Edward G. Robinson & Marlene Dietrich Take A Break During The Filming Of “Manpower” 1941

Caesar and Glamour
Edward G. Robinson sometimes known as “Little Caesar” currently is appearing as a foreman of a tough gang of trouble-shooting power linemen in Warner Bros.’ “Manpower.” Here he chats with the feminine lead in the film Marlene Dietrich. George Raft completes the cast. Credit: Warner Bros. Studio / King Features Syndicate 1941

It seems as though Robinson is intently studying his co-star. So what did Robinson think of Dietrich?

From his 1973 autobiography All My Yesterdays, (Hawthorn), Robinson had this to say:

I followed Sea Wolf with Manpower, in which I played with Marlene Dietrich. You are by now certainly aware of my less than generous habit of assessing people by first impression. My first impression of Miss Dietrich made me nervous, because, to carp, she appeared to have such arrogant self-assurance and security. I had never met her before, though I had seen all her pictures and was aware that she was sexy, temperamental, demanding, beautiful, and
perhaps the synthetic creation of Joseph von Sternberg.

Playing with her, I learned that we shared a common passion: work. More than that: Be on time, know the lines, toe the marks, say the words, be ready for anything. God, she was beautiful—and still is—but I don’t think it interested her very much. Beauty, that obsessive sexual thing she had, and her superficial self-confidence were simply instruments to help her bank account and her art.

One of the things about her that astonished me most was her knowledge of the technical side of motion pictures. She seemed to know everything. She constantly watched the camera and the lighting,would politely superintend, make suggestions to the cameramen and gaffers so subtly and so sexily that no one was offended she got precisely what one she wanted. (I didn’t mind; what possible  difference could it make which side of my face was photographed? Both
were equally homely.) She was one of the first actresses I ever knew to have her own makeup table and mirror placed in the same lights in which she would have to play—a trick she told me Von Sternberg had taught her. Between takes she was constantly in front of the mirror, adjusting her hair and her makeup, and the instant the director called her, she was ready.

We never became friends, but we became close acquaintances. If that requires an explanation, I am not able to give one. I know Marlene; I see her every so often; I know nothing of her personal or private or semiprivate life; she knows nothing of mine; we will always keep it that way……..

My view of her as an actress? I am not sure I would call it talent; it is something beyond that—mystery, unavailability, distance, feminine mystique (before those two words got to mean something else). I gladly risk the sneer of Germaine Greer: I like the Dietrich mystique
better than the Greer. Certainly, while Betty Friedan may be more intelligent, I’d rather spend my time with Marlene, who, by the way,is one of the best gourmet and family cooks about and certainly could and should be called Ms. Kleen. She is the quintessential sex goddess; she is also the quintessential German hausfrau. She is mother as SEX; Sex as it was intended. She is rough and tough—and absolutely and uniquely and gloriously herself.