Two years after she played the widow of a German general in Judgement At Nuremberg, Marlene Dietrich took up the task of narrating the documentary The Black Fox. Dietrich who certainly saw in her life the beginnings of Adolph Hitler's rise to power. Fortunately she had the good sense to leave Germany. She visited there post World War II on a few occasions, but Dietrich was never really welcomed back. She died in 1991 in Paris and only then did she come back to Germany to be buried.
What's different here is the use of a German folk tale The Black Fox with accompanying art work, interpolated into the film between scenes of the usual newsreel footage. Dietrich reads part of the tale which was adapted by Goethe and it's entertaining with a new perspective. Especially for German audiences brought up Goethe's literature.
I also noticed that the story Dietrich narrated was encapsulated in many ways by Burt Lancaster's speech acknowledging his guilt in Judgement At Nuremberg. Run that after The Black Fox and you'll see what I mean.
It's a story that cannot be told often enough and The Black Fox won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1962. Quite deserved.
What's different here is the use of a German folk tale The Black Fox with accompanying art work, interpolated into the film between scenes of the usual newsreel footage. Dietrich reads part of the tale which was adapted by Goethe and it's entertaining with a new perspective. Especially for German audiences brought up Goethe's literature.
I also noticed that the story Dietrich narrated was encapsulated in many ways by Burt Lancaster's speech acknowledging his guilt in Judgement At Nuremberg. Run that after The Black Fox and you'll see what I mean.
It's a story that cannot be told often enough and The Black Fox won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1962. Quite deserved.