The Devil Is a Woman
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Josef Von Sternberg
Marlene Dietrich
Lionel Atwill
Edward Everett Horton
Alison Skipworth
Cesar Romero
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
During carnival week in the south of Spain, Antonio Galvan, expatriate of Spain, sees Concha Perez and becomes infatuated with her. He then meets his old friend Don Pasqual, who relates the story of how Concha ruined him: Pasqual rescued Concha from work in a cigarette factory, gave her enough money to live on and proposed marriage to her, but she disappeared after sending him a letter saying she never wanted to see him again. Three months later, Concha came to ask him for money and professed her love for him, but after receiving the money she refused his second proposal. Six months later, he ran into her at a nightclub where she was the lead singer. He still loved her, although she was consorting with a young bullfighter. After one show, Pasqual broke into her room and beat her upon discovering her with the bullfighter. Later, he bought Concha's contract from the nightclub owner, and Concha rode off with the bullfighter as Pasqual watched from the balcony. Because of their association with Concha, Pasqual lost his military commission and the bullfighter committed suicide. Pasqual makes Antonio swear that he will not see Concha, but Antonio has coffee with her, breaking his promise so he can exact revenge for his friend. Antonio falls in love with her, though, and when Pasqual breaks in, he challenges Antonio to a duel. The next morning they meet and Antonio shoots Pasqual, then the police arrest him. Concha uses her feminine wiles to win his release and two passports, but as she and Antonio cross the border together and are about to board a train for Paris, she changes her mind and takes the return train to be with Pasqual, breaking Antonio's heart.
Director
Josef Von Sternberg
Cast
Marlene Dietrich
Lionel Atwill
Edward Everett Horton
Alison Skipworth
Cesar Romero
Don Alvarado
Tempe Piggott
Paco Moreno
Morgan Wallace
Jill Dennett
Lawrence Grant
Luisa Espinal
Hank Mann
Donald Reed
Eddie Borden
Crew
Lucien Ballard
Travis Banton
Arthur Camp
Emanuel Cohen
Fred Datig
John Dos Passos
Hans Dreier
Gaston Duval
Evelyn Earle
A. E. Freudeman
Richard Harlan
David Hertz
Eric Locke
John Miles
Harry D. Mills
Ralph Rainger
Nikolay Rimsky-korsakov
Leo Robin
Oran Schee
Andrea Setaro
Josef Von Sternberg
Josef Von Sternberg
Henry West
Neil Wheeler
Stanley Williams
Anita Wilson
S. K. Winston
Sam Winston
Adolph Zukor
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The Devil Is a Woman - The Devil is a Woman
The storyline of The Devil Is a Woman unfolds as Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill), an officer of the Civil Guard, tries to dissuade Antonio (Cesar Romero), a young revolutionary, from becoming involved with Concha Perez, a beautiful but heartless factory girl who makes a game of seducing and discarding her lovers. In flashback, we see how Concha transforms Don Pasqual from a respected member of the community into her willing victim - a puppet she can manipulate for her own pleasure. After subjecting Pasqual to endless ridicule and humiliation, Concha grows bored with her toy and abandons him, though not before ruining his career and reputation. This tale of woe, however, only increases Antonio's interest in the enigmatic Concha and he soon finds himself yielding to her irresistible sexual allure.
Originally, John Dos Passos had been assigned to write the script for The Devil Is a Woman, but when he fell ill, Passos's incomplete screenplay was given to von Sternberg's longtime assistant, Sam Winston, who completed it. There was also a major change in the casting. Joel McCrea was first hired to play Antonio but was soon fired for insubordination. According to his replacement, Cesar Romero, von Sternberg was a complete tyrant on the set. In Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich by Donald Spoto, Romero said that "Von Sternberg made everyone's life miserable...but he was especially mean to Dietrich. He bawled her out in front of everyone, made her repeat difficult scenes endlessly and needlessly until she just cried and cried. 'Do it again!' he shouted. 'Faster!....Slower!....' Well, he had been mad about her, after all, and now that their relationship was ending he took it out on her and everybody else." The director also closely supervised every visual detail of the entire picture from the opening six-minute carnival scene to Marlene's flamboyant costumes; he painted the sets white in order to reflect more light, and for the duel scene in the forest, he spray-painted everything with aluminum to get the desired effect.
It was no surprise when the Hays Office voiced their objections to The Devil Is a Woman after they saw a final cut of the film. First of all, they didn't like the title. They also suggested a different ending, one in which Concha looks into a mirror and sees herself as "a scrawny, impoverished bag." Luckily, those recommendations weren't enforced, but the film did lose seventeen minutes of footage - including the musical number, "If It Isn't Pain (Then It Isn't Love)" - going from a running time of ninety-three minutes to seventy-six. The bad luck continued when critics weighed in with their reviews; typical of the majority response was this edict from The Herald Tribune - "almost devoid of dramatic substance." The ambassador from Spain (the setting for The Devil Is a Woman), however, was quite affected by the film and proclaimed it "an insult to Spain and to the Spaniards." He actually succeeded in getting his government to issue a warning to Paramount - unless they withdrew the film from circulation immediately, all of the studio's pictures would be banned in Spain. Eventually, the U.S. government stepped in and ordered Paramount to destroy all prints of the film. For many years, it was believed that The Devil Is a Woman was indeed a lost film until von Sternberg's personal copy turned up for a revival screening at the 1959 Venice Film Festival.
Seen today, The Devil Is a Woman is the perfect summation of von Sternberg's collaboration with Dietrich. As a sensual and unobtainable object of beauty who lures men to their doom, Dietrich gives a beautifully stylized performance that treads a fine line between ambiguity and self-parody. And von Sternberg's gifts as a director were at their height, transforming a melodramatic tale into a rich exploration of the director's personal obsessions and themes. But the film, not unlike the main character of Concha, brought nothing but bad luck to von Sternberg and his career never recovered from the failure. Ironically, Dietrich would experience a major career revival four years later with Destry Rides Again (1939), which lasted until her retirement from the screen, while von Sternberg's association with the actress had the reverse effect on his career - a bitter ending so similar to many of his films like The Blue Angel, for which he had created the Dietrich persona.
The Devil Is a Woman was previously filmed in 1920 with Geraldine Farrar and also in 1929 with Conchita Montenegro. Brigitte Bardot starred in a version and Luis Bunuel directed an inspired adaptation of the Louys novel (it was his final film) entitled That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), which had the novel idea of casting two different actresses to play Concha; her cool, manipulative side represented by Carole Bouquet and her carnal, passionate side represented by Angela Molina. The definitive performance, however, is by Dietrich, and for anyone curious about the films she made with von Sternberg, The Devil Is a Woman is essential viewing.
Producer: Adolph Zukor
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Screenplay: John Dos Passos and Sam Winston, based on the novel La Femme et le Pantin
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard, Josef von Sternberg
Editing: Sam Winston
Music: Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Art Direction: Hans Dreier, Josef von Sternberg
Cast: Marlene Dietrich (Concha Perez), Lionel Atwill (Don Pasqual), Cesar Romero (Antonio Galvan), Edward Everett Horton (Don Paquito), Alison Skipworth (Senora Perez), Don Alvarado (Morenito), Morgan Wallace (Dr. Mendez).
BW-85m.
By Jeff Stafford
The Devil Is a Woman - The Devil is a Woman
Quotes
Trivia
Joel McCrea left the cast after one day's work because of a disagreement with director Josef von Sternberg. Joseph Breen of the Hays Office suggested an ending in which Pasqual shoots Concha so that she could not get off scot-free after years of bad behavior. Although that was rejected, several cuts were eventually made to eliminate sexual innuendos.
The Spanish government threatened to bar all Paramount films from Spain and its territories unless the film was withdrawn from worldwide circulation. They protested the unfavorable portrayal of the Spanish police. Paramount destroyed the original print after its initial run, and it remained out of circulation until 1959.
Notes
The working titles of this film were Caprice Espagnole and Carnival in Spain. This was Josef von Sternberg's last film with Marlene Dietrich, whose husband, Rudolph Sieber, acted as assistant to Sternberg on this film, according to the pressbook in copyright records. According to a news item in Hollywood Reporter, Joel McCrea had a disagreement with Sternberg after one day's work on the film and left the cast. However, according to Daily Variety, McCrea left the film after two days because the "male [lead] called for hot Spanish love which director claims McCrea played with too much Nordic restraint." Correspondence and memos in the MPAA/PCA files at the AMPAS library from the MPPDA office indicates that in April 1935, the film was approved by the MPPDA, but was not viewed. When Will H. Hays, president of the MPPDA, did view the film, he became concerned that the story made "adultery appear profitable," and put the film up for reevaluation. In a letter to Paramount, dated April 1, 1935, Joseph I. Breen, director of the AMPP, suggested changes in order to diminish the "general flavor" of Concha's promiscuity, and also suggested a new ending, in which Concha would be shot by Pasqual while pleading his forgiveness, in order to "clearly and unmistakably establish the fact that she cannot get off scott-free after years of despicable conduct." After another appeal from the Hays Office to Adolph Zukor, five eliminations were made, including a shot of Concha rubbing her leg against Pasqual, a speech by Pasqual in which he admits he "submitted," and three other lines containing sexual innuendo.
Paramount received an advisory from the Spanish government to "withdraw from circulation the Paramount picture titled The Devil Is a Woman [or] the government will prohibit absolutely in the entire territory of the Spanish Republic and indefinitely all pictures of said concern." A news item in Hollywood Reporter reported that Adolph Zukor had announced that Paramount would withdraw the film if they found the Spanish government's objections were "based on sound grounds, which would be settled after a series of conferences." Daily Variety noted in a November 1935 news item that Paramount had agreed to withdraw all copies of the film worldwide, and that prior to the film's withdrawal, riots occurred in front of the Paramount theater in Madrid where it was being shown. As a result of Paramount's agreement, Spanish authorities were to continue to allow the exhibition of Paramount films in Spain. A 1936 article in New York Times notes that Paramount destroyed the original print of the film at the demand of the Spanish government, who protested the unfavorable portrayal of the Spanish police. A news item in the New York American newspaper noted that Germany also banned the film in response to the protest by Spain. The film was released in Australia as Carnival in Spain. Daily Variety timed the Los Angeles release at 93 minutes, while the New York release is timed at 76 minutes. The Devil Is a Woman won the 1935 Venice Film Festival category for Best Photography. According to Sternberg's autobiography, Fun in a Chinese Laundry, the director originally intended the film to be called Capriccio Espagnol, but the title was vetoed by powerful Paramount director Ernst Lubitsch in favor of its release title. The film was taken out of circulation until 1959, when it was shown at the Venice Film Festival. Other films based on the same source are Goldwyn Pictures Corp. 1920 film The Woman and the Puppet, directed by Reginald Barker, and starring Geraldine Ferrar and Lou Tellegen, and Luis Buñuel's 1977 film, That Obscure Object of Desire.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1935
Released in United States on Video October 1998
Released in United States 1935
Released in United States on Video October 1998