Morocco (1930) on Netflix
Passed19301h 32m
A French Foreign Legion unit comes back from a campaign in Mogador as the nightclub singer Amy Jolly arrives by ship. La Bessière offers his help; Legionnaire Tom Brown watches her sing.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb7.0/108,534 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
Amy Jolly, a disillusioned nightclub singer, sails to Mogador, where a French Foreign Legion unit has come back from a campaign. The wealthy La Bessière asks to assist her on the voyage and she turns him down. She becomes the headliner at a nightclub, taking the stage in a man's tuxedo, top hat and tails, and the crowd boos her. Tom Brown, a Legionnaire in the audience, starts clapping, and the rest of the house follows. Amy sings, kisses a woman who wears a flower in her hair, and tosses the flower to Tom. At a second performance she hands him her key with his change. Going to her house that night, Tom meets Madame Caesar, the wife of his commanding officer, and refuses her. Amy asks him to leave before anything serious begins.
Cast
- Thomas A. Curranas Minor Role (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Morocco (1930)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Morocco was shot entirely in southern California, yet the Moroccan government ran announcements in The New York Times inviting American tourists to enjoy the country "just as Gary Cooper [was seduced by the] unforgettable landscapes", and Josef von Sternberg personally reassured the Pasha of Marrakesh that the film had not been shot in his domain.
- Director Josef von Sternberg wrote in his 1965 autobiography that producer Adolph Zukor told him Paramount "had been saved from bankruptcy" by the box office success of Morocco.
- Gary Cooper and director Josef von Sternberg did not get along: Sternberg filmed so that Cooper had to look up at Marlene Dietrich, emphasizing her at his expense, and Cooper complained to his studio bosses and got it stopped.
- Resentful at playing second fiddle while Sternberg's attention went to Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper brought his mistress, the Mexican actress Lupe Vélez, onto the set and demonstratively had her sit on his lap between takes and kissed her as often as possible.
- Cinematographer Lee Garmes and director Josef von Sternberg developed lighting methods that enhanced Marlene Dietrich's best facial features while obscuring her slightly bulbous nose.
- During script-writing the character of Amy Jolly was toned down from the novel: her prostitution and drug addiction were removed as unacceptable even under the looser censorship of 1930 Hollywood.
SPOILER
Josef von Sternberg disliked the novel's ending, in which Amy abandons Tom and boards a ship for Buenos Aires, and gave his film a more romantic finish in which Amy chooses to be with Brown by going with him into the Sahara.
