Desire (1936 film)

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Desire
Original French film poster for Désir (Desire)
Directed by	Frank Borzage
Produced by	Frank Borzage Ernst Lubitsch Henry Herzbrun (Executive producer)
Written by	Edwin Justus Mayer Waldemar Young Samuel Hoffenstein Hans Székely (play) Robert A. Stemmle (play) Vincent Lawrence Benn W. Levy
Starring	Marlene Dietrich Gary Cooper John Halliday William Frawley Akim Tamiroff Alan Mowbray
Music by	Frederick Hollander
Cinematography	Charles Lang Victor Milner
Editing by	William Shea
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	11 April 1936
Running time	USA 95 min
Country	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

Desire is an 1936 romantic drama film made by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Frank Borzage and produced by Borzage and Ernst Lubitsch. It is a remake of the 1933 German film Die Schönen Tage von Aranjuez. The screenplay was by Samuel Hoffenstein, Edwin Justus Mayer and Waldemar Young based on the play Die Schönen Tage von Aranjuez by Hans Székely and Robert A. Stemmle. The music score was by Frederick Hollander and the cinematography by Charles Lang and Victor Milner. Marlene Dietrich's wardrobe was designed by Travis Banton.

The film stars Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper and John Halliday with William Frawley, Akim Tamiroff and Alan Mowbray.

[edit] Background and production

John Gilbert was initially cast as Carlos Margoli, which was to be his comeback role. He had a heart attack in his dressing room a few weeks later and was immediately replaced by John Halliday. A few days later, Gilbert died of alcohol-induced heart failure.

Some of the scenes in the film were directed by Ernst Lubitsch whilst Frank Borzage was fulfilling a prior commitment at Warner Bros.

The film was shot at Paramount Studios and the Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, California and, unusually for its time, on location in France and Spain.

Of this film, Dietrich herself said,

The only film I need not be ashamed of is Desire, directed by Frank Borzage and based on a script by Ernst Lubitsch. I found Gary Cooper a little less monosyllabic than before. He was finally rid of Lupe Velez, who had been at his heels constantly throughout the shooting of Morocco.

and,

Desire became a good film and, moreover, also proved to be a box-office success. The script was excellent, the roles superb - one more proof that these elements are more important than actors [1]