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
