Top 21 Ranked

Marlene Dietrich's Best Movies

The Definitive Filmography of Hollywood's Ultimate Femme Fatale

Explore the finest films of Marlene Dietrich, from iconic Josef von Sternberg collaborations to legendary roles in Golden Age classics.

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About Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Long before the concept of the modern influencer existed, Marlene Dietrich understood that stardom was a deliberate architecture of light, shadow, and subversion. She did not just occupy the frame; she commanded the very atmosphere of the silver screen. With those heavy lids and a voice like gravel dragged through honey, she dismantled the rigid gender binaries of the early twentieth century by simply putting on a tuxedo and lighting a cigarette. While other starlets of the thirties were busy playing the ingenue, she was reinventing the femme fatale as something more intellectual, more dangerous, and infinitely more iron-willed.

Her ascent began in Berlin with The Blue Angel, where she played the predatory cabaret singer Lola Lola with such hypnotic indifference that it destroyed the man on screen and captivated the world off it. When she followed director Josef von Sternberg to Hollywood, it sparked a visual revolution. Together, they treated her face like a landscape, using high-key lighting to emphasize her razor-sharp cheekbones. In Morocco, she famously kissed another woman while dressed in tails, a moment of radical fluidity that still feels daring nearly a century later. Whether she was a fallen woman in Blonde Venus or a revolutionary out for blood in The Scarlet Empress, she never leaned on the audience for sympathy. She demanded their fascination instead.

Audiences connected with her because she projected an impenetrable self-possession. Even when playing the world-weary singer in Destry Rides Again, she moved with the confidence of someone who knew exactly where the power sat in any room. She was equally adept at the sophisticated romantic comedy, as seen in the shimmering Desire or the elegant Angel, proving she could handle subtle wit just as easily as grand melodrama. In The Devil Is a Woman, she pushed artifice to its absolute limit, becoming a living icon of impossible beauty.

As she aged, she transitioned from the ethereal siren into a veteran of profound moral gravity. By the time she appeared in Witness for the Prosecution, she was using her layers of theatricality to keep the audience guessing until the final reel. Her performance in Judgment at Nuremberg stripped away the feathers and sequins to reveal a woman haunted by history, reflecting the real-world grit she showed when she walked away from her native Germany to support Allied troops during the war. Even in smaller, jagged roles like the fortune-teller in Touch of Evil, she possessed the screen so entirely that she made everyone else feel like an extra.

She remains the blueprint for the reinvented star. From the suspense of Stage Fright to the Technicolor grit of Rancho Notorious, she proved that a persona is not a cage but a toolkit. She gave us the permission to be multiple things at once: glamorous and tough, masculine and feminine, cynical and deeply romantic. To watch her today, perhaps in a quiet moment in No Highway in the Sky or under the heavy suspense of Dishonored, is to see an artist who never blinked. She was sheathed in sequins and armor, a woman who controlled her own legend until the house lights finally went down.

The Complete Rankings

Based on the top picks in drafts on SnakeDrafts

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21
Marlene Dietrich in Seven Sinners (1940)
Seven Sinners
1940

Banished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangsters, riff-raff, judges and a ship's doctor in order to achieve her aims.

Adventure
Comedy
1h 27m
Tay Garnett
Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford
20
Marlene Dietrich in The Lady Is Willing (1942)
The Lady Is Willing
1942

Bold, eccentric Broadway performer Elizabeth Madden befuddles her handlers by coming home with a baby she picked up on the street. She wants to keep the baby but has to find a husband to make adoption viable. She offers her new obstetrician Dr. McBain help with his research on rabbits in exchange for marriage - and he accepts. The marriage of convenience turns into a marriage of real love until Dr. McBain's ex-wife comes looking for money.

Romance
Comedy
1h 32m
Mitchell Leisen
Marlene Dietrich, Fred MacMurray, Aline MacMahon, Stanley Ridges
19
Marlene Dietrich in Martin Roumagnac (1946)
Martin Roumagnac
1946

The local building-contractor Martin Roumagnac is fascinated by the fashionable Blanche Ferrand. To impress Blache, Martin presents her with a villa. However, this ruins him financially. Despite Martin's many efforts for the now femme-fatal Blanche, she is not able to chose between him and the rich consul De Laubry.

Crime
Drama
1h 55m
Georges Lacombe
Marlene Dietrich, Jean Gabin, Daniel Gélin, Marcel Herrand

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18
Marlene Dietrich in Triumph Over Violence (1965)
Triumph Over Violence
1965

Romm pulls out all the stops in its selection of documentary material to draw the viewer not only into absolute horror about fascism and nazism in the 1920s–1940s Europe, but also to a firm conviction that nothing of the sort should be allowed to happen again anywhere in the world.

Documentary
History
2h 18m
Mikhail Romm
Mikhail Romm, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler
17
Marlene Dietrich in The Spoilers (1942)
The Spoilers
1942

When honest ship captain Roy Glennister gets swindled out of his mine claim, he turns to saloon singer Cherry Malotte for assistance in his battle with no-good town kingpin Alexander McNamara.

Drama
Western
1h 27m
Ray Enright
Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Margaret Lindsay
16
Marlene Dietrich in Manpower (1941)
Manpower
1941

Hank McHenry and Johnny Marshall work as power company linesmen. Hank is injured in an accident and subsequently promoted to foreman of the gang. Tensions start to show in the road crew as rivalry between Hank and Johnny increases.

Crime
Drama
1h 44m
Raoul Walsh
Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, George Raft, Alan Hale
15
Marlene Dietrich in The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
The Devil Is a Woman
1935

In the carnival in Spain in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the exiled republican Antonio Galvan comes from Paris masquerade to enjoy the party and visit his friend Capt. Don Pasqual 'Pasqualito' Costelar. However, he flirts with the mysterious Concha Perez and they schedule to meet each other later. When Antonio meets Pasqualito, his old friend discloses his frustrated relationship with the promiscuous Concha and her greedy mother and how his life was ruined by his obsession for the beautiful demimondaine. Pasqualito makes Antonio promise that he would not see Concha. However, when Antonio meets Concha, she seduces him and the long friendship between Antonio and Pasqualito is disrupted

Comedy
Drama
1h 20m
Josef von Sternberg
Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Atwill, Edward Everett Horton, Alison Skipworth
14
Marlene Dietrich in No Highway in the Sky (1951)
No Highway in the Sky
1951

James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.

Drama
Thriller
1h 38m
Henry Koster
James Stewart, Glynis Johns, Marlene Dietrich, Janette Scott
13
Marlene Dietrich in Desire (1936)
Desire
1936

Madeleine steals a string of pearls in Paris and uses American engineer Tom, who is driving on his vacation to Spain, to get the pearls out of France. But getting the pearls back from him proves to be difficult without falling in love.

Romance
Crime
1h 35m
Frank Borzage
Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, John Halliday, William Frawley
12
Marlene Dietrich in Dishonored (1931)
Dishonored
1931

The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.

Drama
War
1h 31m
Josef von Sternberg
Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Warner Oland
11
Marlene Dietrich in Angel (1937)
Angel
1937

While vacationing without her busy British diplomat husband, a married woman falls for another man.

Romance
Drama
1h 31m
Ernst Lubitsch
Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Melvyn Douglas, Edward Everett Horton
10
Marlene Dietrich in Rancho Notorious (1952)
Rancho Notorious
1952

A man in search of revenge infiltrates a ranch, hidden in an inhospitable region, where its owner, Altar Keane, gives shelter to outlaws fleeing from the law in exchange for a price.

Drama
Western
1h 26m
Fritz Lang
Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer, Gloria Henry
Why it ranks

In Fritz Lang’s Technicolor western, she inhabits the aging bandit queen with a stylized, operatic bitterness. It is a bold late-career turn that uses her fading cabaret persona to reflect the harsh, unforgiving nature of the genre.

9
Marlene Dietrich in Stage Fright (1950)
Stage Fright
1950

A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.

Thriller
Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd
Why it ranks

Working under Hitchcock, she leans into a self-parodying version of the glamorous diva that feels both playful and subversive. Her performance highlights a sharp, cynical wit that often went underutilized in her more dramatic stagings.

8
Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932)
Blonde Venus
1932

In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.

Drama
1h 33m
Josef von Sternberg
Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore
Why it ranks

Whether emerging from a gorilla suit or wandering the tracks as a destitute mother, Dietrich displays a raw, survivalist grit underneath the glamour. The film serves as a fascinating showcase for her ability to maintain a singular identity across wildly disparate visual shifts.

7
Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930)
Morocco
1930

Mogador, Morocco. Late 1920s. A complex romance develops between a womanizing Legionnaire and a disillusioned Parisian cabaret singer.

Drama
Romance
1h 32m
Josef von Sternberg
Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Adolphe Menjou, Ullrich Haupt
Why it ranks

Her Hollywood debut remains legendary for the tuxedo-clad kiss that challenged gender norms and established her androgynous allure. She navigates the desert heat with a cool, nonchalant magnetism that instantly made her a global phenomenon.

6
Marlene Dietrich in The Scarlet Empress (1934)
The Scarlet Empress
1934

During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.

Drama
History
1h 44m
Josef von Sternberg
Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe, Louise Dresser
Why it ranks

This is Dietrich as a kaleidoscopic icon, disappearing into von Sternberg’s fever dream of excessive lighting and lace. Her transformation from naive princess to decadent empress remains the ultimate testament to her status as a purely cinematic creation.

5
Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939)
Destry Rides Again
1939

Tom Destry, son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn’t believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent.

Western
Comedy
1h 34m
George Marshall
James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger
Why it ranks

Refusing to be confined by European mystique, she reinvented herself here as a rowdy, whiskey-voiced saloon singer. This pivot toward the comedic and the accessible saved her career from the 'box office poison' label and showcased a startling range.

4
Marlene Dietrich in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Judgment at Nuremberg
1961

In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.

Drama
History
3h 11m
Stanley Kramer
Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Burt Lancaster
Why it ranks

Dietrich offers a chillingly sophisticated portrait of post-war denial as the widow of a Nazi general. Her performance is essential for its nuanced tension, balancing aristocratic grace against the uncomfortable moral ambiguity of the period.

3
Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil (1958)
Touch of Evil
1958

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

Crime
Thriller
Why it ranks

Even in a brief, smoky cameo, her presence acts as the film's weary conscience. She occupies the role of the fortuneteller with a haunting, elegiac quality that serves as the perfect eulogy for the noir era.

2
Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (1930)
The Blue Angel
1930

Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.

Drama
1h 48m
Josef von Sternberg
Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti
Why it ranks

As Lola Lola, Dietrich weaponizes a bored, predatory sexuality that effectively dismantled the sensibilities of Weimar cinema. This performance birthed the archetype of the modern femme fatale and established the visual language for her entire career.

1
Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Witness for the Prosecution
1957

An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.

Drama
Mystery
Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester
Why it ranks

Dietrich commands the screen with a calculated, glacial precision that anchors Wilder's courtroom labyrinth. It is a masterclass in transparency and deception, proving she could transition from the exoticism of her youth into a formidable character actress of immense psychological depth.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts

Josef von Sternberg is the director most associated with Marlene Dietrich's classic films, having directed several of her iconic movies such as 'The Blue Angel,' 'Morocco,' and 'The Scarlet Empress.' Their collaborations are known for their stylistic visual flair and Dietrich’s charismatic performances.

Marlene Dietrich's best movies span a variety of genres including drama, romance, crime, and western. Films like 'Destry Rides Again' highlight her versatility by blending western and comedy, while noir-influenced films such as 'Touch of Evil' showcase her dramatic range.

In films like 'Morocco' and 'The Devil Is a Woman,' Dietrich famously wore tuxedos and adopted androgynous fashion, subverting traditional gender roles. Her screen presence often blurred rigid binaries, establishing her as a groundbreaking icon for gender and sexuality in early cinema.

Marlene Dietrich appears in the gripping courtroom drama 'Witness for the Prosecution,' directed by Billy Wilder. This suspenseful mystery highlights her dramatic talent in a tense legal environment.

Historical themes feature prominently in films like 'Judgment at Nuremberg' and 'The Scarlet Empress,' where Dietrich navigates complex political and social narratives. These films showcase her ability to portray characters amidst significant historical events and tensions.

Yes, Marlene Dietrich starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller 'Stage Fright,' where her performance blends suspense and psychological intrigue, adding depth to Hitchcock’s signature style.

While her early collaborations with Josef von Sternberg were marked by expressionistic visuals and sultry personas, Dietrich’s later films like 'Touch of Evil' and 'Judgment at Nuremberg' exhibit a mature, nuanced acting style. These later works highlight her adaptability across different cinematic eras and genres.
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