The day after The Blue Angel premiered, Marlene Dietrich and director Josef von Sternberg left for the US to make Morocco. The film actually premiered in America before The Blue Angel. Paramount had already turned Dietrich into a star through an extensive publicity campaign. In the film, she plays cabaret singer Amy Jolly, who falls for a Foreign Legionnaire (Gary Cooper) in Morocco, while also attracting the attention of a wealthy admirer. A daring scene where Dietrich, dressed in a tuxedo, kisses a woman on the mouth shocked Hollywood and cemented her status as a sex symbol. Morocco is a lush, stylised fantasy, driven more by atmosphere and desire than realism.
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