Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend [Hardcover]

Steven Bach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992

Based on six years of research and writing, and 200 interviews conducted in three languages in a dozen countries, Bach's definitive biography focuses on Dietrich as both woman and myth. Contains over 100 photos, including family photos never before published, a complete bibliography and complete and correct theatre history, filmography, and discography.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This massive, admiring biography refutes the notion that Marlene Dietrich's femme fatale image was wholly the invention of director Josef von Sternberg. Bach, a film producer and author of Final Cut, who studied with von Sternberg, portrays the latter as a megalomaniac whose amorous frustrations with the star he had created drove him to maintain that she was a puppet who danced to his strings. Bach rejects the standard comparisons with Garbo as he plumbs Dietrich's special blend of erotic power, irony and humor and limns a strong-willed woman whose innumerable sexual affairs satisfied a simple need for companionship. He divulges that Dietrich's sister Elisabeth, whose existence the actress denied, belonged, with Elisabeth's husband, to a group that entertained Nazis at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Strong on film and stage criticism but less intimately revealing than Donald Spoto's Blue Angel (Forecasts, July 13), this engrossing biography is especially good on Dietrich's early career, her valiant anti-Nazi efforts and her phoenixlike rebirth as a troubadour-actress. More than 100 photos, a filmography and a discography will also please fans. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Dietrich will never have a more meticulous, eloquent, or sympathetic biographer." -- Times Literary Supplement

"If you open it to the right pages in the right mood, you can practically hear the applause still ringing." -- New York Times Book Review

"What a star biography should be but rarely is." -- Choice --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 626 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688071198
• ISBN-13: 978-0688071196
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,283,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dietrich: the Lord of Discipline, June 25, 2002

By 

R. Allen "rick926" (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Marlene Dietrich: Life And Legend (Paperback)

Having read Maria Riva's book on her mother along with Dietrich's own autobiography, I didn't really expect any new revelations from this book -- but I couldn't have been more wrong! Mr. Bach is to be congratulated on his fascinating and respectable work honoring Miss Dietrich and her life. What a remarkable performer and a remarkable human being. We could sure use a few more like her in today's world. This is a must read for fans of the Lady and the Legend!!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Legendary Life Wrapped in Purple Prose, March 10, 2009

By 

Graceann Macleod "Books Fuel My Life" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Steven Bach is a good writer. His prologue to this exhaustive biography (more than 600 pages, with 477 being text and the rest being copious filmography and source notes) whetted my appetite for something really special. He shares with us that Marlene knew of his work on this book and tried to stop it. He tells us that she had a sister whose existence she denied. He advises of his relationship with Josef von Sternberg, and how it informs this work. I couldn't wait to start reading.

However, when I actually did start reading, there were some pages that were so dry that I felt I should stop to blow dust off of them. It isn't that Marlene didn't have a fascinating life, and it isn't that Bach hasn't gone to herculean lengths to chronicle that life. There are things here that he uncovered despite years of obfuscation on the part of Frau Dietrich. It's that he takes such a long time in telling us these things, in self-consciously "clever" prose, that by the time he gets to the point, I almost stopped caring about what that point was.

Further, it was clear to me that von Sternberg, Dietrich's Svengali, was an unpleasant piece of work. Bach is fairly transparent in detailing Sternberg's pettiness and downright cruelty in dealing with Marlene and others. In my personal opinion, many of her worst films were made with this man, but still I found myself reading a book that, for a segment of time, was more a biography of this director than of the lady I'd picked it up learn about. She denied herself health and wealth in order to do whatever he asked of her, and to save him from himself (to no avail), and yet he continually treated her like dirt. In 477 pages of biography, I was never able to discern why she allowed him to do so.

I have had great respect for Marlene Dietrich ever since reading Leatrice Gilbert Fountain's "Dark Star," about her father, John Gilbert. That book details his relationship with Marlene and how she attempted to care for him at the end of his life. My respect deepened when I learned of her heroic work during World War II. It was these things I looked forward to most in reading "Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend" and, for the most part, they were covered well. Even here, however, Bach can't resist the cleverness he carries in his own perception. "Marlene made Technicolor tests with John Gilbert, who would have played in 'Desire.' He died instead." True? Well, yes. Necessary or in good taste to state it in this way? No. These sorts of "witty" asides grew very stale very quickly.

And yet I kept reading - the research is unparalleled, and the life is unmatched. Bach had access to information and records that had eluded previous biographers. On occasion, the information is provided in such a way that it is fascinating verging on beautiful. If that were consistently true, this would be a five-star review.

I said at the outset, Steven Bach is a good writer. He could be great, if he self-edited a bit (saying the same thing ten different ways in the same paragraph is not artful, only tiresome) and if he let the artist's life speak for itself without attempting to inject his own weak witticisms. This book is well worth reading in order to learn about Marlene, but there is a lot to wade through in order to earn that knowledge.