Dishonored

Dishonored, 1931
Director: Josef von Sternberg
91’, English, Black & White

"X-27 could have been the greatest spy in history, if she wasn’t a woman." This sentence uttered at the beginning of the film may be referring to the disadvantages women have to suffer from. You have to be Marlene Dietrich the coolest woman in cinema though to transform disadvantage into power instead of being victimized by it. X-27, who twists every man around her little finger, has no respect either for men who throw themselves at her feet or the tough guys; even when she pays the price of her acts. This femme fatale who parodies seduction all along is cool, because she doesn’t care about ’being the greatest spy in history’.

Past Programs
Robert Mitchum and the Birth of Cool
January 8–31, 2009