Customer Reviews

Foreign Affair [VHS]

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Billy Wilder was such a genius in film-making,it's astounding. What really set him apart, I think, was his knack for knowing who to cast in what role. What really gives this film its kick, is Marlene Dietrich in a role that proved once and for all that yes, she can act!
Set in Berlin right after the end of World War Two, and at the beginning of the American occupation of their sector of Berlin,
the film is really a dialogue on the human trait of survival through the worst. The main charactors are bent on surviving their individual circumstances, as each interacts with the others in the story.
Dietrich portrays a former Nazi lounge singer, keeping an American officer sugar-daddy so she can stay alive and well in Berlin, John Lund plays her American officer on a leash, and Jean Arthur is the upright(and uptight) US congresswoman from Iowa who throws a wrench into everybodys life by arriving to check on troop morale.
This film has many truly wicked one-liners, and puts one to mind of Dietrich's days with Von Sternberg, what with all the shadows and over-head lights. Certainly, Dietrich definately benefited from this, she never looked at all her 47 years. Jean Arthur, I've heard, wasn't pleased with the pains Dietrich took with the lighting, but mainly she wasn't too thrilled with her part. She needn't have worried. She portrays the straight-laced congresswoman perfectly, the right foil to Dietrich's sultry singer. Each actor is just right in their role, and one also wonders why John Lund sort of disappeared after this, he was very good in this film.
The cast and script are just perfect, and the lighting and photography are top-notch. This film was a sucess, but due to its subject matter and time frame(at a time when most americans still thought of Germany as the enemy), it wasn't a huge hit. However, it did rejuvenate Dietrich's career yet again, for perhaps the hundredth time. Well worth having in your collection!

An Iowa congresswoman (Jean Arthur) is sent to the ruins of Berlin after the war to check on the moral of U.S. troupes. What she finds is a bunch of soldiers having too much fun with the German women, including an Army Captain, (John Lund) who is having too much fun with Marlene Dietrich, a local caberet entertainer and Nazi. Arthur tries to expose Dietrich's Nazi past, while at the same time Lund is trying to protect her. And of course, Arthur falls in love with Lund in the process. The comedy is directed by the great Billy Wilder, who flew a film crew to Berlin to shoot scenes of the bombed-out city, making it look like the entire film was shot on location. Dietrich was given 3 songs to perform in the film, "Illusions", "Black Market", and "Ruins of Berlin". She had returned to the role that made her famous almost 20 years earlier. At first, Dietrich didn't want to do the film because of her characters association with the Nazi party. She eventually took the part after Billy Wilder convinced her how fabulous a role it was. "Foreign Affair" was a major success for Dietrich, putting her back at the top of the list of Hollywoods most glamours leading ladies. During filming, legendary costumer Edith Head was quoted as saying "...you don't design clothes 'for' Dietrich, you design them 'with' her." This film is a must see for all Dietrich fans. It is one of the last films of Dietrich to be made available on video, and like they say, they save the best for last!

Hard to believe this film is barely acknowledged today,except in maybe a cultish way. If Carroll Reeds' THE THIRD MAN was the great post-war Vienna must-see, Billy Wilder's A FOREIGN AFFAIR must be the great post-war Berlin must-see. This one starts out with some of the best aerial footage of bombed-out Berlin ever seen. The ruins seem to go on for miles. Certain burnt-out US soldiers main concerns are making a killing on the black market, and making a hit with the local Frauleins. Mr. Lund's character says it best, that he,like many of his peers, is sick of the battles, politics,phony causes, and just wants to live, if that's possible. The civilians go from one moment to the next in earnest persuit of mere survival. The naive US Congresswoman(Arthur) wants to "reform" these military slackers,but she slowly realizes her cause is pretty pointless. Then we have the sultry cabaret singer (Dietrich) living in a bombed out ruin,who may have some answers to nasty questions about war criminals. Some great scenes are here,including Mr. Lund doing the old tablecloth trick (ie. pulling off a tablecloth so the silverware stays in place.) Great bar/carbaret scenes with Marlene making an attempt to keep the drunken soldiers under control. And a lot more...Like THE THIRD MAN, this one reeks with world weary atmosphere and cynicism, the latter a staple in any Wilder movie. Don't miss this one!!

WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO EDIT THIS ONE IN DVD FORMAT?

This is maybe my favorite Marlene Dietrich movie, plus it's directed by the great Billy Wilder, and co-star Jean Arthur is no slouch either. I hope someone releases this on a DVD that plays in America. Wilder's film is set in cynical post-WWII Berlin, amid the ruins. Indeed one of the three Frederick Hollander songs in the movie is called "Amid the Ruins of Berlin." Dietrich plays a hard-headed survivor who collaborated with the Nazis. (Dietrich in real life was very anti-Hitler, and entertained US and British troops tirelessly.) She is a nightclub singer, and is involved with an American soldier (John Lund); she hooks up with whomever is in power, and now it's the Americans. Prim Jean Arthur, as a visiting Congresswoman, is sent to investigate post-war Berlin, and is mistaken for a wandering fraulein by two American soldiers, and taken to this smoky nightclub where she is shocked, shocked, shocked by evidence of black market and moral "decay." Dietrich, looking stunning in a form fitting, glittering evening dress, speak-sings "Black Market," a very cyncial and intriguing song. (Hollander, by the way, also wrote the music to the famous "Falling In Love" song that Dietrich sang in her first film as the seedy Lola, in the German classic "The Blue Angel." The third song in this movie by Hollander is probably the prettiest - "Want to Buy Some Illusions?" sung by Dietrich while Jean Arthur is having her heart-broken.) Jean Arthur, who I really like, is a trifle pushed in this film, but still her sweetness and disappointment in love register in the film. And Dietrich is remarkably charismatic in this film - she's at the height of her "icon-ness," and her singing -- she has as little voice as Lotte Lenya did, but both were fabulous singers nonetheless -- is evocative, strange and haunting. Anyway, a really interesting film, it deserves to be preserved and available.

Marlene Dietrich, Jean Arthur and John Lund star in A FOREIGN AFFAIR, a humorous romantic drama centered around post-war Berlin.

Erika Von Shluetow (Marlene Dietrich) is an ex-Nazi now reduced to doing cabaret in a blackmarket nightclub. She is being courted by an American soldier, Captain Pringle (John Lund).

On her way to Berlin is Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur), an icy woman from America, who is going to record her visit and report back to the government. Erika is meant to be doing time in a labour camp for her Nazi dealings, but Pringle always manages to get her through.

Phoebe finds out about her and decides to track her down, and Pringle decides the only way he can save her life is to lead on Phoebe and bribe her into letting Erika go.

Billy Wilder's film is a joyous delight, with Dietrich and Arthur in top form. Dietrich performs the Frederick Hollander songs 'Black Market', 'Illusions', and 'Ruins Of Berlin'.

In reality Dietrich was horrified at the thought of playing a Nazi femme fatale, as she was very strongly against Hitler and what he was doing to her homeland. During the war she entertained the Allied troops.

I saw Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair some years ago in a film festival and have never forgotten it. It's among Billy Wilder's best - every bit as hilarious as Some Like It Hot and far more biting.

The story is a retelling of Ninotchka. Instead of a prudish Soviet female functionary coming to permissive prewar Paris, we have a prudish American Congresswoman coming to lawless postwar Berlin. In both cases, the lady falls in love with a seductive man who represents everything she rejects and who soon shakes her out of ideology and into joy.

This resemblance can't be a coincidence. Billy Wilder wrote both films, a mere half-dozen years apart. Audiences were supposed to see the parallels. Unfortunately, in America at least, they never got the chance.

Jean Arthur ably plays the congresswoman and John Lund the morally compromised American army officer, but the picture belongs to Marlene Dietrich as a Nazi celebrity reduced to singing in a sleazy cabaret and trading sex with Lund for stockings, cigarettes and protection.

If A Foreign Affair was pulled from theaters almost sooner than it opened, that probably had less to do with the way it humanized the Germans than the way it humanized the Russians. The story is set in 1946, before the Cold War began, when Russians and Americans could still move freely back and forth between their respective zones of occuation and drunkenly watch Dietrich together. By the time the film came out in 1947, however,the very idea of such fraternization was outrageous and Hollywood was leaning over backward to display its anti-Communist credentials.

Well, all that was long ago and the Cold War is long over. Yet, despite the passage of time, A Foreign Affair seems less dated than Ninotchka or even Some Like It Hot. The human behaviors it observes are still with us, and - in the hands of a master like Wilder - still hilarious. Won't some DVD publisher please rescue this film from limbo, so it can finally take its rightful place in film history?

A Foreign Affair is a film about post-WWII Germany filled with demolished buildings, the American army, and sex. Some American Congressmen (and women) go to check on the status of the moral and the troops only to find that things are far different than they are perceived to be back home.

Jean Arthur plays a frumpy Congresswoman out to find corruption and get rid of it. Arthur is funny and appropriately prudish in her role. She is an average beauty with a knack for being nervous and likable, a girl-next-door type. Her character falls in love with an army officer played by John Lund who seduces her in order to hide the fact that his lover is a former Nazi.

John Lund is an adept actor who gets to show off his skills by being humorous, serious, and romantic all in the same film.

Marlene Dietrich plays the Nazi lover, a departure from her true wartime image. She is wry, intelligent, and seductive in her role, a true asset to the film.

There are three songs in this film as there often are in Dietrich films. The first is "Black Market," a low key nightclub song which is mostly spoken. It is a complex song lyrically, but the melody is mellow and slow. The second song is "Illusion," an absolutely gorgeous tune sang surprisingly well by Dietrich. This is the song that will stick in your head after the film is over. The last song is called "The Ruins of Berlin," a fun song sung in Dietrich's typical vibrating voice.

This film is filled with drama and comedy, making it appealing for a wide audience. The ending is appropriate and the story is never boring.

Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett adapted this jewel from a post war novel and the dialogue crackels with wit and intelligence from the first frame on. It is a wonderfully cynical take on The Marshall Plan and how three lives intersect in the bombed out ruins of Berlin, circa 1947. Dietrich is delicious as a caberet singers trying to survive after being a plaything of a Gestapo Colonel. In her late forties, Dietrich lights up the screen she appears to be ageless. Jean Arthur is playing a corn fed, button downed Congress woman from Iowa and these two ladies vye for the affections of an American Captain played by John Lund (who's very appealing in this role). Lots of social commentary woven into the story and the footage of the ruins of Berlin is staggering. This is a fine Wilder film that doesn't always make it on his list of achievments but it is worth the time and money to hear that great Wilder and Brackett badinage.

Believe it or not, the love goddess of the 20th century is first seen brushing her teeth in this film. It just keeps getting better, honestly. Jean Arthur's a delight, John Lund is flustered, but Marlene's the one to watch.