Marlene Dietrich gave a great performance in Morocco. She is especially impressive considering that at the time of filming, she knew virtually no English, thus her lines in each scene were both kept to a minimum and fed to her phonetically! And unless you know this fact ahead of time, you really can't tell. It just goes to show what a great actress she really was.
shareI think Marlene did know English. She came from a middle-class family and was well educated. Arn't you thinking of Greta Garbo? Marlene learned both English and French at her school. It was Garbo who did not know much English when she arrived in Hollywood. She did not have Dietrich's education.
shareInitially, Marlene's English apparently wasn't that great according to her, her daughter's, and Sternberg's bios. Her struggle with the word "help" has been well-chronicled. Also, Sternberg communicated to her in German during their first films together. When I watch her earliest American films--especially Morocco and Dishonoured--I find Dietrich's cadence quite stilted, definitely similar to someone with marginal English skills.
shareShe was also great in the blue angle, a film i like more even though it is depressing
shareI still think her English was quite good, even at this early stage. Of course she and Sternberg spoke in German to each other! It was their native language. Dietrich had never been out of Germany before; I don't know about von Sternberg.
shareVon Sternberg was born in Vienna, but he grew up in New York City.
shareShe did speak English, but it was stilted at this point. She'd only arrived in America literally weeks before shooting began. It worked in her favour, because she comes across with a sort of cool that would later be made famous by James Dean et al - the one word answers, the lowered lids. Laconic as a cowboy! It's also noticeable that her voice was relatively high in pitch here - from her next film onward, her voice dropped several octaves and stayed that way.
shareMarlene spoke English very well at the time she made Morocco. Remember, she had made a simultaneous shoot of The Blue Angel the year before in both German and English. In fact, one of the reasons Von Sternberg considered her for the role in Angel was because she spoke English. The pronunciation of the word "help" that Dietrich's daughter mentions in her book refers to Marlene's accent. But even that story doesn't ring true: Marlene recorded the song "Falling in Love Again", pronouncing "help" perfectly, long before she made Morocco. Marlene's daughter was only five years old at the time; her memory may be questionable.
Incidentally, Marlene also spoke French.