A Foreign Affair ( 1948 )

During World War II, the American, British, and Russian forces bombed Berlin until it was a heap of concrete rubble. After the war, the US Army decided to leave some troops behind to help clean up the mess. This included capturing Nazi members who may have eluded them earlier and also aiding the Germans in getting back on their feet. Both tasks could be rather demoralizing - especially in such a battered environment as post-war Berlin. In order to see just how well the "boys" overseas were coping, Congress decided to send a committee to check up on them...or so the story goes in Billy Wilder's 1948 comedy A Foreign Affair. 

This committee, comprised of five men and one woman, is given a 3-day tour of Berlin in order to make their report to Washington. But as Congresswoman Ms. Frost ( Jean Arthur ) points out, this is a carefully crafted tour designed so that the members see only what the US Army wants them to see. 

Ms. Frost chooses to remove her blinders and what she sees surprises her! American soldiers are engaging in the black market, openly fraternizing with the frauleins, and clearly enjoying themselves. Just one chocolate bar can buy a guy a lot of favors in Berlin. 

Nightclub singer Erika von Schlütow ( Marlene Dietrich ) certainly knows how to use a soldier to her best advantage. She remembers what it was like in Berlin right after the war. 

"We've all become animals with exactly one instinct left - self-preservation....What do you think it was like to be a woman in this town when the Russians first swept in? A living hell. And then I found a man, and through that man, a roof, and a job, and food, and I'm not going to lose him."

That man is Captain Johnny Pringle ( John Lund ), an officer at the very camp that the committee is visiting. He is well aware that Erika is a hot potato, a woman who once had affiliations with Nazi party members, but he pulls a few official strings to shield her because he is enthralled by his "gorgeous booby trap". 

Ms. Frost discovers the curvaceous performer one night at the Lorelei club and overhears that she is being protected by an American officer, so she enlists the aid of fellow Iowan Captain Pringle to help her ferret out the name of this man, little realizing that it is Pringle himself that is Ms. von Schlütow's sugar daddy.

A Foreign Affair is one of director Billy Wilder's lesser-known films but it nevertheless bears his trademark style, especially in the cynical but humorous script, penned by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and Richard L. Breen. The cinematography is beautiful and the music, by Friedrich Hollander, perfectly captures the feel of post-war Germany, but what makes the film really work is the performances from its three principal actors: Jean Arthur, John Lund, and Marlene Dietrich. 

Growing up, I was familiar with Jean Arthur only from her role as Marian in the classic western Shane ( 1953 ). Then, in my teen years, I discovered all of her marvelous films from the 1930s and realized just how popular an actress she was. This decade was really the peak of her career, and she starred in such comedy classics as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town ( 1936 ), You Can't Take it With You ( 1938 ) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ( 1939 ). She was Columbia Studios' top actress up until her retirement in the mid-1940s. Wilder enticed her away from college to make this picture. 

Jean gives a wonderful performance here as the stern Ms.Frost, playing her icy cool from her entrance and then peeling away layers of her personality as the film progresses. Frost is a fastidious, independent, prudish, Iowa-born-and-bred, no-nonsense kind of woman, who - living up to her namesake - is particularly cold to men after having been used by a man several years back. When Captain Pringle realizes that she is gunning down his liebling Erika - and himself - he knows he will receive no sympathy or mercy from her. So, he undertakes a really courageous task - that of wooing the unwooable woman. And boy is he in for a surprise! After a few kisses, Ms. Frost suddenly becomes "Pheobe" and before he knows it, he's polishing his shoes and whistling "Shine on Harvest Moon".

Marlene Dietrich is also alluring as Erika. Wilder had her in mind for the part as he was writing the script and there really was no other actress who could have played her part as well. She is best in the nightclub sequences, entertaining the soldiers as she so often did in real life during the war. 

John Lund also shines as Captain Pringle. Few actors could play comedy as well as Lund could, plus he was a believable "ladies' man". Cary Grant could have tackled this role with equal ease but Grant does not seem like the kind of man who would be having an affair with the former mistress of a Nazi officer. Also in the cast is that old pro, character actor Millard Mitchell as Pringle's commanding officer. 

A Foreign Affair is available on Blu-Ray DVD and via streaming through the Criterion Channel.

This post is our contribution to the Shades of Shane Blogathon being hosted by Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy. Be sure to visit her blog to check out other film reviews featuring actors who starred in the classic western Shane.