Josef von Sternberg's Dishonored is as much a spy film as The Scarlet Empress (1934) is a historically accurate re-telling of Catherine the Great's life. All of the trappings of the genre are present: duplicitous secret agents, exotic disguises, clandestine gadgets and weapons, and a plot rife with double-crosses and betrayals. But these are merely distractions. Dishonored is a showcase for its lead actress Marlene Dietrich. Spy-craft is utilized only to the extent that it propels the film's central romantic melodrama concerning Austrian secret agent X27 (Dietrich) and her Russian enemy-slash-lover Colonel Kranau (Victor McLaglen). For instance, during a dangerous mission behind enemy lines X27 brings a pet cat with her that tips Kranau off to her presence. The idea that a secret agent would bring a pet along on a mission is so preposterous that it defies belief. But for Sternberg, the presence of the cat is simply an impetus for throwing X27 back into the arms of Kranau. The character is X27 is a puzzle: she enters the Austrian secret service to help her country during World War One after her husband is killed, yet she sabotages her usefulness in the name of an impossible love affair. One could hand-wave this away with the explanation that X27 is supposed to have indecipherable intentions, much like the enigmatic Mata Hari. But one suspects if the true explanation has more to do with Sternberg's inability to make his movies starring Marlene Dietrich about anything other than Marlene Dietrich. But regardless of these confusions, Dishonored is a wonderful film. Lee Garmes's crisp cinematography is stunning. One early sequence at a costume party has camera acrobatics the likes of which seem to predict Orson Welles and Max Ophüls. And, of course, there is Marlene. Cryptically seductive and slyly erotic as ever, her perpetual smirk reminds us why she was one of the queens of the Weimar Republic and the Hollywood studio systems.
7/10
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