The Blue Angel, German cinema’s first full-talkie following one of world cinema’s most storied silent film histories, shot star Marlene Dietrich to international fame and precipitated her move to Hollywood the very same year. The first of seven collaborations with director Josef von Sternberg, this expressionistic film follows a professor’s (Emil Jannings) descent into madness after he falls passionately in love with the cabaret singer Lola-Lola (Dietrich) one fateful night. This legendary work also features Dietrich’s signature song, “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It),” appearing here for the first time. “Among the first enduringly great movies of the sound era.”—The Guardian. In German with English subtitles.
Appears in: Dietrich & Garbo in the 1930s
Genres: Drama
Other Films by Josef von Sternberg
The Devil is a Woman
The final of six Paramount collaborations between director von Sternberg and star Marlene Dietrich, whose relationship over the preceding five years sparked numerous rumors but had essentially fallen apart right before the production began, The Devil is a Woman sees the pair going out with a bang in this fin-de-siècle Spain-set drama. Dietrich is Concha …
The Scarlet Empress
Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg tackle the historical costume drama—in this case the court of Catherine the Great. However, the normal stodginess is upended in a true Sternbergian, expressionist style, complete with hedonistic parties and political intrigue that will make anyone blush. Bratty princess Sophia Frederica (Dietrich) is married into Russian royalty, but is …
Blonde Venus
Six months after the massive success of their other 1932 collaboration, Shanghai Express, Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg tackled a relatively tamer beast: the domestic drama. Dietrich, by now legendary for her gender-bending public persona and deeply seductive performances, stars as Helen, a housewife and mother whose chemist husband Ned (Herbert Marshall) becomes gravely …
Shanghai Express
The film that completely cemented Marlene Dietrich in Hollywood lore, Shanghai Express features some of von Sternberg’s most indelible compositions and staged situations as the titular train moves from Peking to Shanghai, picking up melodrama and tragedy along its circuitous route. Dietrich stars as Shanghai Lily, a courtesan traveling with a like-minded friend (Anna May …
Dishonored
A spy thriller featuring Josef von Sternberg’s considerable talents at creating and evoking both atmosphere and deeply buried emotion, Dishonored is one of the director’s finest—and most unusual—collaborations with star Marlene Dietrich. Set in WWI Vienna with the war raging, Marie Kolverer (Dietrich), a widowed sex worker and piano virtuoso, catches the attention of the …