S. State Department asked them to do so. Luckily, not all the negatives were destroyed. The film wasn't shown again in public until 1959, when the Museum of Modern Art had a tribute to Marlene. Marlene is quoted as saying this is her favorite film, that she is more beautiful in this movie than in any other. This is a must see for any Dietrich fan! It is the last of the Dietrich/von Sternberg films to be made available on video, and you know what they say, they save the best for last!

gorgeous tradegy
As this was the last of the seven Dietrich-Von Sternberg films to be released on video, I waited for quite some to see the film for the first time. I had read that this film was Dietrich's personal favorite because she never looked as beautiful. Having seen Shanghai Express, Desire, and most all her other films, that seemed to me to be stretching it a little. When Marlene makes her entrance in the carnival scene, my mouth dropped to the floor.Her face is sheer perfection.
Being primarily a visual film, don't look for an extremely deep plot or witty banter. The visuals alone make this film, and make this film worth seeing over and over. The atmosphere in this film is one of decadence, and that feeling of falling in love kamikaze-style that just can't be helped.
Many felt that Lionel Atwill was nothing more than a stand-in for Sternberg himself, and that this film reflected his obsession/love/frustration with Dietrich. Dietrich herself had no comment, other than "rubbish!"
I say, the truth of the matter is known only to very few, especially now, so long after the fact, but this film presents a relationship so tortured, so alluring, it's easy to compare the movie to real (?) life. The visual texture is so rich, so heavily veiled, many viewings are needed to see all in a scene. The costumes are outrageous, borderline camp, and only Dietrich herself could make them work, and they do. The photography is exquisite, with so much light and shadow that one could almost see it in color.
Finally, this film failed in its initial box-office run in the thirties, mainly due to the public's lack of sophistication, likely. Be that as it may, this film should used to teach cinematography to all film-makers today.