MARLENE DIETRICH: HER OWN SONG (2001) B/W & C widescreen 60m dir: J. David Riva

narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis; including interviews with Maria Riva, Rosemary Clooney, Burt Bacharach

From Now Playing, the TCM Viewer's Guide: "TCM is proud to present the world premiere of its original documentary Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song (2001) on the occasion of what would have been the German-born screen legend's 100th birthday [December 27, 2001]. The documentary, directed by Dietrich's grandson J. David Riva and written and co-produced by Karin Kearns, reveals the passionate artist and political activist behind Dietrich's glamorous facade. Filmed in Germany, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., the documentary is narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis and features exclusive footage of Dietrich and interviews with historians, family members, including daughter and biographer Maria Riva, and colleagues, including Rosemary Clooney and Burt Bacharach. Previously untold stories reveal the fierce personal convictions that allowed Dietrich to support American troops fighting the Nazi regime even when it meant being declared an enemy by her native country. Illustrating various phases of Dietrich's film career are Blonde Venus (1932), in which she plays a café singer forced to become a kept woman; Seven Sinners (1940), in which she is a cabaret performer causing havoc among men, including John Wayne, in the South Seas; and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), in which she plays the widow of a German officer and memorably tells Spencer Tracy, as the presiding American judge at the Nuremberg trials, that Germans 'are not all monsters.'"