Ich küsse ihre Hand, Madame!, tailored-made for Harry Liedtke, is, however, overshadowed by the magnetic personality of Marlene Dietrich, at the height of her expressive ability: capricious, passionate and cynical. We can already see traces of the later cruel Lola-Lola who humiliates her elderly admirer. “I would do anything for you”, whispers a panting suitor at the sight of Marlene mischievously powdering her nose and coyly straightening her skirt which clings invitingly to her thighs. She throws a meaningful glance at him looking up from the roses the man has offered her, then, as her only answer, “Alright, you can walk my little dog”. Ich küsse ihre Hand, Madame! helps us to make our acquaintance with a pre-Sternberg Marlene, a Marlene exuding a natural and shameless sensuality often ignored by her biographers, who preferred to harp on about her later Hollywood persona, so polished and sphinx-like that it became almost unreal.

Vittorio Martinelli, Mitteleuropean Screens. Directors and Stars, “Cinegrafie”, n. 9, 1996