Ernst Lubitsch was one of the co-producers of DESIRE with it's director Frank Borzage. Borzage was a good enough director to have handled the material of this delightful romantic comedy, but Lubitsch fans feel that he frequently discussed the film with Ernst, and the famous "touch" has been noted throughout it.
Gary Cooper is an ace salesman for the Bronson automobile company in Paris, working under William Frawley. He is about to go on his well earned vacation, but Frawley has a slight plan of his own. He is giving Cooper a new Bronson 8 automobile to use on the trip, which will carry a large sign on it advertising the car.
In the meantime, unconnected to this, Marlene Dietrich has been involved in a neat piece of jewelry theft. She goes to the jewelry firm of M. Duval (Ernst Cossart) and arranges for him to deliver his finest necklace to "her home", the address of which is the home of Dr. Pacquet (Alan Mowbray). Later she goes to Dr. Pacquet's office (he is a psychiatrist), and explains she is Madame Duval, wife of the jeweler, and that he is suffering a strange dementia. She says that he insists that purchases are being made by all sorts of people, including the good psychiatrist. She begs Pacquet to let her bring her husband that night to see him, warning him that he will claim that the psychiatrist owes him a huge sum of money for a necklace. Pacquet agrees. So Dietrich sets up a neat confrontation between the two men, leaving with the necklace while they are arguing about who owes money v. who is crazy.
Dietrich and Cooper get involved when she hides her stolen jewels in a bag of his at the border, and subsequently steals and wrecks his car. He still has the jewels though, and follows her. She and her suave, if sinister cohort (the wonderful John Haliday) decide to invite him to their home in the mountains, where they plan to retrieve the jewels before Cooper leaves. And that is all of the plot I will discuss.
As I once mentioned regarding a later Cooper film (LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON), while Cooper was seen as the great American hero in westerns and adventure films, he was leading an active social life in high society circles. His direct American character, so fitting in THE PLAINSMAN or in HIGH NOON also could shoot off a gentle charm at times, and it works well in DESIRE. He and Dietrich had made MOROCCO six years earlier, but that was set in the deserts of North Africa and was a straight drama. Here they both mingle his American ruggedness and charm against her European sophistication and charm, and it works nicely. They are ably abetted by Haliday, pretending to be Dietrich's uncle but jealously watching Cooper's moves. The results is a well made romantic comedy that never fails to please the audience.
Gary Cooper is an ace salesman for the Bronson automobile company in Paris, working under William Frawley. He is about to go on his well earned vacation, but Frawley has a slight plan of his own. He is giving Cooper a new Bronson 8 automobile to use on the trip, which will carry a large sign on it advertising the car.
In the meantime, unconnected to this, Marlene Dietrich has been involved in a neat piece of jewelry theft. She goes to the jewelry firm of M. Duval (Ernst Cossart) and arranges for him to deliver his finest necklace to "her home", the address of which is the home of Dr. Pacquet (Alan Mowbray). Later she goes to Dr. Pacquet's office (he is a psychiatrist), and explains she is Madame Duval, wife of the jeweler, and that he is suffering a strange dementia. She says that he insists that purchases are being made by all sorts of people, including the good psychiatrist. She begs Pacquet to let her bring her husband that night to see him, warning him that he will claim that the psychiatrist owes him a huge sum of money for a necklace. Pacquet agrees. So Dietrich sets up a neat confrontation between the two men, leaving with the necklace while they are arguing about who owes money v. who is crazy.
Dietrich and Cooper get involved when she hides her stolen jewels in a bag of his at the border, and subsequently steals and wrecks his car. He still has the jewels though, and follows her. She and her suave, if sinister cohort (the wonderful John Haliday) decide to invite him to their home in the mountains, where they plan to retrieve the jewels before Cooper leaves. And that is all of the plot I will discuss.
As I once mentioned regarding a later Cooper film (LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON), while Cooper was seen as the great American hero in westerns and adventure films, he was leading an active social life in high society circles. His direct American character, so fitting in THE PLAINSMAN or in HIGH NOON also could shoot off a gentle charm at times, and it works well in DESIRE. He and Dietrich had made MOROCCO six years earlier, but that was set in the deserts of North Africa and was a straight drama. Here they both mingle his American ruggedness and charm against her European sophistication and charm, and it works nicely. They are ably abetted by Haliday, pretending to be Dietrich's uncle but jealously watching Cooper's moves. The results is a well made romantic comedy that never fails to please the audience.