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United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2.4 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Czech ( Subtitles ), Danish ( Subtitles ), Dutch ( Subtitles ), English ( Subtitles ), Finnish ( Subtitles ), French ( Subtitles ), German ( Subtitles ), Hungarian ( Subtitles ), Norwegian ( Subtitles ), Polish ( Subtitles ), Swedish ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Contemporary viewers who go into Dishonored expecting a musty, dated espionage melodrama will be in for a surprise. Marlene Dietrich delivers a subtle and witty performance as a Viennese prostitute who offers her services as a spy during WWI. As 'Agent X-27' our heroine proves invaluable to her superiors, seducing and betraying enemy officers with the greatest of ease. But when she falls in love with Russian spy Lt. Kranau (Victor McLaglen), she permits him to escape her clutches, and as a consequence is sentenced to be executed. Ever the mistress of her own fate, 'X-27' stands proud and tall before the firing squad, even comforting the officer in charge (Barry Norton) who can't bring himself to shoot a woman. The scenes between Dietrich and bemedalled general Warner Oland are in themselves worthy of the admission price; equally as entertaining is the brief sequence in which the jaded heroine disguises herself as a zaftig peasant girl. ...Dishonored (1931) ( Dis honored )
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Dietrich and Von Sternberg in their prime did something with film melodrama that remains unique. The stories are confections, yet the confection of story-making in their hands is so captivating it is able to touch deep emotions and transcend the purely melodramatic. It is nearer opera than film drama in its reliance on artifice and illusion. This spy story is as useful, as history, as their portrait of Catherine the Great in "Scarlet Empress", but the historical setting of spy-versus-spy in World War One is merely a tool: the retort in which actors (Victor McLaglan also makes a major contribution to this production) and director mix their chemicals. There are many striking images, penetrating lines of dialogue and wonderfully choreographed scenes. Among the most memorable: Dietrich's lightly seductive embrace of a piano prior to pouring out a passionate sonata; McLaglan's carousing with his spy-rival the night before her planned execution; and Dietrich offered a blindfold and using it to wipe the tears of the officer commanding the firing squad. Storyline and plausibility, history and narrative fade to insignificance when the lights do down and these cinema magicians begin their tricks.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A stylish and at times, hard hitting film from the collaborative pairing of Dietrich and von Sternberg, "Dishonored" is an exercise in what a director can do when he transfers his stock in trade (in this case melodrama), and puts it against a grandiose setting (the horrors of the First World War).
However, that is not to say that this war/ spy story is about guts and glory- rather, it is more the case of if spying were a game between two lovers, this is how the world of espionage would operate. Josef von Sternberg's view of the Eastern Front in the Great War is one of run down villages, highly decorated Russian and Austrian generals and perpetual snow.
Overall, this film is a highly entertaining piece of melodrama with colourful characters, a very strong cast (Victor McLaglan is superb as a Russian spy), and excellent direction from one of the masters of Hollywood film.
However, that is not to say that this war/ spy story is about guts and glory- rather, it is more the case of if spying were a game between two lovers, this is how the world of espionage would operate. Josef von Sternberg's view of the Eastern Front in the Great War is one of run down villages, highly decorated Russian and Austrian generals and perpetual snow.
Overall, this film is a highly entertaining piece of melodrama with colourful characters, a very strong cast (Victor McLaglan is superb as a Russian spy), and excellent direction from one of the masters of Hollywood film.
4 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The fascinating this is Dietrich starts off her career as qute a sturdy lass and in this early piece of Ruritanian nonsense she is every inch, several of them, a Fraulein. She plaus a spy, a widow forced to turn to prostitution to survive, who meets, and falls in love with a Russian secret agent played by Victor McLaglen. In his youth he was quite a dashing chap, not the amiable drunk of all those later Westerns. It all ends badly. How else? Directed by Joesf von Sternberg, the man who made her a star, it is hugely enjoyable, a period piece of course, but if only they could make them like this today.
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