Just a Gigolo (1978, David Bowie, Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, David Hemmings, Maria Schell, Curd Jürgens, Marlene Dietrich) – Classic Movie Review 9549

Director David Hemmings’s 1978 musical drama Just a Gigolo [Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo] stars the astonishing cast of David Bowie, Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, David Hemmings, Maria Schell and Curd Jürgens [Curt Jurgens] – ‘and featuring, with great pride, MARLENE DIETRICH’.

But a disaster strikes a film that had a lot going for it. As the hero Paul Ambrosius von Przygodski, David Bowie just isn’t anybody’s idea of a Prussian officer, who moves among the 1920s Berlin stereotypes until he finds he’s just a gigolo.

Everybody else is quite embarrassing too. Marlene Dietrich appears in her final performance in ghostly form behind veils in a cameo as a madame, Baroness von Semering (she said she needed the money for her old age), Schell plays Bowie’s mother Mutti, Novak plays a randy widow called Helga von Kaiserling, director Hemmings plays a Nazi, Captain Hermann Kraft, and Curd Jürgens plays an ambivalent prince who marries Rome (the woman that is, not the place). Rome plays a character unfortunately named Cilly.

Hemmings as director just doesn’t seem to know what to do. Divine decadence doesn’t seem his strong suit. The editing, pacing and dubbing all leave much to be desired.

Joshua Sinclair, Julius Brammer, Irving Caesar and Ennio de Concini write the wobbly script, from the story by Ted Rose. Why didn’t they get Christopher Isherwood to write the script, or better make a version of his book Christopher and His Kind? Bowie might have made an interesting Herr Issyvoo.

It runs 147 minutes but it was cut by 42 minutes for the Americans – and their gratitude should know no bounds.

Dietrich growls the title song Just a Gigolo (music by Leonello Casucci, lyrics by Irving Caesar, German lyrics by Julius Brammer). The Revolutionary Song (music by David Bowie, lyrics by Jack Fishman) is performed by The Rebels featuring David Bowie. The Manhattan Transfer and The Pasadena Roof Orchestra perform. Some may find the musical numbers on the soundtrack worthwhile.

Christopher and His Kind did get filmed in 2011 as a TV movie with Matt Smith as Christopher Isherwood, Imogen Poots and Lindsay Duncan.

Christopher Isherwood was born on 26 August 1904 in Cheshire, England, as William Bradshaw Isherwood. He is known for Cabaret (1972), A Single Man (2009) and Frankenstein: The True Story (1973). He died on 4 January 1986 in Santa Monica, California, aged 81.

Though the film is about Berlin, is shot in Berlin and is financed in Berlin, none of the principal cast is from there except Marlene Dietrich, a native Berliner in self-imposed exile in Paris.

Sadly, Marlene and Bowie never met during the filming.

Also in the cast are Erika Pluhar, Hilde Weissner, Werner Pochath, Rudolf Schündler and Evelyn Kúnneke.

Just a Gigolo [Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo] is directed by David Hemmings, runs 147 minutes or 105 minutes, is made by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Leguan Film Berlin, Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), is released by Warner-Columbia Filmverleih (1978) (West Germany), Tedderwick Films (1979) (UK) and United Artists Classics (1981) (US), is written by Joshua Sinclair, Julius Brammer, Irving Caesar and Ennio de Concini, based on the story by Ted Rose, is shot in Eastmancolor by Charly Steinberger, is produced by Joshua Sinclair (co-executive producer) and Rolf Thiele (producer), is scored by Gúnther Fischer and is designed by Peter Rothe.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9549

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