It's not surprising that the (male) French Surrealists gave themselves over to Josef von Sternberg's films with Marlene Dietrich by identifying with the actress herself, who for them embodied the disruptive force. It isn't just the tuxedo, though that of course helps; Dietrich singing “Hot Voodoo” in a gorilla suit brings the exotic home in Sternberg's only film set in America. And when she peels off her gorilla hands (not to mention her head), she is Gilda gilded with the delicious element of the absurd. Strip off the animal, and what's underneath? More animal. Dietrich plays a cabaret performer with an ill husband (Herbert Marshall) and a very healthy protector (Cary Grant). She sets out with her son on a journey across Sternbergian America, leading an increasingly tattered existence as they move south to the Mexican border. Sternberg's picture of family life is one of looming depression, even while his forests, bordellos, and flophouses have an uncanny incandescence.
—Judy Bloch