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In
1915 Vienna, the widow of an Austrian army captain is inducted into the
Austrian Secret Service as a spy called X-27. She is told to use her
feminine wiles to save Austria and succeeds by forcing Colonel Von Hindau,
attached to the army's chief of staff, to confess treason and commit
suicide.
Next, X-27 tries to implicate Von Hindau's Russian
accomplice, Colonel Kranau, but he eludes her, later showing up at her
apartment. While X-27 plays the piano in the adjoining room, Kranau
finds her orders to go to the Russian headquarters at Borislav, near the
Polish border, to find out the position and plans of the Russian army.
When X-27 discovers Kranau, he tries to make love to her, but she rebuffs
him.
As X-27 arrives in Borislav, martial law is proclaimed in
Tarnow, Poland. Posing as a maid, she overhears the Russians' plan to
invade Poland in four days. After avoiding seduction by Russian
Colonel Kovrin by getting him drunk, X-27 spends the night coding the
Russian offensive into music, until she is caught by Kranau and asked to
take her clothes off for a strip search. X-27 obliges coquettishly and
he discovers her music, which he burns. While telling her she will
have only until dawn to live, Kranau confesses his love for her and the two
make love.
In
the morning, X-27 drugs Kranau's wine and escapes to the Austrian border,
where she plays the piano on an encoded composition that leads to capture of
many Russians. The lovers meet again when Kranau is arrested and
identified as H-14 of the Russian Secret Service. X-27 then receives
permission to interrogate Kranau, who faces execution, in private and allows
him to escape, for which she is court-martialed and sentenced to die.
Her last request is to die in the clothes she wore "when she served her
countrymen, instead of her country." After adjusting her lipstick and
stocking, X-27 is shot down.
Notes
The prologue to the film states, "A ring of steel encircles Vienna; Strange
figures emerge from the dust of the falling Austrian Empire. One of
these: X-27, might have been the greatest spy in history had she not been a
woman." An early script title for this film was Madame Nobody.
In his autobiography, director
Josef von Sternberg states that he was against titling this film
Dishonored because the heroine was not dishonored, but killed by a
firing squad. Sternberg also states that the film was based on his
story "X-27."
An early script in the Paramount Script
Collection at the AMPAS Library lists
Gary Cooper in the cast as
Marlene Dietrich's co-star. A modern source claims that Cooper
declined the role of Lieutenant Kranau on the grounds that he had promised
never to work with Dietrich again. (He had starred with her in the
1930 film Morocco.)
He did, however, appear with Dietrich in the 1936 film
Desire.
The Paramount Studio Sound Department received a
1931 Academy Award for Sound Recording. Sternberg states that the
award was specifically for the execution scene in this film, which was
staged in a balloon hangar in order to facilitate an echo when the shots
were fired. According to a modern source, the music "X-27" plays
repeatedly throughout the film is the waltz "Danube Waves," by Ion Ivanovici.
This film marked the end of Dietrich's first Paramount contract, which she
renegotiated at a fee of $125,000 a picture. Modern sources credit
Sternberg with editing, Hans Dreier with art direction, Travis Banton with
costumes and Karl Hajos with music. |
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