"code" as it were--between prostitute Helen and a randy detective.
Martin asserts that Sternberg was not camp but ironic, and Dietrich's performance is said to be typical of her "distinctly modern strain of amused irony" (Lasalle 122). On that view, the campy scenes are not what von Sternberg was left with after censorship negotiation but rather can be explained as his considered response to it and an assertion of artistic control. The nudit
...