Directed by:
David HemmingsCinematography:
Karl SteinbergerComposer:
Günther FischerCast:
David Bowie, Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, David Hemmings, Maria Schell, Curd Jürgens, Werner Pochath, Marlene Dietrich, Rudolf Schündler, Evelyn Künneke, Karin Hardt (more)Plots(1)
Berlin in the 1920s... A time of change, a time of upheaval. Paul von Pryzgodski (David Bowie) was a young man whose life had led him to expect heroism, but instead, he found failure - failure in the Great War, failure at trying to find a career, failure at nearly every relationship that comes his way until he meets the Baroness and discovers there is one profession at which he can excel. This offbeat German melodrama directed by David Hemmings stars David Bowie as Paul, a young Prussian War veteran who returns home to Berlin after World War I. After drifting from job to job, Paul eventually finds his niche renting himself out as a dancer for war widows who long to forget their sadness. Kim Novak sizzles as a sad widow, with German bombshell Maria Schell as Paul’s mother and Sydne Rome as his old sweetheart-turned-cabaret singer. Marlene Dietrich makes a poignant cameo (it was her last film role) as an aging baroness, singing the title song, aka Schoner Gigolo, armer Gigolo. (Umbrella Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (1)
It needed some time away from it. I've always considered Just a Gigolo as a rather negative film, a big departure for Marlene Dietrich. And this really is not the best film to watch. Yet it becomes much more interesting if we place it among the series of films from the 1970s that spontaneously began to admire interwar decadence. Whether European or American. There is indeed a bit of Cabaret and The Great Gatsby with Redford in Just a Gigolo. We get a nicely wooden Bowie in the lead role, and a spectacular Dietrich, right up to the end of her days. Then there are the legendary hits "Johnny" and "Ich Küsse Ihre Hand, Madame," but unfortunately they are included in new and worse arrangements. The more interesting performances are given by Sydne Rome (in the hands of worse directors a stripped actress, while the better ones have her wearing clothes) and the darling Curd Jürgens. The icing on the cake is the endearingly intractable problem of two different versions left over after the original material was cut by more than half an hour. In this way, the audience can argue forever about which version of Just a Gigolo is better. I'm looking forward to Kästner's novel anyway.
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