"Marlene reveals the inner life of a woman of grit, glamour, and ambition who defied convention, seduced the world, and forged her own path on her own terms."--

The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the landmark biography that tells the full-scale, riveting, and untold story of Marlene Dietrich. Wildly entertaining, Maria Riva reveals the rich life of her mother in vivid detail, evoking Dietrich the woman, her legendary career, and her world. Opening with Dietrich's childhood in Berlin, we meet an energetic, disciplined, and ambitious young actress, whose own mother equated the stage with a world of vagabonds...

Marlene Dietrich began her career in her native Berlin as a model, then as a stage and screen actress during the silent era, and became a star with the international success "The Blue Angel." Then, under the watchful eye of director and mentor Josef von Sternberg, she became one of the brightest stars in Hollywood. Charlotte Chandler, who spoke with Dietrich in her Paris apartment in the mid-1970s, relies extensively on the star's own words to reveal...

Leni Riefenstahl and Marlene Dietrich both came of age in Weimar Berlin, a time of great political ferment. Both women seized upon the revolutionary energy of the 1920s, seeking careers on the stage and in film. In the 1930s, Riefenstahl became the official filmmaker of the Third Reich, a progenitor of fascist symbolism. Dietrich's slender and androgynous beauty made her a fashion icon. Both women had their grand passions, but neither abandoned ambition...