Sternberg’s last film with Dietrich was originally titled Caprice Espagnol, and it is a moody and outlandish tribute to feminine caprice set against a backdrop of carnival in Spain. In a plot drawn from the same story on which Buñuel based That Obscure Object of Desire, Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill) narrates to his younger friend Antonio (Cesar Romero) the tale of his affair with the Carmen-esque Concha (Dietrich), “the most dangerous woman you’ll ever meet.” Masked and veiled, glimpsed through elaborate gates and screens, Concha is a figure of unattainable ambiguity and arbitrary cruelty. “If you had loved me enough, you would have killed yourself last night,” she says, wearing a garland of black hearts around her neck. The film balances stylish fatalism with high camp; there are flickers of wit through Concha’s false eyelashes as she seals a man’s fate with the words “I’ve changed my mind.”

—Juliet Clark

• Written by John Dos Passos, S. K. Winston, based on the novel The Woman and the Puppet by Pierre Louys. Photographed by Sternberg, Lucien Ballard. With Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Atwill, Cesar Romero, Edward Everett Horton. (79 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Universal)

Preceded by short:
The Fashion Side of Hollywood (U.S., 1935). Designer Travis Banton introduces his latest creations for Paramount stars including, of course, Marlene Dietrich. (10 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Deutsche Kinemathek)

• (Total running time: 89 mins)