May 29 - Josef von Sternberg

Happy Birthday, Josef von Sternberg! Born today in 1894, this Austrian-American filmmaker's career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major Hollywood studios. 

  

Sternberg is credited with initiating the gangster film genre with his 1927 American silent black and white crime/noir film 'Underworld' (also released as 'Paying the Penalty'). 

  

The following year, Sternberg directed the first film of which he is best known. This was the 1928 American silent black and white drama/romance film 'The Docks of New York'. 

  

Set sometime in the early years 20th century before the prohibition, the film tells of a ship's tramp steamer named Bill Roberts. He later finds his life forever changed when he saves world-weary woman Mae (Betty Compson) from a suicide attempt. 

  

The silence feature had been adapted by  American magazine and newspaper writer Jules Furthman from American novelist, screenwriter, and film director John Monk Saunders' The Dock Walloper. 

  

In the 1930s, Sternberg was known for his film collaboration with German-American actress and singer Marlene Dietrich.  

  

Their best known collaboration included the highly regarded Paramount/UFA production, being the 1930 German black and white tragicomedic drama/adventure film 'Der blaue Engel' ('The Blue Angel'). Sternberg co-wrote and directed. 

  

The film follows prim educator Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings). He finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) and visits the local eponymous club in an attempt to catch them there.  

  

Upon seeing Lola perform, the teacher is driven mad with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry his beloved. However, married life with a woman whose job is to make men desire her proves more difficult than Rath imagined. 

  

The film had been based off of German novelist Heinrich Mann's 1905 fiction novel Professor Unrat (which translates as "Professor Unclean"). 

  

The following year, Sternberg was nominated his first Oscar for Best Director regarding his 1930 American pre-Code black and white romance/drama film 'Morocco'. However, he didn't win. This occurred at the 4th Academy Awards in November 1931. 

  

In addition, it introduced Dietrich's signature song. This was German film composer and author Friedrich Hollaender and German screenwriter Robert Liebmann's "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)". It is considered to be a classic of German cinema. 

  

Sternberg is also best known for directing the 1932 American pre-Code black and white romance/drama film 'Shanghai Express'. The film was the fourth of seven films von Sternberg and Dietrich made together. 

  

Set in 1931 Peking, China, during a civil war, British Capt. Donald 'Doc' Harvey (Clive Brook) meets his old flame Magdalen (Marlene Dietrich). However, he later learns with dismay that she has become a prostitute known as Shanghai Lily. Both are traveling to Shanghai via train.  

  

While they grow reacquainted, they remain unaware that they are traveling with spy and rebel army leader Mr. Henry Chang (Warner Oland). On Chang's orders, his forces attack the train, terrorize the passengers and hold Donald hostage. 

  

Released during the midst of the Great Depression, 'Shanghai Express' was a huge hit with the public. 

It grossed $3.7 million in its initial screenings in the United States alone, becoming the biggest financial success of the Dietrich-von Sternberg collaborations. 

  

The film had been based off American Harry screenwriter and critic Harry Hervey's unpublished 1931 story "Sky Over China" aka "China Pass". At the time, he was one of the most highly sought screenplays of the first half of the 20th century. 

  

It was also the highest-grossing movie of 1932, surpassing the all-star American pre-Code black and white drama/romance film 'Grand Hotel'. 

  

Two years later, Sternberg was nominated a second time for an Oscar for Best Director. 

However, the only win for 'Shanghai Express' was for Best Cinematography. This went to American cinematographer Lee Garmes and Chinese American cinematographer James Wong Howe.  

  

This occurred at the 6th Academy Awards in March 1934, because there was no awards ceremony the year prior.The 1932/33 Academy Awards were presented on March 16, 1934 and covered a full seventeen-month period (August 1932 - December 1933). 

  

During the mid-1930s, Sternberg shot, produced and directed the 1935 American black and white romance/drama film 'The Devil is a Woman'. The feature is the last of the six Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations for Paramount Pictures. 

  

Sternberg's finest works are noteworthy for their striking pictorial compositions, dense décor, chiaroscuro illumination and relentless camera motion, endowing the scenes with emotional intensity.  

  

Sternberg's themes typically offer the spectacle of an individual's desperate struggle to maintain their personal integrity as they sacrifice themselves for lust or love. 

  

Nicknamed Jo, Sternberg had been active from 1925–1957. 

  

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