MARLENE DIETRICH, SIDNEY TOLER | BLONDE VENUS (1932) Photo

[Los Angeles: Paramount, 1932]. Vintage original 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm.) black-and-white glossy silver gelatin photo. There are light signs of use at blank corners, about fine.

Marlene Dietrich was the true writer of the screenplay for this opus which took her from wealth to ruin to rags to fame to wealth again. The censors crossed out so much of her material (even in the pre-Code period) that by the time a final script was approved, she and director/mentor Joseph von Sternberg had little interest in making the film. They came through, though, with a brilliant odyssey highlighted by Dietrich in many moods, all behind heavy diffusion.

Here is Dietrich as the down-and-out vagrant Helen Faraday, with Sidney Toler as the detective on her trail. Photo coded 1385-87.