This week’s mystery movie was the 1935 Paramount film The Devil Is a Woman, with Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Atwill, Edward Everett Horton, Alison Skipworth, Cesar Romero, Don Alvarado, Tempe Piggott and Paco Moreno.
Adapted by John Dos Passos.
From The Woman and the Puppet by Pierre Louys.
La Femme et le Pantin (in French) via Archive.org.
Continuity by S.K. Winston.
Music based on Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Spanish Caprice and old Spanish melodies.
Songs by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger.
Miss Dietrich’s costumes by Travis Banton.
A Josef von Sternberg production.
Directed and photographed by Josef von Sternberg.
Further information on The Devil Is a Woman is available from the AFI Catalog.
The Devil Is a Woman is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Video.
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I picked The Devil Is a Woman because there is a huge display ad on the same page as The New York Times review of Mark of the Vampire. I had never seen it and it looked interesting. And indeed it is… Beautifully photographed and an excellent film. Dietrich clearly relished her role, and there are lots of characters in mask since the film takes place during a festival. Perfect for a mystery movie!.
Harrison’s Reports hated the film, but I wonder how it fared with The New York Times. Mordaunt Hall, anyone?
Andre Sennwald gets the call (May 4, 1935):
It’s not hard to understand why Hollywood expressed such violent distaste for Josef von Sternberg’s new film. For the talented director-photographer in The Devil Is a Woman makes a cruel and mocking assault upon the romantic sex motif which Hollywood has been gravely celebrating all these years. His success is also his failure. Having composed one of the most sophisticated films ever produced in America, he makes it inevitable that it will be misunderstood and disliked by nine-tenths of the normal motion picture public. The uninformed will be bored by The Devil is a Woman. The cultivated filmgoer will be delighted by the sly urbanity which is implicit in Mr. von Sternberg’s direction as well as excited by the striking beauty of his settings and photography….
….This column regards The Devil Is a Woman as the best product of the Sternberg-Dietrich alliance since The Blue Angel.
For Monday, we have a mysterious guest!
Update: This is Marlene Dietrich.
For “Tricky Tuesday,” we have a mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Cesar Romero.
Brain Trust roll call: Mike Hawks (mysterious movie and Monday’s mystery guest).
For “Hm Wednesday,” we have a mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Edward Everett Horton in a dashing beard and mustache.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (mystery movie and both mysterious guests), Sylvia (mystery movie and both mysterious guests, plus mysterious theme), Greg (Tuesday’s mysterious guest), Lorenzo (Monday’s and Tuesday’s mysterious guests), Suz N Chaz (Tuesday’s mystery fellow), B.J. Merholz (Tuesday’s mystery guest), Anne Papineau (mystery movie and both mysterious guests), Eve Golden (mystery movie and mysterious guests), Mike Hawks (Tuesday’s mystery guest), Roget-L.A. (Tuesday’s mystery fellow) and Sheila (Tuesday’s mystery guest).
For “Aha Thursday,” we have a woman of mystery.
Update: This is Alison Skipworth.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Wednesday’s mystery guest), Megan and Thom (mystery movie and all mysterious guests), Greg (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Stacia (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Sylvia (Wednesday’s mystery chap), Roget-L.A. (mystery movie and all mysterious guests), Mike Hawks (Wednesday’s mystery guest) and L.C. (mystery movie and mysterious cast).
For Friday we have the usual mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Lionel Atwill, who may have to go into Mystery Movie Jail at this point (along with Van Johnson, Mitchell Leisen and Sheldon Leonard).
And our mysterious leading lady, leading hearts astray with an entranced mysterious companion.
Update: This is Marlene Dietrich with an as yet unidentified mystery companion.
Brain Trust roll call: Sheila (mystery movie, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s mystery guests), Mary Mallory (Thursday’s mystery woman), Sylvia (Thursday’s mystery woman) and Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery woman).
ladailymirror.com 
Thank goodness for the Movieland Mystery Photo, I’ve had the weirdest few days and this is the first bit of normality I’ve had in a while.
Absolutely no idea who this is but I’m gonna say Maria Ouspenskaya because that just seems like a Maria Ouspenskaya gown to me.
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Plus her name is really fun to say! But, alas, I’m afraid not.
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Marlene Dietrich in THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN.
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Cesar Romero.
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DEVIL IS A WOMAN. Marlene Dietrich Monday.
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The Devil is a Woman 1935
Monday – Marlene Dietrich with those weird gloves (they’re not actually that weird, but the angle you’ve chosen is perfect for the mystery puzzle)
Tuesday – would know that grin anywhere. Cesar Romero in his “bat mask”. That mask and the appearance, later this week, of Mr Atwill is perfect for linking all the “bat” movies we’ve had this month.
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Would Tuesday’s shady gent be Cesar Romero?
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Monday’s guest is Marlene Dietrich and Tuesday’s fella might be Cesar Romero.
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Cesar Romero as the Cisco Kid?
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I can’t not guess Cesar Romero.
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The shutters and the veiled woman made me think of Marlene Dietrich in “Blonde Venus.” But alas, it appears to be Marlene Dietrich in “The Devil is a Woman,” due to the masked appearance of Cesar Romero on Tuesday.
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Cesar Romero.
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For “Tricky Tuesday”, could our mysterious fellow be Cesar Romero in The Gay Caballero (1940)?
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Cesar Romero?
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Our movie is The Devil is a Woman, with Edward Everett Horton, Cesar Romero, and Marlene Dietrich.
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The glove suggests that Monday’s veil is worn by Marlene Dietrich in 1935’s The Devil is a Woman.
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Hm Wednesday is Edward Everett Horton.
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Hm Wednesday is my best friend and yours, Mr. Edward Everett Horton, and I’d bet anything that Tuesday is Cesar Romero, and this isn’t a “Batman” episode so I’ll guess it’s THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (1935). That must be Marlene Dietrich on Monday. Pretty sure she would have personally murdered me if she knew I mistook her for Maria Ouspenskaya.
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Wednesday – a very elegant Edward Everett Horton
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For “Hm Wednesday,” we have Edward Everett Horton in The Devil Is a Woman (1935). If I’m right, then that’s probably Marlene Dietrich on Monday who I’m sure will be joined on Friday with Lionel Atwill (again).
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Edward Everett Horton.
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The Devil is a Woman (1935) w/Marlene Dietrich, Cesar Romero, Edward Everett Horton, Allison Skipworth, Lionel Atwill, Tempe Pigott, Don Alvarado…
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Alison Skipworth and Edward Everett Horton, ‘The Devil is a Woman’
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Allison Skipworth.
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Thursday – Alison Skipworth
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Alison Skipworth.
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Friday – Lionel Atwill after the duel. Marlene Dietrich. I think the image is from her nightclub act and the rotund guy is playing a baker. I’ve seen another angle of Ms D next to a guy with a really long nose. Maybe it’s the “I have 3 Loves” number?
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Found a clip. So image 2 is indeed from the nightclub sequence with Ms Marlene. The song is cutely naughty “3 Sweethearts have I”. Our rotund friend is sweetheart #3, the son-of-a-baker (he follows the son-of-a-gardener and the son-of-a-farmer) who gives our singer “… biscuits and cookies and pastries even a queen could eat… and other things…that aren’t so sweet.” The crowd loves her.
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Lionel and Marlene.
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Lionel Atwill and Dietrich.
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