The singer has variously claimed that he took the role "as a favour to Hemmings", who at the time was also planning to produce a documentary of Bowie's 1978 concert tour, and because "Marlene Dietrich was dangled in front of me".

[6][7][2] The two stars never met, Dietrich played her brief part in Paris, where she lived, with the result simply being cut into Bowie's scenes that were shot, along with the rest of the film, in Berlin.

As well as appearing on screen, Sydne Rome sang a track called "Don't Let It Be Too Long", by David Hemmings and composer Günther Fischer, while Marlene Dietrich performed the song "Just a Gigolo".

Hemmings recut the picture for its UK premiere in Prince Charles Cinema on 14 February 1979 where, at an ostensibly black-tie affair, Bowie wore a kimono.

Reviews were again negative; the Sunday Mirror called the film "all show and no substance" and considered Bowie "completely miscast", while Time Out advised its readers to simply "overlook it".

[7] Its reputation among mainstream critics generally remains low, Halliwell's calling it an "international misadventure... interminable... clumsily made",[9] while Leonard Maltin describes it as a "weird melodrama".