A Foreign Affair
Things
heat up when a straight-laced Congresswoman (Arthur) discovers
that a U.S. Army Captain (Lund) is more than allies with a Berlin
bombshell (Dietrich).
Marlene Dietrich, Jean Arthur and John Lund star
in A Foreign Affair, a humorous romantic drama centered
around post-war Berlin.
Erika Von Shluetow (Marlene Dietrich) is an
ex-Nazi now reduced to doing cabaret in a blackmarket nightclub.
She is being courted by an American soldier, Captain Pringle (John
Lund).
On her way to Berlin is Phoebe Frost (Jean
Arthur), an icy woman from America, who is going to record her
visit and report back to the government. Erika is meant to be
doing time in a labour camp for her Nazi dealings, but Pringle
always manages to get her through.
Phoebe finds out about her and decides to track
her down, and Pringle decides the only way he can save her life is
to lead on Phoebe and bribe her into letting Erika go.
Billy Wilder's film is a joyous delight, with
Dietrich and Arthur in top form. Dietrich performs the Frederick
Hollander songs 'Black Market', 'Illusions', and 'Ruins Of
Berlin'.
In reality Dietrich was horrified at the thought
of playing a Nazi femme fatale, as she was very strongly against
Hitler and what he was doing to her homeland. During the war she
entertained the Allied troops. -- Byron Kolln
