The first private shots of Marlene Dietrich with a handheld camera, a Cine-Kodak 16mm magazine camera, preserved in the estate, were taken in Hollywood in 1931 and mainly show her daughter Maria, brought back from Berlin in April 1931, posing by the pool, with or without dogs. Josef von Sternberg joins her and shows her how to light a match on the heel of a shoe.
The handheld camera also accompanies Dietrich on her vacation trips to Europe in the 1930s, mostly during the summer months between filming. We see her with Douglas Fairbanks Jr at her side in London and its rural surroundings, or with Basil Rathbone at his country estate during a tennis match. Paris for the 1937 World’s Fair is also captured in the film, as is Venice with Josef von Sternberg, St. Gilgen, and the Salzburg region again with Fairbanks Jr – this time in matching lederhosen – as well as Cap d’Antibes with Erich Maria Remarque and Max Colpet, who was taken from the internment camp in Switzerland. A sailing trip off the coast of southern France aboard the yacht of charismatic lesbian billionaire Jo Carstairs (actually Barbara) or a ride with Jean Gabin in California near La Quinta show how the star relaxes. The footage shows Marlene in the family entourage with her husband, child and girlfriend, including current favourites or lovers.
Dietrich also took the camera to film sets, filmed herself or had herself filmed. For example, there is a pan across the grounds of Denham Studios in London. There, in the fall of 1936, she was in front of the camera for Alexander Korda’s production Knight Without Armor. We see her on the set of Destry Rides Again in the midst of turmoil in the saloon and rehearsing a brawl scene for Seven Sinners (1940) with John Wayne. She also visits “dressing room neighbour” Mae West, who is performing with W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee (1940). This creates a bit of a making-of atmosphere, but also a look behind the scenes, for example when Dietrich entertains the film crew with all kinds of tricks during breaks.
Apart from the first shots from 1931 on 16mm Kodacolor lenticular film and some scenes on black-and-white stock, all other reels were shot on 16mm Kodachrome film. The material is preserved at Deutsche Kinemathek-Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin in a fairly good condition apart from colour fading in many reels. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, it was completely digitised and restored in 2017.

Silke Ronneburg