Marlene Dietrich, actor; Taye Garnett, director
Seven Sinners (USA; 1940)
Vintage photograph
Marlene Dietrich began her film career in her native Germany, where she starred in that country’s first sound film,
The Blue Angel (1930). Later that year she was in Hollywood, making cinematic history with her provocative
performance in Morocco. In the film’s most famous scene, the bisexual Dietrich appears on a cabaret stage clad
in a beautifully tailored tuxedo and top hat, and manages to seduce both the men and the women in the audience
with her sultry singing and suggestive movements. A decade later she starred in Seven Sinners, again playing
a troublesome cabaret singer who attracts the attention of a young Navy lieutenant, played by John Wayne.
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