MarleneDietrich Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Even at 77-years-old, the daughter of screen legend Marlene Dietrich is as vigilant a watchdog over her mother's image as ever. The Guardian newspaper reports that Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva has yanked permission from Universal (in the form of an injunction) to release Marlene Dietrich: The Movie Collection. Riva was angered to find that Universal had not packaged the DVD's as agreed, and considered it a serious enough contract violation that the estate may end up in court over it. The German head of the collection's estate said, "This is important for us. Marlene Dietrich was and remains the only world star that Germany has ever produced. There is no other Marlene Dietrich - she is unique".

This is not the first time Riva has headed to the courtroom over the use of her mother's image. In 1999, she took Toshiba to court over a photocopier ad and then she sued EMI over bonus footage in a concert DVD. Universal hasn't really commented on the possible litigation, but their PR rep had stated that "It's been withdrawn due to a minor error on the packaging, but it's being sorted out". Luckily, there are already plenty of Dietrich films on DVD, because it might be some time before Riva lets Universal off the hook.

Can we not remember our screen legends well? Just yesterday, Erik told us of the sad end to Alfred Hitchcock's career. And I've still never gotten over the late voice work of Orson Welles (never mind The Transformers: The Movie; have you heard this before?). Now, from a new book coming in April, we learn that Marlene Dietrich was so desperate for money that she would ... I can't even write the words of what she had to do. Let me just say it involved singing and a stranger and, well, don't worry, she didn't completely prostitute herself.

I just don't understand the world that let Dietrich go broke and out of work for so many years leading up to her death. Couldn't she at least have been hired for special appearances, cameos, walk-ons or something? She didn't even get a role in a Muppet movie. With her and Welles so miserable, they should have made more films together. Alas, she did not act much in her final thirty years, and sadly, her memory is to be tarnished because of some desperate measure. And so, apparently, is Greta Garbo's, too.

Well, probably not a million, but still - this is hilarious. The National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin has built a directory of "Motion Pictures Featuring Monkeys and Apes". From Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, to Zambo the Ape Man, the list is pretty comprehensive, and includes narrative details and even commentary where applicable (the entry for 1948's Who Killed Doc Robin? reads: " Another haunted house with a gorilla in it. How many of these places are there?"). As The Cinetrix puts it, "It's truly a heroic undertaking" - but, as one of her post's comments remind us, the list is missing at least one notable entry: in Blonde Venus, Marlene Dietrich strips out of a gorilla suit to save her sick husband, Herbert Marshall - or is it seduce wealthy politician Cary Grant? Anyway. Any other monkey movies that didn't make the list?