The Devil Is A Woman

A small triumph from Von Sternberg, with Dietrich in bewitching form as the seemingly unattainable but hugely desirable woman whose aloofness makes her all the more attractive to the string of men whose lives she turns upside down. The 19th-century setting (it takes place during the Spanish Civil War) makes it all the more fiery, while the central storyline, in which besotted older man Atwill is truly screwed up by the feisty minx, marks an interesting cinematic role reversal. Men have done the same thing to women so many times on screen, it makes a refreshing change.