How sad is this?

Great Film overall

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Blistering performances.

A cabaret singer (Marlene Dietrich) and a Legionnaire (Gary Cooper) fall in love, but their relationship is complicated by the results of his womanizing and due to the appearance of a rich man who wants her for himself.According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, Cooper and von Sternberg did not get along. Von Sternberg filmed so as to make Cooper look up at Dietrich, emphasizing her at his expense. Cooper complained to his studio bosses and got it stopped. When Dietrich came to the US, von Sternberg welcomed her with gifts including a green Rolls-Royce Phantom II which featured in some scenes of "Morocco".As I understand it, Dietrich was already a star in Germany, and this was her big transition to Hollywood. Clearly someone noticed because they gave her an Oscar nomination and her scene in the coattails is now considered iconic (and even a bit racy). World, meet Marlene Dietrich!

Call me a philistine but, I really don't care about the early movies that primary focus on a star, whether it's Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo or Asta Nielsen. Everybody is raving about their 'marvelous' performances, but a performance alone doesn't make a great movie, especially if the characters are flat and the plot barely existing. The director can spend as much time as he wants to light an actresses face as beautiful as possible,but this time would be better spent on character development or something that makes the movie worth watching.I'm not saying Josef von Sternberg is a bad director, ''Der blaue Engel'', his first collaboration with Dietrich, was a great movie. The difference between this movie and ''Morocco'' is that it has an interesting plot and Emil Jannings character actually has an arc which develops beautifully and is foreshadowed in early scenes.But ''Morocco'' isn't without any merits. The kissing-scene must have been shocking for audiences back then and even if you watch this scene today you definitely won't expect this from a movie from this time. Props to Dietrich to be this daring. Another great moment was the scene when Dietrich rushes to visit Gary Cooper in the hospital and the pearl necklace rips, which is a great moment of character building that, unfortunately, is rare in this film.The scene that will stuck most with me and probably with most people who have seen this film is the ending. The buildup when Dietrich stands at the gate and the soldiers are marching into the desert looks fantastic, which is followed by an even better shot of Dietrich walking behind the last dune and the entire frame is filled with the desert and the sound of a storm approaching.Considering the good scenes, it is a shame that the rest of the film is mediocre at best and could not be saved by the fantastic ending.

I generally enjoy these romantic adventures in foreign lands, as perceived in the Hollywood of the 1930s. I mean, everybody is always dressed for dinner. The men wear pith helmets and white suits. We can be assured of plenty of beaded curtains and swarthy natives in rags, probably treacherous. Watch out for them. And watch out for the white guy with the accent. He may be in league with them.The adventure is ordinarily wrapped around a love story. And this is where von Sternberg's story goes wrong as far as I'm concerned. Now, the French Foreign Legion in the old colonial days in Morocco is a fine setting for battles backed up by lust turning to love. And Gary Cooper was in a number of them, and so was Marlene Dietrich.There is an abundance of conflict over who loves whom here. Dietrich, a "cabaret singer", and Cooper, a private in the Foreign Legion, are clearly in love. But Adolph Menjou, a wealthy socialite, is also genuinely and openly in love with Dietrich. Which love shall Dietrich choose for a husband! Oh, dear. It's enough to make a girl clutch her hands and look heavenward for guidance.She decides to run away with Cooper. But Cooper, overhearing Menjou's proposal, decides to sacrifice his love for the sake of its object. "So Long, Mabel, and Good Luck," he writes on her mirror (something like that) and walks off to war.Dietrich is at her engagement dinner with the tuxedoed Menjou. When she hears that Cooper is marching off with his regiment, she gives Menjou a farewell smooch, casts away her dainty shoes, and trudges off into the desert sand to follow her true love to whatever destiny awaits the two of them, the fools.It's bad enough that it's a B story about a woman who is loved by two stereotypical men -- the tall, lanky adventurer and the suave rich guy who speaks French. We've all seen THAT before. It's a staple fantasy.But where are the action scenes that flesh out this threadbare plot? What happened to the battles, the crashes, the ferry plunging through the typhoon, the bamboo splints shoved under the fingernails and then set afire, the Malay boot, the arid landscape strewn with bodies? They're nowhere to be found. It's just a love story, and it's neither original nor particularly well done, though I imagine Dietrich's fans will kvell.Not for me, though. I want to see those men in uniform trapped by the enemy, looking noble as they wipe the sweat from their foreheads, loading that final clip into their rifles, sharing that last cigarette wordlessly before being rescued by the rest of their unit.

It's interesting to read other reviews of Morocco. Some people just don't seem to have a clue, and it would be fascinating to learn what they think of as a good film from this era. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see that only one reviewer mentioned the sound, and that was to criticize it. Sternberg's use of sound as a tool jumped right out at me. There are numerous scenes in this film which have the possibility of being overly tedious and run the risk of being boring. Much is made of Sternberg's visual prowess and the rich texture displayed here, but I'm surprised that everyone seems to be missing the effect of the sound. Throughout the film, in scenes which need to build tension yet are visually somewhat tiresome (Legionaires marching in the street for example) Sternberg uses various sound devices artfully. We hear the monotonous drumbeat as the men march. The longer this goes on, the more irritating it becomes and as a result, puts the audience on edge. This adds to the tension of the scene immensely. The same thing happens in other parts of the film when we hear a short nearly monotone musical phrase repeated over and over ad nauseum, or when the sound of the wind blowing through the trees also becomes irritating. Each time, the scene is intended to build tension and each time, Sternberg's use of sound perfectly complements the visual to achieve the desired effect. This movie is on my "you gotta see this one" list.