cover image Falling in Love Again, Marlene Dietrich

Falling in Love Again, Marlene Dietrich

Donald Spoto. Little Brown and Company, $0 (154pp) ISBN 978-0-316-80724-1

The legendary Marlene Dietrich and her career are here celebrated with nostalgia. Spoto (The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams, etc.) explores the impact made by the alluring, mysterious Marlene: her role in The Blue Angel in 1929 which launched her; her relationship with director von Sternberg, under whose tutelage her screen personality blossomed; her efforts during WW II to entertain and boost the morale of American troops; her influence on the definition of femininity. Written in a lively manner and graced with nearly 200 black-and-white photos, this is an engaging and thoughtful pictorial biography. November 1