Product Description
"Gossipy...Elabroately detailed...Greatly entertaining...Riva leaves no sequin unturned."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Marlene Deitrich was considered one of the most glamorous stars of her day. A determined perfectionist with an incredible ego, her beauty, her style, her sense of the outrageous, made her a star. In this candid, illuminating, and detailed biography full of photographs, her only daughter Maria Riva, tells the incredible, fascinating, story of the star's life and career, loves and hates, hits and misses, as only a daughter can.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

slow to arrive, but within the "legal" time frame, oh pooh
the product was a book.
the packing and shipping should have gotten the book, by media mail at the slowest, sooner.
it was a gift for the sept 27th. it didnt come until the last day of the time frame. so there ya have it. its just a book. coulda been faster, compared to other venders.
that said, it is a nice copy of the book at a fair price.

Too long and disorganized
This biography is far too long, repetitive and at times innundated with unnecessary details.One does not want to know every time Dietrich consumed epsom salts or had a fight with a lover or a filmamker.The material is not always well organized and it is not always clear. For example Dietrich moves from one place to another during the war and it's not always clear when she is in Germany and when in France.Riva's jelousy of her mother is also too obvious and so one highly suspects that the portrayal is biased.Still, the book manages to give one a good idea what kind of person Dietrich was and what kind of life she had.While Riva comes off as angry and sarcastic, one often feels sorry for her mother.Dietrich herself seems to have grown up in a family where emotion was not freely displayed or encouraged.So she did not know any better.But while many other stars neglected and abandoned their children, she at least was always dragging her daughter along. And in her own way, she remained loyal to the husband and the daughter throughout her life.She supported them financially, she wrote to them, telephoned and brought them to her at least when she needed them.And that seemed often.As Remarque said, she loved her family the way she knew how.I think Marlene's chasing after so many men, and according to Riva, not for sex, shows her insecurity and her insatiable need to be loved. Riva would have preferred to be a daughter of a stay-at-home mother who bakes cookies and takes her kids to school.I am sure many other kids would want a movie star for a mother. Marlene at least seems to have cooked plenty of goulash.I think that Riva devoted too much time to herself in this book, portraying herself as a victim, only to appear weak.She is not the only child of oppressive and selfish parents, but many others have rebelled and left the situation as soon as they grew up.Riva remained an obedient child all her life, silently seething and taking her revenge after her parents' death.Too late, I'm afraid.With a better editor, this could have been a much better biography.

Most Annoying
There are a great many reasons to dislike this book. It is badly organized, written, edited, and proofread. Perhaps the most annoying thing about the book, however, is Riva's inclination to use what is ostensibly a biography of Dietrich as a vehicle for Riva's own autobiography. I'm sure it comes as a bitter disappointment to Riva, but we're still not really interested in her.

Boring - What a shame of how to remember one's Mother.
Trying to get through this book is like watching paint dry.It's written so poorly.Every stinking detail about Marlene's life.Could've been written better.I don't care how many times her breasts were taped up or how many times she wet her pants when she laughed.I'm sure there were more important things that happened.The way this story about her life is written and all her lovers and how she flaunts them in her husband's face, makes Britany Spears and Lindsay Lohan look like saints.Even Paris Hilton is looking more saintly after reading this book!What a shame of how to remember one's Mother.

Utterly BRILLIANT!!!!!!
I applaud Maria Riva for writing this biography on her mother, the one and only Marlene Dietrich!
A friend highly reccomended this book to me and I'm so glad I took his advice on reading it.
One would think this book would be either sugarcoated or vindictive. But it's neither thrashing nor overly sweet. It's an honest book written by a daughter who has witness firsthand all her life the woman with the face. It's revengeful at times but in my opinion rightfully so. But Maria Riva doesn't forget to give credit where credit is due.
The moment that stood out for me in the book was Marlene in her old age. It's been said before that complicated liberal women who cannot give in to humbleness in any shape or form have the unfortunate destiny of ending up alone and most of them would be okay with that. Women who play by their own rules. That was Marlene in my opinion. I believe most men couldn't fully comprehend her and basically all felt betrayed. So they left the sultry film goddess!
It's sad to read the part about the woman who could've had any lover male or female and at her senior age, ended up alone looking distraught in bed. A woman who couldn't come to terms with her aging and became an alcoholic because of that.
Maria's childhood wasn't easy as I imagine. And I believe because of that, she fully embraced her very own marriage and children.
She avoided the mistakes that her mother might've made depending on who you're asking.

Highly reccomended!!!! ... Read more

Product Description
Marlene Dietrich never threw away anything.

She kept her good-luck black rag doll (it appeared with her in The Blue Angel and followed her to dressing tables on every movie set). She kept the letters (every last one) she received from her lovers and her husband of fifty-three years. She kept every article of clothing made for her by the great French couturiers and the legendary Hollywood costume designers. She kept everything.

And she believed in storage. Six storage companies, from New York to California, London, and Paris, held pieces of Miss Dietrich’s life, locked away for decades like the pieces of the life of Charles Foster Kane. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid in rental fees. After Dietrich’s death, the articles were gathered together—twenty-five thousand objects and eighteen thousand images. Some were auctioned at Sotheby’s in Los Angeles. The major pieces of Dietrich’s vast collection were assembled in an archive and given to the FilmMuseum Berlin.

Now, her treasures are brought together in 289 photographs from her own collection, with extended captions by her daughter, Maria Riva.

We see Dietrich as a child, in velvet dress and golden ringlets...Dietrich as a young actress in Berlin...as the newly married Mrs. Rudolf Sieber, standing proudly with her husband. We see love letters and letters marking the ends of affairs. We see Dietrich in Hollywood...with Chaplin...with Fritz Lang...at the Paramount commissary...Dietrich captured in snapshots by her movie-creator, Josef von Sternberg...Dietrich as a mother.

We see her at war...in never-before-published photographs of a USO tour...in uniform (tailor-made for her, of course) disembarking from a transport plane...Dietrich with the 82nd Airborne...Dietrich rolling into Germany in
a U.S. tank.

Here she is with her directors and fellow actors: Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Ernst Lubitsch, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power. Here are portraits of her by Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Milton Greene, John Engstead. And here is Marlene, shimmering, in Las Vegas, the consummate performer, and at the Palladium in London, triumphant!
... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Marlene Dietrich's picture appears in the dictionary next to the term "pack rat" :D
Seriously.This lady apparently never threw away ANYTHING.She didn't even throw away the "Glorious Aryan Motherhood" medal she got from the Nazis in 1938 in an effort to entice her back to the Third Reich, though she was much offended by the "award" and described her displeasure in pithy terms.Conversely, she proudly told her daughter, Maria Riva, that whereas most daughters inherit medals from their fathers, Maria would inherit medals from her mother, and these decorations (including the U.S. Medal of Freedom and two degrees of the French Legion of Honor) are displayed in one of the book's many color photographs.



This splendid book is a Marlene Dietrich museum all by its lonesome.Gorgeous photographs from every stage of her career (including some very sexy and risque ones displaying her famous legs to best advantage!) are coupled with a visual catalogue of the most interesting of her clothing and possessions, including her famous good-luck rag doll, which appeared in several of her movies, and a pair of matched pistols she received from General George Patton (with whom she is rumored to have had an affair) during World War II.



Speaking of which, Marlene's WWII service, one of the great defining experiences of her life, gets full attention in this book, with many very striking photos of herself at the front.My favorite pictures from this period show her watching a training drop by the 82nd Airborne Division, the unit closest to her heart, in Holland in early 1945.



Marlene, of course, is famed as one of the great style-setters of the 20th century, and we see many, many photos of her outfits and accessories, both as display items and when she was wearing them.



Can I use the word "splendid" twice in one review? :) Because that is exactly what this book is.It's a bargain at any price you care to name, and one of the best retrospectives on any great film star I've ever seen.

La Dietrich
If you were a fan of Dietrich and were allowed to own only ONE book about this woman, then this should be the book to own.To reiterate another reviewer's thought -- it is EXQUISITE.

Am amazing book!
This is a dream of a book. Full of glorious photos and facts. I highly reccommend this to all Dietrich and film fans. All public figures should be the subject of a book like this.

Photographs of Beauty
A delicacy! The best book of photographs I have seen on Dietrich and a compendium of beauty, not only hers but all that was created through and with her. A must have book.

wonderful glimpse of a star
I simply had to have this book when I first heard about it, being the huge Dietrich fan that I am. I couldn't wait for it to arrive, and when it did come in, I ripped the box open. The book was truly worth the wait! Filled with photos of incredible costumes, rare "in-life" moments, private letters from lovers, this book helps create an understanding of "Dietrich", the person. No book, no film, no insight could ever truly capture all the many mysteries that exist in each and every person. In Dietrich, there seemed to be many more than usual. While not going into great depth as to why she had all those lovers, or how she learned to create and control her incredible image, the book does offer an amazing trip down Dietrich Lane, which any Marlene fan will absolutely adore. The book is well worth the price, as it fills 260 pages with 289 photos, many not seen before. A must-have for Dietrich fans! ... Read more

Product Description
The career of Marlene Dietrich has spanned more than half a century to include films, recordings and radio, stage and television performances throughout the world. The public figure whose first or last name alone can conjure up instant recognition is a status attained by very few. That it should be accompanied by respect, admiration and even adoration is rarer still.In this edition Marlene offers her unique blend of wit, a sometimes mordant humor, sensitivity and acute observations of the world as she has known and, to some extent, shaped it. By blending the absolutely practical, (see EATING, MILK, MATERNITY BLUES), with her whimsical, poetic and sometimes moving observations, (see HEMINGWAY, RICHARD BURTON, JUDY GARLAND, THE CAMERA), Dietrich creates in yet another field that special magic with which she has held the world enthralled for decades. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A zany delight, well ahead of it's time.
A collection of opinions on random words listed alphabetically published in 1962.....sounds pretty dry....butwith the sharpwitted Miss Dietrich behind those thoughts, this book is nothing less than utterly brilliant...andat times funnier than all those played out latenight jokesters rolled together. The legendary glamour queen's absolutely straightforward(and seemingly spontaneous)responses go from dull, peculiar, strangely personal and highly sentimental to outright wacky and some so outrageously funny (and seriously honest) , you'll be quoting her frequently! A perfect book for roadtrips and for fueling a party that's losing it's fizz.

THIS IS IT!
THIS BOOK IS THE ULTIMATE PORTRAIT OF A LEGEND, IN HER OWN WORDS. AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT A DAY BY DAY ACCOUNT, HER VEIWS, OPINIONS, AND RECIPIES, TELL THE READER MORE ABOUT THE WOMAN THAT WAS BEHIND ONE OF THE MOST UNFORGETTABLE IMAGES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. SHE WOULD FOREVER CHANGE THE WAY THE WORLD WOULD LOOK AT WOMEN, AGE, SEX, AND FAME. ESSENTIAL!

One of the funniest books I can imagine
Here are Marlene Dietrich's thoughts.All of them. And in no particular order other than alphabetical.

You won't wonder for one second whether or not she had a ghostwriter, because what ghostwriter could ever have dreamed up something as bizarre as this collection of non sequiturs? Her thoughts range not only from "Astaire, Fred" ("Elegant! Elegant! Elegant!") to "Zabaglione" (one of the many, MANY recipes she provides which consists--like most of her recipes--of sugar, egg yolks, and cream, in varying proportions) but also her thoughts on the Beatles, preparing meat, and other topics of mindboggling importance.

After reading this book, you'll never again be able to look at eggs without thinking of La Dietrich's mysterious comment about them: "I love them! I eat them!"

Hilarious.
This book is great!Dietrich had a sense of humor, which she displays in this book.She calls it her "gallows humor."The book is an alphabetical list of words, and Dietrich's thoughts on each of them.Someare expected, like "sex," but some are completely out of theblue, like "frying pan."I highly recommend this book toanybody. ... Read more

Product Description
Marlene Dietrich's story spans Germany's cabarets, Hollywood's silver screen and beyond. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Gives the Devil Her Due
According to his acknowledgments, Donald Spoto finished this book in January 1991. Five months later, his subject, Marlene Dietrich, died. This leaves the book with an unfinished goal, the biography of a great celebrity from birth to death. Dietrich was 90 when she died, and by that time an alcoholic recluse, but the circumstances of her passing would have brought this book the closure it lacks. Moreover, Spoto did not personally interview the star, so he had to rely on extensive research into published and unpublished sources, as well as interviews with those who knew La Dietrich, yet the overall result is a well-written, compact survey of her artistic career, with enough description of her personal triumphs and tragedies to satisfy most fans' interest. Dietrich's life and career are the stuff that biographers' dreams are made of; she started life as a well-brought up middle-class German girl born at the turn of the century; became a stage performer in the decadent Berlin of the Weimar Republic's 1920s; made the transition into silent and then sound films; had the good fortune to be the Trilby to the Svengali of genius cinematographer/director, Josef von Sternberg; found success as Hollywood's highest paid star of the 1930s, with a carefully crafted beauty that overrode concerns about her somewhat limited--but nonetheless memorably expressive-- singing and acting talents; became an icon of USO entertainers on the front lines of World War II, and let her native Germany know just what she thought of it; had a vast array of male and female lovers, including many of Hollywood's leading players; gained fame for her sense of style, both in glamorous female garments and striking male ensembles; resurrected her career in middle and old age by appearing as an ageless glamour girl in countless performances of a one-woman show she gave around the world; and then, unable to let the world see how age was robbing her of her vaunted beauty, chose to live out her life in a Paris apartment, slowly drinking herself to death.

Despite being something of an enigma, her personality comes across quite vividly in this biography, and Spoto should be commended for presenting both her admirable qualities--relentless professionalism, maternal affection for those she loved, remarkable courage, and ability to craft an unforgettable artistic persona--and her less admirable ones--sexual profligacy, erratic temperament, astonishing egotism, and so on. This is not a work of hagiography, and the reader comes away both admiring Marlene Dietrich and despising her.

Although Spoto's book covers many of Dietrich's numerous affairs, it is now clear that there were many others he overlooked (including Burt Lancaster and Barbara Stanwyck). Perhaps some later writer has covered these; I'm looking forward to reading Maria Riva's biography of her mother, which is about three times as long as Spoto's volume. An advantage of reading the book in 2010 is that one can easily see many of the performances being described by simply going to YouTube. Doing so allows you to compare your critical reaction to some of Dietrich's filmic song renditions with those of Spoto. Occasionally, he overstates his case, and to me, at least, the performances do not match his assessments of them. Still, I was totally engrossed by the book, and, even though it's been almost 20 years since it was published, readers should still find it worth their time.

No "Angel"
Donald Spoto tends to write pleasant, sometimes very insightful biographies that tend to look at different aspects of the stars they focus on. "Blue Angel," however, is not up to par. While his biography of actress Marlene Dietrich is well-written, he seems too disconnected from his subject.

Marlene Dietrich was a dominant sex symbol alongside the distant Greta Garbo. Her big break came with Josef von Sternberg, a German director who found the struggling actress and made her his muse, lover and inspiration. Dietrich kept spreading her wings in Hollywood, and in the 1940s she entertained Allied troops for her adopted country.

Spoto does a pretty good job of covering Dietrich's many-faceted life. Hausfrau and actress, Berlin cabaret and Hollywood, he checks it all out and describes it with a fair amount of detail. And despite the varied nature of Dietrich's love life, he at least tries to keep his tone professional and detached. (Even when describing Dietrich placing a bouquet of violets in a rather, um, intimate place)

What's Spoto's biggest problem? He seems to have no idea what made Dietrich tick. When describing the real Dietrich -- the woman behind the image -- he seems genuinely befuddled by her real personality, and spends too much time speculating on her motivations. However, he sheds a great deal of light on Dietrich's mystique, and how it was created by von Sternberg.

Donald Spoto's "Blue Angel" sheds some light on the not-so-angelic Marlene Dietrich, but his lack of insight into Dietrich's mind makes it a somewhat frustrating read.

Yeah, well
An enjoyable and informative read, though at times presented too romantically and subjectively. A fine job of portraying Dietrich from many angles, fleshing her out (though the author is irritatingly fond of the word "plump")... Spoto seems to approach his subject with celestial reverence, as though trying to conceal his own crush behind historical voyeurism (the discussion of debauched 1920s Berlin is particularly gratifying). Sometimes he speculates too much on possible motivations instead of simply offering facts, but he also makes good use of others' reminiscences of Dietrich to back up some of his insightful conjectures. Enjoyable but not riveting. ... Read more

Product Description
Explore the evolution of the Dietrich image, from her first Hollywood sitting through the end of the studio era. Film historian and photographer Mark A. Vieira illuminates one of the 20th Century s most compelling style icons in this stunning visual chronology of Marlene Dietrich s film career. From Edition Iconix, dedicated to preserving the art of popular culture. ... Read more

Product Description
"The finest picture-star biography I have read"
-Peter Bogdanovich, Los Angeles Times

In an achievement as grand and sweeping as Dietrich's own life, Steven Bach reveals the woman and examines her myth in a biography that will stand as the ultimate authority on a singular star. Based on six years of research and hundreds of interviews-including conversations with Dietrich herself-this is the last, best word on one of the century's greatest movie actresses and performers, an icon who embodied glamour and sophistication for audiences around the globe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Legendary Life Wrapped in Purple Prose
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.

Dietrich: the Lord of Discipline
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!! ... Read more

Product Description
An unprecedented look at the life of cultural icon Marlene Dietrich that brings together firsthand accounts, remembrances, and anecdotes with pictorial and historical documentation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Marlene Is Eternal!
This is a tremendous book on the great Marlene Dietrich. I did see her perform several times and she was unforgettable. This book is a great tribute to her war work and her entire life and career. We will not see her like again and her grandson does her proud in this beautiful volume. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on interviews with Dietrich and others who knew her, Charlotte Chandler tells the story of one of the top ten female movie stars of all time. ... Read more

Product Description
Marlene Dietrich's film career spanned six decades, until she retired in 1976 to live her life as a recluse. While living in Paris in the 1980s, Hanut wrote to Dietrich, expressing his admiration for her work. To his surprise, she responded. Here is a record of their sudden friendship. Dietrich shares her thoughts on a wide array of topics--art, literature, haute couture, Hollywood, her career, and her image and persona. 2 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

More lucid than most humanity has the privilege to be
First it must be said that take what Marlene Dietrich says literaly, without reporting ourselves to the particular humour of germans intelectuals of her generation, Brecht included, is misunderstand it all. It it also well to remember the habits of a class that had "épater les bourgeois" as a habit. With Marlene ich word has many meanings and, some times, a little box contains a bigger one inside and then another, and another one. Few knew how to deal with the notion that truth is the multiple illusions of truth, and play so sharply with it. Most of the times for will of good, even if this good was her path towards the liberty of a precipice edge.
Then it is remarkable the incredibly effective way she educates Hanut by telephone. And, for one time, Marlene achieves her education efforts. Hanut, after she was no more there to scream at him, became not a suicidal desperate boy, but a quite interessing man publishing a series of books, with titles that seem the fruit of a research of himself and wisdom. It is not important if Marlene should agree with the conclusions of this books. It is important that she got him from the pit and made him meet the force to continue to live with dignity and to discover his way. One has to admire the cleverness of her method, hidden in apparent casuality. To do this one may drink, take pills, but one must be more lucid than most of humanity has the privilege to be.

Marlene Dietrich's Grandson comments
As Marlene Dietrich's youngest Grandson, I am often made aware of books written, or even legends told that involve the often herculian efforts and opinions of my Grandmother. I was both pleased and saddened in the case of"I wish you love". Tragically, my Grandmother chose to remainwithoutthe care our family intended for her, and as a result spent theseyears very much without supervision or even basic human contact. The authorwas one of many people, hardly known, with whom she continued acorrespondence or schedule of phone calls to fill this void. For thecomfort this gave her, I am grateful. For the chronicled accounts of hercomments, I have less gratitude. While there is great enjoyment in seeingher rendered opinions so fathfully in print, one might also understand thesobering reality that they changed oftan, sometimes within a singlesentence. Because of her on-going pain associated with her hip and legs,she drank and took pain medication to excess. While this is reflected byher manner in many parts of the book, the natural reverence of the authorfor Marlene's celebrity has failed to firmly place these conversations inwhat was, regrettably, the tragic context of her condition. Regardless, forthose of us who had the benefit of this insight, the book remains an honestportait of Marlene's style, if not her truth.

An extraordinarystory of friendship and love
An unusually fine celebrity memoir surfaces in Eryk Hanut's I WISH YOU LOVE-CONVERSATIONS WITH MARLENE DIETRICH.for several years before Dietrich's death, in 1992, at the age of 91, Hanut, a young dane living inParis,carried on wide-ranging phone chats with the aged star.Hanut'srecords of these talks reveal Dietrich as an intelligent woman of fieryopinion, and the author as a sensitive soul who here offers neitherhagiography nor indictment ,but a tender,thoughtful appreciation of a womanturned legend PUBLISHERS WEEKLYApril 1996

This is a compelling and fascinating true story.
I think that the "Kirkus Review"totally misrepresents (as it does for many good books)the essence of this really interesting account of Dietrich's last years.I have read many books about Dietrich, studied andenjoyed her films and find this a beautifully moving portrayal of a trueand wonderful friendship. Howard Kissel, in " The New York DailyNews" called it "well written" and "compelling";Many details in the book about Dietrich's life were unknown to me and Iappreciated the author's subtle analysis of her fame and the way she dealtwith it; To conclude, I find this book refreshing because it is also mostlyabout gratitude; and not one more "dysfunctional family saga" asin the Mommie Dearest tradition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Just what you'd expect from Dietrich
The best way to summarize the contents of this book would be to describe it as a compilation of words that attempt to describe Dietrich as she understood herself. It is rather like a journal in that she writes about her thoughts and opinions, honestly and frankly all throughout. There are no tell-all's, this is not that kind of an autobiography. Instead, reading this book will enable one to understand what motivated the woman and the actress, and what values were her priorities in life. It is very straightforward and often inspiring. There is much to learn here, and I can only say a belated thanks to the lady who was willing to share her wisdom and experience with a devoted audience.

fabulous!!!
this book was an awesome insight into the character of one of the twentieth centuries greatest icons. dietrich was a walking contradiction, and her own words show that... but it also helps to add a touch of humanityto an untouchable.

A truthful look at the star from the legend
This book is essential for any deitrichphile or fan who wants to understand the motivations and life of the Legend. She honestly portrays herself and does her best not to over glamourize her life, but speaksnonchalantly without hesitation. ... Read more

Product Description
The approved biography of film star Marlene Dietrich, derived from a series of interviews with the author. It is illustrated with rare photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Written with her full approval, complemented by her words
Marlene Dietrich, My Friend: An Intimate Biography is the only biography of Marlene Dietrich that has been written with her full approval, complemented by her own words - with the only condition that the author, her friend David Bret, should neither speak about nor publish her testament until after her death. Illustrated with a brief insert of rare black-and-white photographs of the famous actress, Marlene Dietrich My Friend is an absolute must for students of cinema history and film memoirs in general, and fans of Marlene Dietrich in particular. ... Read more

Product Description
The story of Marlene Dietrich is the story of a tumultuous century.

Her dilemmas, temptations, career moves and loves came in a constant stream of totally unexpected twists and turns.

The mayor of the liberated town of Aachen met her
at the head of the advancing column of American troops as the European war came to an end in 1945..

'Do you know who I am? she asked the mayor.

'Yes,' he replied, ' you are the blue angel.'

Perhaps she was.

... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Refreshingly modern
I've never been to Berlin but with the colourful description and athmosphere of Marlene Dietrich lived here I feel like I have. The story tells mainly of the brothers, Erich and Max, who try to come to terms with life both in their own way. They struggle to set the past so the present if not the future will be more endurable. The view of Berlin is exceptional and the characters refreshing, European and very believable. They are modern in a way that I have rarely seen before and the story leaves you short of breath and longing for more. It's a story of love, betrayal, a story from the past and of the future but mostly in the presence. A story about two brothers who need to come to terms with themselves and each other.

I warmly recommend this unique story. ... Read more

Product Description
When an astrologer is murdered at the famed actress's 1931 New Year's party, Marlene Dietrich plays the role of determined detective as she ignores Hollywood gossips and Nazi sympathizers in her quest for the killer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Oh that Fabulous Dietrich!
Marlene Dietrich is the epitome of glamour even in this day and age.There has never been anyone like her in Hollywood.And in this book we see her in all her glory.Baxt's character depictions are very real and are definitely the strong point in his "silver screen mysteries".We also see many cameo appearances by other favourites - Cary Grant, and my personal favourite, Tallulah Bankhead.In this story one of Marlene's guests at a New Year's Eve party is murdered in front of all her gursts.Marlene sets out with Herb Villon to trap a killer, and instead discovers a huge conspiracy that spans the globe.More murders occur, but the fabulous Dietrich actaully gets her man.As I mentioned, one reads these books for Baxt's character portrayals.They are wonderful.He gives us a real insight into these glorious screen legends.The mystery and the intrigue are not so exciting. ... Read more