The Blue Angel

Composite Score: 83.87

Starring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti, Hans Albers, Rolf Müller, Roland Varno, Carl Balhaus, and Robert Klein-Lörk

Director: Josef von Sternberg

Writers: Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller, and Robert Leibmann

Genres: Drama, Music, Romance

MPAA Rating: Passed

Box Office: $4,410 worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                The Blue Angel is the film adaptation of Heinrich Mann’s novel Professor Unrat, about a professor whose life begins to spiral when he falls in love with a nightclub singer at a local club while trying to bust some of his students. The film stars Emil Jannings as its protagonist, Professor Immanuel Rath, and Marlene Dietrich as its femme fatale, Lola Lola. The film is a well-acted depiction of a mid-life crisis and subsequent precipitous fall from grace from Jannings, accompanied by Josef von Sternberg’s simple, but well-thought-out, directorial choices and Dietrich’s sultry but seemingly untouchable performance as the leading lady – an all-around classic of not just German cinema, but film as a whole.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                The Blue Angel is unquestionably a product of the early 1930s, with its biggest flaw being its treatment of its powerful, independent female character. I want to temper this critique slightly by pointing out that the film does not go so far as to blame Lola for Professor Rath’s downfall – a strong start for any film made before the year 2000, if we’re being honest. However, the film definitely feels like it places the blame on Rath, not for his insecurity (which is the real crux of his character’s problems), but for his inability to see what kind of woman Lola was and what her focus was always going to be, still making her choices out to be the catalyst for Rath’s downfall, just in a more progressive sense. She is still very much the temptress, femme fatale, and I think that, if her character had a bit more screentime in between the film’s time jumps, we would see a more fleshed out story arc for Lola that makes her a more convincing villain and not merely a caricature of a sex-positive, self-made woman. A 2023 remake of this film could probably accomplish this task well, but we’ve already seen a similar attempt made with Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley remake of a few years ago, and that didn’t quite do it for critics or audiences (at least not universally).

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                With the material they have to work with, Jannings and Dietrich turn this film into one of the best dual character studies of its era. Jannings plays Professor Rath with a full range of over-the-top depictions. At the start, he is the most strait-laced, uninteresting, and socially inept intellectual put to screen, maybe ever. In the middle he becomes a sort of veteran knight in shining armor to Lola and the other members of her performing troupe, standing up to the lecherous sea captain and the like in defense of a lady’s honor. By the end he devolves into something nearly sub-human, reduced to crowing like a rooster and lashing out violently at his former friends and associates – it is a brilliant performance front to back. Likewise, Dietrich plays her part as the catalyst of Rath’s development beautifully. First appearing as a sultry lounge singer, making even the harsh German language sound light, flirtatious, and sensual with her charisma. Then as the audience comes to know her, she is revealed as a more complex character with desires and emotions worth protecting before she achieves her final form – a woman driven by her own achievements rather than her connections to the men in her life, driving the more traditional Rath to his inevitable demise at the disparity of their worldviews. A phenomenally complex performance from Dietrich as well.

                Josef von Sternberg adapts the work of Heinrich Mann well, bringing out the best in his two leads – Jannings and Dietrich – as they weave the tale of a fall from grace in classic style, achieving a place among the greats. The film’s limited time spent on its female antagonist(?) ends up giving it a more dated feel than it should, but the performances and the story they portray keeps the film poignant and watchable this many years later. It is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.