I was pretty excited about the prospects of "Dishonored." Austria wanted to use a female spy to help them expose one of their own. The fact that a nation was willing to put convention to the side in order to get the intel they needed was novel, bold, and commendable. Then the whole thing went left.
It was 1915 during The Great War aka WWI and Marie Kolverer (Marlene Dietrich) was recruited by the Austrian army to find out who was giving state secrets to the Russians. As her recruiter (Gustav von Seyffertitz) put it:
"There are times in my work when a man's brain cannot accomplish as much as a woman's charm."
It wasn't exactly flattering, but OK.
Marie accepted the position and was given the code name X27. She found the Austrian traitor in short order then set her sights on the Russian spy. She found the Russian spy named Colonel Kranau (Victor McLaglen) still on Austrian soil, but she couldn't capture or kill him.
Her next mission was to go to Russia and spy. She successfully gathered intel in Russia, but was then caught by Col. Kranau largely because of a cat she carried with her. The cat was a dead give away, but she proclaimed that it gave her luck. It must've had some luck to it because after sleeping with Kranau she slipped him a sedative that allowed her to get away.
The score is now 1-1 for those keeping count. Kranau got away on Austrian soil and Marie got away on Russian soil. Now we go to sudden death.
If you're asking yourself why she slept with Kranau, you're not alone. I, too, wondered why she slept with him. Was it because she fell in love? Was it because it was exciting? Was it to make him more vulnerable? Or was it what she was expected to do for her country? I don't know and it was hard to know from Marie's behavior. Marie was impassive the entire movie. She never showed a single emotion other than ambivalence from beginning to end. It didn't matter if she was trying to be seductive, tough, or coy--she had the same mode of speech and mannerisms.
Whatever the reason was that she slept with Kranau I thought it was an incredible blow to her character individually and to women in general. It was already asserted that a woman could get further with her charm; I was half expecting her to prove that she could get a lot further with her brain. Sleeping with the enemy was an insult, as if a female spy will resort to sex because she can't resist a handsome powerful man.
The war went on a bit longer and Kranau was captured by the Austrian army. The only one who knew who he was was Marie. She outed him as a spy and he was summarily sentenced to death.
Marie asked for permission to speak to him because perhaps she could get him to talk. The Austrian brass didn't believe she could, but they gave her ten minutes with him anyway.
Then she helped him escape.
The score is now 2-1 Russia (or 2-1 Kranau if you prefer).
At this point I'm totally befuddled and I'm pretty perturbed. How... why... wha...? What is she doing? What is going on here? What did I miss? And again, Marie gave away nothing in her words or behavior. She was just as impassive as she was in the opening scene.
When asked by the Austrian army why she helped him escape, she said, "Perhaps I loved him."
Perhaps you loved him? Really? You can't even say definitively why you committed a gross act of treason and pretty much gave yourself a death sentence for the guy.
When the court refused to accept that as an answer she nonchalantly said, "I suppose I'm no good."
Her answers were infuriating to say the least. And her smug behavior only made her answers more infuriating. Her attitude and her answers said, "You don't deserve a reason and I'm not giving one," but it didn't add up.
The movie began with her calling the police on a man she thought was trying to harm Austria, so it was made apparent that she loved her country. So, to then let a notorious spy escape didn't jibe. Did she really fall in love with Kranau or did she become disenchanted with her country? If it was the former, then it was again an incredible insult to women. If it was the latter, they did a horrible job conveying that.
If it was that she fell in love, then the movie is proclaiming that women can't be trusted to do important work around men because they will fall in love. Now, to be fair, the men she used were equally guilty of falling short in their duties due to their lust for a woman, but that will always be overlooked. The fact is that she represented all women at the time of her service and she did a disservice.
If it was a case that she became disenchanted with her country, then why and at what point? What was done to her by her country to make her have such negative feelings towards Austria? I want answers!
The court martial charged her with treason, she gave no defense, and she was sentenced to death. Right before a lieutenant was set to give the command to fire he threw down his sword and shouted, "I will not kill a woman!"
It was pathetic.
This movie was already trouncing on gender roles and they went so far as to make it ungentlemanly to kill a woman even if she's guilty of treason. A man guilty of treason, sure use every bullet in your arsenal; a woman guilty of treason, "Oh! I dare not," as though somehow a woman's treason is less dangerous or more excusable.
This movie took an excellent premise and sharted on it. It had the potential to be significant and good, yet inexplicably they threw it away. What began as a promising movie was squandered and without any explanation. Marie was such a mercurial character and we were never allowed to know why. If I just knew more of her backstory, more of what made her tick, then maybe her behavior throughout would've made some sense. But instead they left us ignorant, which essentially left us to our own suppositions as to who and what she was and I suppose she was just a woman who didn't care much about anything or anyone, not even herself.
Free on Internet Archive.
It was 1915 during The Great War aka WWI and Marie Kolverer (Marlene Dietrich) was recruited by the Austrian army to find out who was giving state secrets to the Russians. As her recruiter (Gustav von Seyffertitz) put it:
"There are times in my work when a man's brain cannot accomplish as much as a woman's charm."
It wasn't exactly flattering, but OK.
Marie accepted the position and was given the code name X27. She found the Austrian traitor in short order then set her sights on the Russian spy. She found the Russian spy named Colonel Kranau (Victor McLaglen) still on Austrian soil, but she couldn't capture or kill him.
Her next mission was to go to Russia and spy. She successfully gathered intel in Russia, but was then caught by Col. Kranau largely because of a cat she carried with her. The cat was a dead give away, but she proclaimed that it gave her luck. It must've had some luck to it because after sleeping with Kranau she slipped him a sedative that allowed her to get away.
The score is now 1-1 for those keeping count. Kranau got away on Austrian soil and Marie got away on Russian soil. Now we go to sudden death.
If you're asking yourself why she slept with Kranau, you're not alone. I, too, wondered why she slept with him. Was it because she fell in love? Was it because it was exciting? Was it to make him more vulnerable? Or was it what she was expected to do for her country? I don't know and it was hard to know from Marie's behavior. Marie was impassive the entire movie. She never showed a single emotion other than ambivalence from beginning to end. It didn't matter if she was trying to be seductive, tough, or coy--she had the same mode of speech and mannerisms.
Whatever the reason was that she slept with Kranau I thought it was an incredible blow to her character individually and to women in general. It was already asserted that a woman could get further with her charm; I was half expecting her to prove that she could get a lot further with her brain. Sleeping with the enemy was an insult, as if a female spy will resort to sex because she can't resist a handsome powerful man.
The war went on a bit longer and Kranau was captured by the Austrian army. The only one who knew who he was was Marie. She outed him as a spy and he was summarily sentenced to death.
Marie asked for permission to speak to him because perhaps she could get him to talk. The Austrian brass didn't believe she could, but they gave her ten minutes with him anyway.
Then she helped him escape.
The score is now 2-1 Russia (or 2-1 Kranau if you prefer).
At this point I'm totally befuddled and I'm pretty perturbed. How... why... wha...? What is she doing? What is going on here? What did I miss? And again, Marie gave away nothing in her words or behavior. She was just as impassive as she was in the opening scene.
When asked by the Austrian army why she helped him escape, she said, "Perhaps I loved him."
Perhaps you loved him? Really? You can't even say definitively why you committed a gross act of treason and pretty much gave yourself a death sentence for the guy.
When the court refused to accept that as an answer she nonchalantly said, "I suppose I'm no good."
Her answers were infuriating to say the least. And her smug behavior only made her answers more infuriating. Her attitude and her answers said, "You don't deserve a reason and I'm not giving one," but it didn't add up.
The movie began with her calling the police on a man she thought was trying to harm Austria, so it was made apparent that she loved her country. So, to then let a notorious spy escape didn't jibe. Did she really fall in love with Kranau or did she become disenchanted with her country? If it was the former, then it was again an incredible insult to women. If it was the latter, they did a horrible job conveying that.
If it was that she fell in love, then the movie is proclaiming that women can't be trusted to do important work around men because they will fall in love. Now, to be fair, the men she used were equally guilty of falling short in their duties due to their lust for a woman, but that will always be overlooked. The fact is that she represented all women at the time of her service and she did a disservice.
If it was a case that she became disenchanted with her country, then why and at what point? What was done to her by her country to make her have such negative feelings towards Austria? I want answers!
The court martial charged her with treason, she gave no defense, and she was sentenced to death. Right before a lieutenant was set to give the command to fire he threw down his sword and shouted, "I will not kill a woman!"
It was pathetic.
This movie was already trouncing on gender roles and they went so far as to make it ungentlemanly to kill a woman even if she's guilty of treason. A man guilty of treason, sure use every bullet in your arsenal; a woman guilty of treason, "Oh! I dare not," as though somehow a woman's treason is less dangerous or more excusable.
This movie took an excellent premise and sharted on it. It had the potential to be significant and good, yet inexplicably they threw it away. What began as a promising movie was squandered and without any explanation. Marie was such a mercurial character and we were never allowed to know why. If I just knew more of her backstory, more of what made her tick, then maybe her behavior throughout would've made some sense. But instead they left us ignorant, which essentially left us to our own suppositions as to who and what she was and I suppose she was just a woman who didn't care much about anything or anyone, not even herself.
Free on Internet Archive.