Later Career
Dieterle's career declined in the 1950s during the McCarthyism period. Although he was never blacklisted directly, his libertarian film Blockade (1938) as well as some of the people he worked with were considered suspect. Also, in the 1930s he and his wife had worked to help get people out of Nazi Germany and given aid to many left-wing friends, including Bertolt Brecht. Of this period, Dieterle said "Although I was never to my knowledge on any blacklist, I must have been on some kind of gray list because I couldn't get any work."
He continued to make American films in the 1950s, including the film noir The Turning Point (1952) and Salome (1953) with Rita Hayworth. Production for Elephant Walk with Elizabeth Taylor was held up for three months when the State Department would not allow Dieterle to travel to Ceylon. He made two more Hollywood films before moving back to Europe: a biopic of Richard Wagner, Magic Fire (1955) for Republic Pictures and Omar Khayyam.
He made some films in Germany and Italy, and a notorious U.S. flop, Quick, Let's Get Married (1964) - also known as The Confession or Seven Different Ways - with Ginger Rogers before retiring in 1965.
Dieterle is remembered for always wearing a large hat and white gloves on set. This was due to needing to quickly change roles from actor to technician without dirtying his hands during his early career.
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