The Blue Angel
1930
And so we kick off the thirties. This should be an interesting decade and I think more so than the twenties, at least as far as America goes.
So Marlene Dietrich is pretty much the same character that Louise Brooks is in Pandora's Box (Dietrich was actually supposed to play Lulu). Now, you can watch the German or the English version because they were filmed at the same time. I went for authenticity and watched the German one (aka the German version was available on Watch Instantly and the English one wasn't). Anyway, a strict German teacher falls in love with a flapper.
The actors in these movies are getting better and better. However, this movie really didn't do it for me. I didn't understand why some scenes were even in the film and I found myself getting bored quite often. Not great.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Marlene Dietrich was pretty unknown at the time and was certain she wouldn't get the role.
Emil Janning's (who we have seen before) first English film.
A clip from YouTube:
The English language version has the added entertainment value of heavily accented English. Particularly Jannings spoke a dismal English at this time.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for some rewatches so might do that with the English version!
DeleteDietrich did nothing wrong and I can see why she got invited to make more movies based upon this. But I'm not quite sure that she stole the show as much as she is said to have done, or that a star was born, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteYeah I never thought she had the screen presence that other actresses (like Bacall for example) had.
DeleteI've seen Cabaret before in which both Liza Minelli (in the same role) and Joel Grey were so much more bombastic that this seedy nightclub feels a bit more like a church tea club by comparison. Which is fine, it still works well in the film. Just that it's hard for me to take Dietrich's performance as a sultry sex siren quite as seriously as I might have done if I'd seen it at the time.
ReplyDeleteTrue. God, I hate Cabaret. Sorry, I couldn't help it.
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