The Woman from Monte Carlo

Wow! Every now and then a miracle happens and I get a long-awaited experience. For example, the only American film of Lil Dagover. In mid-1931, the divine star of Weimar film and theater responded to Warners' desire to compete with MGM's Garbo films and Paramount's Dietrich films. But as fate would have it, Hollywood did not take Dagover to heart and she returned home before the premiere, ostensibly to await a reason to continue her work in America. But audiences gave in to the critics and although Dagover was exempt from negatives, the film as a whole did not earn good reviews and Dagover remained in Germany. So on the one hand, one could sum up The Woman from Monte Carlo as a serial melodrama from the pre-code era that is sexy in its own right for its subject matter - one woman in between two Marines. But on the other hand, it is, and much more so, a unique star show of Lil Dagover, aimed at showcasing her skilled acting capable of many shades (albeit in banal dialogue), her charms that don't give the slightest hint of her real age, her great legs, statuesque profile, gorgeous hair and even her sense of humor. If she had just wanted to, the ground would have shaken under Marlene's feet, but she gave Hollywood only one chance. No matter. In the silent film era, she recharged her international fame with other films and made so little of it (she made several co-productions with Sweden and a couple of French films back in the 1920s). (11.01.2019)