David Bowie and David Hemmings on Marlene Dietrich and Just a Gigolo

David Hemmings wrote in his memoirs:

The greatest challenge on Gigolo was filming the 78-year-old Marlene Dietrich. She had refused, of course, to come to Germany, where she hadn't been since before the war. Instead we had to transport a complete set to Paris.

He also reminisces about being introduced to Berlin's more bizarre clubs by Kenneth More, but that is not relevant here.

As well as Dietrich, Just a Gigolo starred David Bowie, Kim Novak and Hemmings himself.

Here you can listen to Bowie and Hemmings talking about the film.

It was written of as a flop when it came out in 1978. As Hemmings explains:

Somehow, all the tensions during production seemed to show through in the picture. I cut and recut it to suit possible distributors (who were not easy to find) and, when the money ran out, I left and the whole thing was cut to ribbons in a way that lost all the humour and irony.

Hemmings also shot a documentary on Bowie at about the same time, which has never been seen. That may be a great loss.