jigsaw (fletcher markle, 1949)

This is the thirty-first film I have watched in "My Letterboxd Season Challenge 2021-22", "A 33 week long challenge where the goal each week is to watch a previously unseen feature length film from a specified category." This is the 7th annual challenge, and my third time participating (my first year can be found at "My Letterboxd Season Challenge 2019-20", and last year's at "My Letterboxd Season Challenge 2020-21"). Week 31 is called "Classic Performers: Marlene Dietrich Week":

A German-American actress of the Golden Age, Marlene Dietrich was a staple of her era. Though most known for her collaborations with director Josef von Sternberg, Dietrich starred in a number of great films across her career, and here is our chance to examine what made her the star she was.

This week's challenge is to watch a previously unseen film starring Marlene Dietrich.

I don't know how else to put this: watching Jigsaw was a waste, especially considering the context. I chose an unseen Marlene Dietrich film to fulfill this week's challenge, only to find that Marlene had only an uncredited cameo (even "cameo" exaggerates her presence ... we see her walking out of a night club ... she's on screen about as long as Hitchcock is in his cameos). The movie wasn't very good, an overly-complicated noir starring Franchot Tone, his then-wife Jean Wallace, and a handful of "that guys". The cast was filled with trickery, for Dietrich was not the only famous, uncredited cameo. There was Henry Fonda and John Garfield and Marsha Hunt and Burgess Meredith and Everett Sloane and more. The end credits included the following note: "This picture was filmed with the obvious good will of many famous stars. The producers wish to thank them."

I have no idea who was friends with all of these people, who talked them into the cameos. They didn't help the picture ... in many cases, they were unrecognizable, at least to me.

Then there was the print. Jigsaw is one of those movies that fell into the public domain, meaning there are lots of crappy prints out there, including the one on Prime Video. Maybe the black-and-white cinematography was appropriately noirish, but I couldn't tell, with the scratches and the washed-out picture that made everything look grey.

Honestly, the only good thing about Jigsaw is that it was over in 70 minutes. I should have just watched Touch of Evil again.