Dishonored

Dishonored (1931)

Can a Woman Kill a Man With Whom She Has Known a Night of Love?

The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.

Date of release
1931-04-04
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (85)
Runtime
1h 31m
Genres
Drama, War, Romance
Director
Josef von Sternberg

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Dishonored is a 1931 American pre-Code Paramount Pictures romantic spy film directed and edited by Josef von Sternberg, who also cowrote the film with Daniel N. Rubin. The film stars Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen, Gustav von Seyffertitz and Warner Oland. Costume design was provided by Travis Banton in one of his several collaborations with Dietrich.

Production

Sternberg based the story loosely on the exploits and demise of Dutch spy Mata Hari, with the screenplay written by Daniel Nathan Rubin. The title Dishonored was selected by studio executives over Sternberg's objections. Sternberg said that "the lady spy was not dishonored, but killed by firing squad" and felt that the title would distort the significance of her death.

The film was rushed into production by Paramount to capitalize on the critical and popular success of Sternberg's films The Blue Angel and Morocco from the previous year, both starring Marlene Dietrich. MGM responded with the similar film Mata Hari later in the year.

Gary Cooper, who had starred with Dietrich in Morocco, was considered for the role of Kranau, but he was hesitant to work again with Sternberg.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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