Volume 32, Number 2 · February 14, 1985
Girl from Berlin
By Gabriele Annan
Marlene Dietrich's ABC
Ungar, 183 pp., $7.95 (paper)
Marlène D.
by Marlene Dietrich
Grasset (Paris), 256 pp., fr89
Sublime Marlene
by Thierry de Navacelle
St. Martin's, 158 pp., $14.95
Marlene Dietrich: Portraits 1926–1960
introduction by Klaus-Jürgen Sembach, epilogue by Josef von Sternberg
Schirmer/Mosel; Grove, 269 pp., $49.95
Dietrich
by Alexander Walker
Harper and Row, 207 pp., $29.95
Marlene
a film directed by Maximilian Schell, produced by Karel Dirka
Marlene Dietrich is generally agreed to have been eighty-four last December, old enough to be fond of old jokes. One of her favorites is a macabre conceit of her own called the deathbed Oscar. It is for old movie actors who have never won an award. If they suddenly find one being presented to them, they should conclude that death is not far off. A whiff of deathbed Oscar hangs around the recent spate of books about Dietrich herself. A biography by Dietrich's daughter Maria Riva is said to be ready for publication as soon as her mother dies. Naturally, it is expected to be full of revelations about a private life almost as carefully protected as Garbo's.
Review, 4231 words
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