Desire

Desire (1936) is a Paramount romantic crime comedy — watch it online on iFILM. Frank Borzage directed from a script produced by Ernst Lubitsch, with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper.

Madeleine is a jewel thief who lifts a pearl necklace in Paris and slips it into the pocket of Tom Bradley — an American engineer driving to Spain on vacation who has no idea he's just become a smuggler. Getting the pearls back without tipping him off proves impossible once feelings complicate the transaction.

Dietrich plays Madeleine less as a femme fatale and more as a professional who made one miscalculation. Cooper's engineering-school earnestness is exactly what unravels her plan — and makes the film funnier than the plot summary suggests. Stream Desire (1936) online on iFILM.