Der Blaue Engel
GER 99m Dir: Josef von Sternberg Key Cast: Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich
Based on: Professor Filth by Heinrich Mann (Novel)
Both German and English versions of this film were made and I started watching the German one with subtitles. I went back to continue watching only to find that the German version was taken offline and so I had to resort to watching the English one. I say "English" but plenty of the dialogue is still in German and even most of the actors who do speak English lines struggle to pronounce them. Only Marlene Dietrich speaks entirely in English and weirdly doesn't even seem to speak German in this version with other characters translating. It's all very well attempting to reach a wider audience by recording in English but they'd have been much better off simply using subtitles.
Anyway, the film sees a school professor (Emil Jannings) discover his students with postcards depicting showgirl Lola Lola (Dietrich) so he heads over to The Blue Angel club to catch them. He inadvertently falls for Lola and on a second visit ends up spending the night with her. He's sacked from his job but marries Lola and travels around being financially supported by her in a manner which becomes more and more humiliating. When they return to The Blue Angel the professor is made to perform as a clown and Lola seduces another man leading to the professor having a full breakdown.
Emil Jannings is great in this film and his role is not dissimilar to the one he played in The Last Laugh. Both see a respected man lose their job and be humiliated. Here the humiliation is at it's greatest when the professor is forced to dress as a clown as a stooge for a magician while his wife kisses and fondles another man. I've rarely seen a character so utterly humiliated in a film.
This film was meant as a vehicle for Jannings to score a place for himself in the new medium of sound film but it's Marlene Dietrich who comes out of it as a star. She's utterly fantastic here from the brilliant performances of 'Falling in Love Again' to her innocent sexiness. Lola Lola isn't a femme fatale who ruthlessly moves from one man to the next- her rejection of the professor may be inevitable but she doesn't intend to hurt him and it feels like she can't help it. Dietrich is notably the only actor whose performance is equally as good in both the German and English versions.
I wasn't really sure on what the message of the film was. The professor's story is all about power- he begins having control over a group of rowdy teenagers and transitions into a man with no income whose wife cheats on him. As soon as he loses his job he begins a downward spiral of feeling sorry for himself and so the ending is inevitable because he makes no effort to regain the power. His stage debut could have been triumphant but instead it's just pathetic.
Some great performances and some fascinating character development but I didn't love the story.
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