Dishonored

1931 Directed by Josef von Sternberg

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

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

Marlene Dietrich Victor McLaglen Gustav von Seyffertitz Warner Oland Lew Cody Barry Norton Max Barwyn F. Blinn

Alternative Titles

Entehrt, Madame Nobody

drama romance war

91 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★★ 2

The kiss of death.
There's a fascinating progession for Dietrich from object of desire in The Blue Angel to equal partnership in Marocco to complete owning the film here right down to the greatest of all staring at death scenes.
Review by theriverjordan ★★★½ 32

“Dishonored” is a pulpy romance saturated in the rich density of shadow.
Director Josef von Sternberg’s silent era gifts are transposed into talkies with luscious success in “Dishonored.” His third collaboration with Marlene Dietrich sees her in a loose adaption of the Mata Hari spy saga.
Sternberg shoots Dietrich as if she were draped in a shawl of liquid darkness. As ‘X27,’ her face transitions between being a beacon of angular contrast to the world around her, and fading into its many shadowy corners. It’s a fitting and elegant bit of camouflage for Dietrich’s spy.
And while “Dishonored” has all the elegance of one of its lead actress’s legendary eyebrows, it is also playfully dumb.
“Morocco” star Gary Cooper refused…
Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Cackled with absolute glee when Dietrich reapplied her lipstick as she stood before the firing squad.
Review by josh lewis ★★★★★

being a working girl in a profession where death becomes another act of performing and dressing up, where the state sees more honor and glory in murder than in expressions of compassion.
Review by Richard Chandler ★★★½ 7

"I've had an inglorious life; it may become my good fortune to have a glorious death."
As the third of seven collaborations between the luminous Marlene Dietrich and the totalitarian Josef von Sternberg, the WWI-era espionage romance Dishonored was rushed into production by Paramount in an attempt to capitalize on the success of the previous year's Morocco. Though seeing Dietrich's face in closeup is worth sitting through the entire film, the lack of preproduction time is nonetheless evident in the final product.
After a fellow Viennese streetwalker succumbs to suicide, war-widowed Marie (Marlene Dietrich) is moved by sympathy to informally eulogize her fallen confederate. This occasions the reproof of the building's censorious concierge, who forecasts a similar fate for Marie.…
Review by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim ★★★★½ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

marlene dietrich choosing the outfit to be executed in and then reapplying her lipstick is such a fuckin MOOD
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★★½ 1

88/100
Second viewing, last seen 1995 (when I was similarly blown away, having gone in with low expectations due to its relative obscurity). A textbook example of how genre can liberate star power—this is arguably the flimsiest of Von Sternberg's collaborations with Dietrich, but for precisely that reason it showcases her steel-forged sultriness in its most unadulterated, electrifying form. Some folks complain about McLaglen here, but he's (a) totally fine and (b) effectively irrelevant; Dietrich remains in total command from start to finish, projecting the potent amalgam of strength, stoicism and mystery that's almost always reserved for men onscreen (despite playing a Mata Hari type renowned for her powers of seduction). Underrated formally, too, as Von Sternberg experiments with some…
Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★½

It's almost frustrating watching something like this again because it just reminds you how like, you know, most other movies kind of suck comparatively
Review by Lawrence Garcia ★★★★★

From the dust of Austria emerges the story and its "strange figures," Dietrich first seen as a pair of stockinged legs beneath the rain, McLaglen first glimpsed beneath a mask and raining confetti. After a nighttime encounter, a test of loyalty to a country that cares nothing for her, she slips from one profession into another, more "ignoble" one, from an "inglorious life" to the promise of "glorious death." A raucous party scored to "The Blue Danube" sets the stage, von Sternberg's orchestrations as stunning as ever: shimmering light, ribbons of shadow, and the flirtatious distance of a mask. The first assignment is a mere detour; the after-party and the caprice of a roulette table is where the journey begins.…
Review by M_Penalosa ★★★★★ 11

Sometimes I just feel stupid for not having watched a film sooner. Sternberg was never really good with plots, and here he barely even tries to follow one. Dietrich, of course, but what Victor McLaglen pulls off here is godlike. Easily my Sternberg masterpiece.
Review by Brett & JB ★★★½

Josef von Sternberg achieves something unique by linking prostitution to patriotism in Dishonored, an anti-war statement with a lot of earnest for a film released between World Wars.
You can tell Sternberg is working with a tight budget here, but he deploys some interesting techniques: extremely long cross fades and deep shadows.
Marlene Dietrich is not as decadently gowned but still elusive (those darting eyes!) as she takes the role of Austrian spy "X27", luring traitorous men with ease before finding herself swept up by another spy.
The irony here is that her country uses her body and sexuality as a spy but condemns her courting with the ever-smiling Victor McLaglen, ultimately producing in its hypocrisy a literal perversity of war. It might be stilted in its execution and a concept to be revisited later in a darker Hollywood, but Sternberg's Dishonored still feels ahead of its time for 1931.
Review by Sally Jane Black 6

The cat is so adorably fluffy.
This strange spy story sort of seems to take place in a vacuum. Dietrich's X-27 becomes embroiled in a give-and-take with an enemy spy that is sexual and somewhat intense, and yet, you never really get a sense of the greater context. There's mention of troop movements, Russians and Austrians, and so on, but it's all nebulous, on the edges. The scenes seem disjointed in a way, as if we're only seeing snapshots of X-27's life as she encounters her opponent over the course of the war.
Dietrich's character stands out because (well, because she's almost the only character in the film) she never seems to be defined by her interplay with her opponent--neither…

Recent reviews

Review by Connor Sweeney ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Sternberg makes incredible use of shadow here. Marlene is aces as usual; her bits at the party scene and her masquerading as the peasant girl are absolutely inspired.
McLaglen is waist deep in the River of Ham, and once again, Marlene has more sexual chemistry with the audience than her onscreen lover, but what can ya do.
Putting on lipstick and fixing your stockings as you’re about to be executed by a firing squad is one of the baddest bitch moves I’ve ever seen. We stan a legend!
Review by Lerschy ★★★½

Dishonored is a fun film directed and written by Josef von Sternberg and featuring Marlene Dietrich. Honestly, it’s mostly a great film too. Dietrich plays a woman who turns spy for Germany in WWI. She roots out traitors for her country in a series of exciting and even sometimes humorous sequences. Dietrich steals the show and von Sternberg once again shows us why he was one of the best people behind the camera in early cinema.
Nevertheless, the casting outside of Dietrich is really off. The “romance” feels forced. In addition, von Sternberg commits the same sin from Morocco reducing the autonomy of Dietrich’s strong independent character in the final minutes. Without spoiling it, the ending could have worked had Dietrich’s character found herself in the situation under different circumstances. It doesn’t though because it feels forced.
Overall though, Dietrich’s spy is wonderful and the film is thrilling up until it’s final sequence.
Review by avocado cat ★★★

Dietrich is a dangerous and beautiful femme fatale, unfortunately it’s completely unbelievable that she falls in love with that idiot so the movie is a bit awkward
Review by mikero ★★★

Several just weird scenes, and kind of hard to follow at times, but also pretty amazing that this is from 1931.
Review by realjeff ★★★★★

Entertaining spy yarn elevated by its director and leading lady. Marlene Dietrich shines. Von Sternberg’s visuals are lush. His devious use of crossfades as storytelling tools allow him to layer plot information in addition to their symbolic and emotional impact. The jam-packed party scene is a new favorite.
Review by alyssa ★★★

less creepy mustache man smiling and more marlene dietrich smoking cigarettes very hotly
marlene im begging u to just reject me so i can move on.......
Review by Marculescu ★★★½

Not nearly as good as Morocco. Still has some moments.
Review by Carnelian

For the couture alone!! My God, Paramount’s ostrich-feather budget could have run a small country.
Review by AutomneBaltique

I like this movie in theory more than I practically did.
Usually the backdrop of espionage in the Great War would be really interesting, especially since it contains what one could call the forgotten allies Austria-Hungary and Russia. Seriously these two countries are massively underrepresented in any media about the First World War.
The movie kinda lost me in the ball scene which sadly is in the beginning of the movie. Unrelated to my enjoyment I thought it was hilarious that the subtitles played the song "Deutschland Über Alles" when the "Österreichische Kaiserhymne" period and era correct are. Now this makes absolutely no difference as the melody is the same but still a funny detail most probably wouldn't pick up…
Review by Nathan Labonté

This movie belongs to Marlene Dietrich. Maybe not quite as potent as Morocco, but you can't complain when this is a movie about Dietrick seducing soldiers to steal information and getting caught in traps, wriggling out at the last moment... really, just a great spy movie! That party sequence where she makes eyes at others and flirts through a mask is dynamite. And that ending tho! Lighting that cigarette!!
Review by sansho_dayu

probably the best movie ever
Review by Brett & JB ★★★½

Josef von Sternberg achieves something unique by linking prostitution to patriotism in Dishonored, an anti-war statement with a lot of earnest for a film released between World Wars.
You can tell Sternberg is working with a tight budget here, but he deploys some interesting techniques: extremely long cross fades and deep shadows.
Marlene Dietrich is not as decadently gowned but still elusive (those darting eyes!) as she takes the role of Austrian spy "X27", luring traitorous men with ease before finding herself swept up by another spy.
The irony here is that her country uses her body and sexuality as a spy but condemns her courting with the ever-smiling Victor McLaglen, ultimately producing in its hypocrisy a literal perversity of war. It might be stilted in its execution and a concept to be revisited later in a darker Hollywood, but Sternberg's Dishonored still feels ahead of its time for 1931.