Marlene Dietrich made her American screen debut in Josef von Sternberg’s intoxicating romantic drama. Dietrich stars as Amy Jolly, a cabaret singer fleeing her past who arrives in North Africa and becomes caught between the attentions of wealthy gentleman La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) and the magnetic Foreign Legionnaire Tom Brown (Gary Cooper). Against von Sternberg’s world of dazzling light, shadow, desire, and melancholy, Amy must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice for love.

“This 1930 feature was Josef von Sternberg’s first American film with Marlene Dietrich, and some purists might declare it the best; certainly the visual exoticism is thick enough to taste.” Jonathan Rosenbaum — Chicago Reader

“a sultry, crackling ambience, in which his actors obsess over their sexual desires.” — Charles Silver