Film Series Explores the Exotic Dietrich

Ernest Hemingway saddled her affectionately with the nickname “the Kraut,” but movie fans think of Marlene Dietrich in loftier ways, as one of the most exotic stars of her generation.

A four-movie retrospective of Dietrich’s career begins tonight at the Newport Harbor Art Museum with her breakthrough film, “The Blue Angel.” The 1930 release, directed by Dietrich’s mentor and lover, Josef von Sternberg, turned her into a global phenomenon and got the executives at Paramount salivating.

She offered sex and style in a decidedly foreign package, just what Hollywood was looking for during Garbo’s heyday.

Another Dietrich-Sternberg collaboration, “Blonde Venus” (1932), will be shown July 30.

On Aug. 6, Dietrich gets to act up as a cowgirl in “Destry Rides Again.” She stars as a knockabout saloon owner in this 1939 release featuring James Stewart.

The series closes Aug. 13 with “Witness for the Prosecution” (1957). Dietrich plays the wife of an alleged murderer in this adaptation of Agatha Christie’s courtroom drama, directed by Billy Wilder.

Each picture will be introduced and discussed afterward by film historian Arthur Taussig of the Orange Coast College faculty, who organized a similar program at Newport Harbor in March on vampire flicks.

* The Marlene Dietrich film series begins tonight at 6:30 at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. $3 and $5. (714) 759-1122.