Dietrich & Arthur steal Billy Wilder's Adult "A Foreign Affair"

Jean Arthur stole the show for me in this one.

Billy Wilder was a master

Since it's going to be a barrage of war movies on the tube through the holiday weekend, why not watch a smart, romantic one? Here's an excellent copy of Billy Wilder's "A Foreign Affair."

Thanks for this Rick! I’ve needed something to watch.

Rick, why not post what you think of this movie right here? Are you advertising your blog or something?

Very odd.

Wilder had a famous quote about his two leading ladies:

“One of them couldn’t look in a mirror. The other couldn’t look away.”

R4, leave Rick alone!!

I watched this film several months ago. It's better than I expected, but the leading man is a major problem and the ending isn't remotely convincing. The first half though is solid.

I'm perfectly happy to 'leave Rick alone' I simply asked him a question.

I find posting a movie review advertisement for the article contained in your blog to be quite odd behavior for the Datalounge. I've only been here for more than 20 years, perhaps you know better.

How can the leading ladies "steal" a film, silly?

Such a lowbrow you are. A performance isn't good unless someone is getting away with something? Lord.

I love this movie.

I think Arthur and Dietrich are both equally great in this, one of Billy Wilder's best. And even though everyone seemed to dislike the leading man, well at least Wilder and Dietrich, I think he works seamlessly and it helps that he's not a distraction from the women who are the ones that matter most in the show. Brilliant.

According to her daughter Maria’s book, Dietrich hated, hated, HATED Jean Arthur.

Dietrich hated American frauen.

Dietrich didn't really *do* female co-stars. She was probably fine with Miss Wong and Little Miss Wyman though.

Marlene Dietrich said Jean Arthur was an “ugly plucked chicken.”

Yeah, Marlene, like Mercedes was such a hot dish...

I believe at the time the film was made, Jean Arthur was a far bigger name than MD, as hard as it probably is to believe now. Or a far more "beloved star" than Dietrich at that time, who American audiences never really warmed to after her initial Sternberg films. She was simply too exotic for US tastes until her late career comeback concerts in Las Vegas and on Broadway changed that impression for more sophisticated audiences of the 1960s.

However, the film did revive interest in Marlene, who forevermore simple parodied herself, whereas it was mostly all downhill for Jean after this and her disastrous experience with BORN YESTERDAY on Broadway.

Who do you think was sought for John Lund's role before they settled on John Lund? Surely, he was never the first, second, third (or you call it) choice.

Destry solved her Box Office Poison title, r17. She had quite a few great appearances after her Sternberg days. Witness For the Prosecution, Touch of Evil, Nuremburg...

^And no way was Arthur "bigger" then Dietrich at the time.

But those 3 films were all after A FOREIGN AFFAIR revived her career, r19. What were her hits between DESTRY and that one? And then, of course, for much of WWII she was not acting.

And r20, how do you explain her billing over Dietrich in all the ads, trailers and posters of the time?

Something called alphabetical order, r22? This was starting to be late film career for both of them. Anyway...there's also Rancho Notorious...

I like John Lund, I think he was funny - I thought he was perfect in the part. When Cameron Crowe interviewed Wilder, he said he thought Lund was really good. Wilder said something like "He was good. But he wasn't good." Wilder said he wanted Cary Grant. He often wanted to cast Grant, but Grant never once agreed to be in a Wilder film.

Jean Arthur played the lead in the film, the whole film revolved around her character - in a plot somewhat similar to "Ninotchka" (which also had been co-written by Wilder). It would have been stupid for Dietrich to have top billing. As stars, they were about equal, I'd say.

Oh, that's right, r25, I'd forgotten that. *That's* why Marlene had a beef with Jean.

Jean thought Billy was favoring Dietrich with closeups. She was a very insecure actress. Years later she wrote him (after watching it on TV) saying she loved the movie.

[quote]She was a very insecure actress

Yes, she was. If she'd hung on with Born Yesterday, she'd most likely have gotten the film. I don't know how she'd have been as Billie, though. Judy was able to do a blank slate whereas Jean always seemed a bit knowing.

I think Dietrich’s two finest acting performances came later—Witness for the Prosecution (her work has aged better than every other nominee that year with the exception of Kerr) and Judgment at Nuremberg (supporting). No camp, no self-parody—just real women.

Didn't she say that she understood that woman, r29?

R12, r13, r14 Dietrich didn’t like ANY women. According to Hitchcock, she made snide comments about Wyman when they were making Stage Fright.

[quote]Dietrich didn’t like ANY women

r31 see r16

IIRC in her daughter's wonderful bio of Dietrich, there are stories of her mother's camaraderie with fellow Paramount stars Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert and even Mae West.

Here's a radio version of "A Foreign Affair" with Lund, Dietrich, and Roz Russell in the Jean Arthur role.

After Destry Rides Again, Dietrich did a string of more commercial films, than with Sternberg. And Marlene generated lots of good will and publicity for her touring "for the boys." I'd say she and Arthur were on equal footing career-wise when "A Foreign Affair" was filmed...

I’ll give it a shot.

I typically save B&W movies for Sundays - they bring back memories of “Family Classics with Frazier Thomas”.

(Reply 36) For me, Sundays was for Detroit TV 50's "Bill Kennedy at the Movies." And "A Foreign Affair" is a smart, grown up movie for it's era, enjoy...

R36. Ooh, I used to live the theme music for Family Classics, and waited with anticipation for the announcement of the next week’s selection. I also had a Garfield Goose hand puppet and my best friend went to Beloit with Thomas’ daughter.

[quote]Witness for the Prosecution (her work has aged better than every other nominee that year with the exception of Kerr)

R29 I agree with you those were two great performances, though I'd rank her work in A Foreign Affair up there alongside those two.

By the way, Dietrich wasn't nominated so this probably should read "every nominee that year" rather than "every other nominee".

Didn't know that Jean Arthur, who rarely acted in her later years, appeared in a sitcom in 1966! "The Jean Arthur Show" is pretty bad, but Jean is game and looks like a million at age 66. Check it out.

Jean Arthur was eager to play Ada Quonsett in Airport (1970), but was passed over for Helen Hayes (both born in 1900).

Jean did a test drive for TV with an appearance on "Gunsmoke" in 1965. She & Miss Kitty play old friends! Here's a clip. Again, Jean looks great at 65, when you think of how some of her contemporaries were looking in the 1960s!

Jean Arthur more or less retired from public life in the 1970s and taught for awhile at Vassar College. Meryl Streep was one of her students.

No one was a more delicious leading lady of screwball films than Jean Arthur in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Check her out with the even more delicious Joel McCrea in the wartime comedy THE MORE THE MERRIER. No wonder Marlene was so jealous of her.

I think John Lund was very underrated. And he's great in the film. My only quibble with the movie is poor Jean Arthur's looks. In the beginning, she's supposed to look dowdy with her hair in a bun. But her tranformation with the braid didn't change her look much at all. She still looked pretty bad. They could have made her look really beautiful. Ah well...

Just watched Witness of the Prosecution yesterday after reading this thread. Every single actor in this movie is awesome but Dietrich is off the chart. And Laughton.

You can see why they couldn't nominate her, r46.

R46. And while I know she didn’t get nominated for it, she SHOULD have!

Marlene was magical onstage.

Jean Arthur’s voice drives me up the wall. She’s probably an okay actress, but her voice is irritating as hell.

Love, love, love La Dietrich. I wish I had been around when she was touring. I agree she should have at least been nominated for Witness of the Prosecution, but my favorite late period role of hers is her glorified cameo in Touch of Evil.

Dietrich didn’t like a lot of her fellow actresses, but to say she didn’t like other women seems silly. Beyond her snatch diving, I mean, she had many female friends. I recall her praising Dolores Del Rio to the skies. And of course her iconic friendship with Edith Piaf. However, I’m not sure Marlene was ever a vulnerable enough person to have more than a small amount of people she was truly close to and I’m not sure anyone EVER saw the real Dietrich, including her daughter. I remember reading she considered Noël Coward to be her closest high profile friend.

Jean & Joel

Tallulah and Marlene (this from Tallulah's late-'40s radio show, The Big Show). Banter and song, Anything You Can You...

*Anything You Can Do

R2, thank you!

R50, Dietrich really steals all the scenes she's in, in that movie. A classic with perfect casting.

Marlene & Rosie

I hadn't seen "Witness for the Prosecution" for decades when I rewatched to review. I found it highly entertaining and top-notch in all ways except one: Tyrone Power, who I think is often underrated, looked older than his years to be playing a charming young cad. But I was amazed by Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich in their stellar performances. Here's my take...

Excuse me, r58, ex-c-u-u-u-s-e me!

Yes, Power is a problem in WITNESS, more for his overacting than his age.

Dietrich's role really is supporting as she's missing from much of the middle of the film. So I'm not really surprised she didn't get a Best Actress nomination, even though she really thought she would.

Her performance in The Blue Angel is every bit as good as anything else she did.

Norma Varden shout out!

I loved Norma Varden in this, too! And Ty's trying to act boyish and charming when he looks baggy and jowly, far older than his 43 years, adds to his artificiality.

Oh R52, thank you for that clip from The More the Merrier. J'adore Joel McCrea, just adore him.

And that scene... so few edits! Like so many movies from the Hollywood's "golden age," the actors a) know their lines, b) know their blocking and c) the director let's them put it all together. Marvelous. It's just such a wonderful slow burn.

I really wonder if there are any film actors who could re-create that kind of scene and I wonder if there are directors who would be brave enough to just sit back and let the actors do their job...

Excuse me, r63, ex-c-u-u-u-s-e me...

Bea Arthur worked with Dietrich?

Shoppin' for a schmatta...

Witness is one of the only films where I like Power. I never found him a particularly convincing actor, and so his inauthentic quality works for the film. Keeps the focus on Dietrich and Laughton. And for those on here who think John Lund is weak, would you rather have Tyrone Power? Power isn't funny. Lund gets his laughs.

The film is great to see bombed-out Berlin but I find Jean Arthur as dull as dog water.

Power seems to be overacting a bit in his big scenes but it's really Leonard Vole overacting. By the way, check out (if you can find it) Power in Abandon Ship. He's great in it. Aka, Seven Waves Away.

It's "dishwater", r68. Dog water is just...water.

Couple of observations:

Off topic: Tyrone Power’s looks really fell off a cliff - I first saw him in “Witness for the Prosecution” and couldn’t understand what the fuss was about

On topic: one of the greatest things about “A Foreign Affair”!is Wilder’s unflinching gaze at bombed-out Berlin - often while “Isn’t It Romantic” plays as an underscore— a great comeuppance against the Nazis.

black market

There’s only one dame named “Arthur” around here, pal. And her named ain’t Jean. Got it?

True 67, Powers is good in"Witness" although many think he was miscast (too old, bloated etc.). He is believable as a slime ball and murderer.

True R67, Powers is good in"Witness" although many think he was miscast (too old, bloated etc.). He is believable as a slime ball and murderer.

Love Tyrone of the latter '40s in "Razor's Edge" and "Nightmare Alley." What a shocker how he looked just a decade later in his early '40s in "Witness for the Prosecution" and "The Sun Also Rises." A decade earlier Ty would have rocked those roles...

My impression of Tyrone Power is he fought his exceedingly handsome good looks in his youth by living hard and hoping he'd develop more lines and crags. Well, that worked out very well for him.

He was dead soon after the movie was released. So was Laughton who was only 57 when Witness was made but looks like shit ( as he should on the movie).

Jean Arthur had a face lift before her TV series. She also probably had at least one earlier that that, because she was still playing very young women well into her 30s and 40s. And her jawline was always flawless.

All those ladies had true old-fashioned full facelifts back then that were so much more effective than the plastic surgery you see now.

This is a weak take, ricksrealreel. Dietrich and Arthur were stars of this so they "stole" nothing from anyone. From John Lund? Who cares. He was never going to be a match.

I've never read where Jean Arthur had facelifts. As I wrote in my review, I'm sure used the same methods other aging divas did-- skin tapes, contoured makeup, wigs, and flattering lighting. The last photo that I posted in my review showed Jean looking her age at 75, but still attractive.

R82 Well, I read somewhere that a friend or colleage said she had a facelift before her TV show. Can't prove it as I don't know where I read it. I'm very interested in classic Hollywood stars and their looks. I also remember reading that Bette Davis once called up Henry Fonda because he had had his eyes done and she was thinking of doing it. But don't ask me where I read it.

This is something about Jean I just read so I remember where I read it: IMDB Trivia:

[quote]Howard Hawks and Jean Arthur did not get along during filming. Arthur was not used to Hawks' highly improvisational style, and when Hawks wanted Arthur to play Bonnie much in a subtly sexy way (not unlike his other "Hawksian women"), Arthur flatly said, "I can't do that kind of stuff." Hawks told Arthur at the end of the shoot, "You are one of the few people I've worked with that I don't think I've helped at all. Someday you can go see what I wanted to do because I'm gonna do this character all over again." Years later Hawks returned home to find Arthur waiting for him in his driveway. She had just seen his To Have and Have Not (1944) and confessed, "I wish I'd done what you'd asked me to do. If you ever make another picture with me, I'll promise to do any goddamn thing you want to do. If a kid [Lauren Bacall] can come in and do that kind of stuff, I certainly could do it." Hawks and Arthur never collaborated again.

What was the film Hawks did with Jean, r83?

R84 Only Angels Have Wings.

Like most of the female stars of the 30s and 40s, Jean Arthur had a very particular and unique schtick and stuck with it. To great success.

R86 Well she didn't always play it the same. She was the tough reporter in Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, The soft, sweet Penny in You Can't Take It With You, cynical Miss Saunders in Mr. Smith Goes To Washinton. The vulnerable, neurotic chick in The More The Merrier. An anal, frigid congressowoman in A Foreign Affair, the rancher's wife in Shane...

Jean Arthur has been rumored to have been a lesbian in a long term relationship with a woman who lived with her until the end of her life.

They didn’t “steal” the movie, they were its stars!

R89, Arthur had an affair with David O. Selznick in the 1930’s and they seriously considered marriage but Selznick chose a hierarchical match with Irene Mayer.

I wondered why Jean was considered for Scarlett O' Hara!

Marlene adored Mae West, their dressing rooms at Paramount were next to each other.

[quote] They could have made her look really beautiful.

We're not miracle workers!

How tall was Marlene, r92? Is Mae wearing her Mae West shoes?

One of my friends worked in summer theater as a young guy. When Marlene played the theater-in-the-round where he worked, it was his job to pick up and carry down to her the dozen roses a “fan” had thrown and that had landed in the aisle near the front. He said Marlene bought the roses and it was another kid’s job to toss them every night.

PS Of course she would always do a silent flirting bit with him when he handed her the roses.