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Wednesday, Jan 3, 1979
9:20 PM
A Foreign Affair
One of the trailblazing American movie satires, Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair brought down the displeasure of Congress and the Defense Department for aiming its wit at such taboo targets as de-Nazification, black market activities, and G.I. fraternization in post-war Berlin. Dietrich's performance as the ex-mistress of a top Nazi, who now makes a living by singing in a shady cellar called The Lorelei, is an evocative and resonant reprise of her Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel. The story involves Jean Arthur as a Claire Booth Luce-like Congresswoman who comes to investigate the "moral malaria" infecting occupying G.I.'s in Berlin, where she finds the situation to be a lot more complex than she bargained for. Quite vicious and savage even today, A Foreign Affair finds Wilder at the height of his iconoclasm and Dietrich in her last big popular role.
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