Monday, December 27, 2021

Marlene Dietrich@120

Mrs. Bertholt  (Marlene Dietrich) in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961): "I remember there was a reception given for Wagner's daughter-in-law. Hitler was there. Ernst Janning was there with his wife. She was very beautiful...very small, very delicate. She's dead now. Hitler was quite taken with her. He made advances towards her during the reception.  He used to do things like that in a burst of emotion. I will never forget the way Ernst Janning cut him down. I don't think anybody ever did it to him quite that way. He said, "Chancellor..."I do not object so muchthat you are so ill-mannered. "I do not object to that so much. "I object that you are such a bourgeois."Hitler whitened, stared at Janning, and walked out." (The character of Ernst Janning was based on Franz Schlegelberger) 

"We know God made trees
And the birds and the bees
And the seas for the fishes to swim in
We are also aware
That he has quite a flair
For creating exceptional women.
When Eve said to Adam
‘Start calling me Madam’
The world became far more exciting
Which turns to confusion
The modern delusion
That sex is a questions of lighting
Noel Coward:
"For female allure
Whether pure or impure
Has seldom reported a failure
As I know and you know
From Venus and Juno
Right down to La Dame aux Camélias.
This glamour, it seems,
Is the substance of dreams
To the most imperceptive perceiver
The Serpent of Nile
Could achieve with a smile
Far quicker results than Geneva.
Though we all might enjoy
Seeing Helen of Troy
As a gay cabaret entertainer
I doubt that she could
Be one quarter as good
As our legendary, lovely Marlene."
 
Noël Coward wrote this as his own introduction for the International star Marlene Dietrich when she appeared in cabaret in London at the Café de Paris in 1954.