NONFICTION - Sept. 27, 1992

DIETRICH: Style and Substance by Patrick O’Connor (Dutton: $30; 160 pp.) Patrick O’Connor’s book is primarily a celebration of Dietrich as objet d’art ; its 150 black-and-white photographs, many of them unfamiliar or previously unpublished, show her progression from plumpish hausfrau to incandescent exotic to “The World’s Most Glamorous Grandmother.” O’Connor, who has also written biographies of Josephine Baker and Toulouse-Lautrec, isn’t at all bad when dealing with Dietrich’s films; for example: “The Dietrich-Von Sternberg films all seem to be infused with music, even when--as in ‘Shanghai Express’--there is none.” He has a good ear for anecdote, but doesn’t get tangled up in gossip about her private life. He describes, for example, how nervous she was about her return performance in Berlin in 1960 (she had worked tirelessly for the Allies during World War II). It wasn’t the bomb threats and demonstrations that worried Dietrich. No, she was worried someone would throw an egg at her famous swans-down coat. “You couldn’t clean it in a million years.” Whether in tulle or trousers, Dietrich was an imperially self-conscious beauty. In answering for her allure in such Von Sternberg classics as “The Blue Angel” and “Morocco,” she is quoted as saying “I didn’t know what erotic meant,” and goes on, “I still don’t really know.” Yeah, right.