The Blue Angel (1930)

The Blue Angel (1930)

starring Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich

directed by Joseph von Sternberg

108 minutes

Doctor Immanuel Rath commands no respect from his high school students. He finds out that some of them have been frequenting a night club, The Blue Angel. Rath goes to the nightclub. He finds his students but he also finds and falls in love with the star attraction, Lola (Marlene Dietrich).

Rath proposes to Lola. She accepts but does not leave her life as a cabaret dancer. Rath has been been disgraced by his association with Lola and loses his job as a teacher. He helps to support Lola by selling postcards of her in suggestive poses.

Five years go by. Lola and Rath have traveled around the country. She performs wherever they go. They return to the Blue Angel. Rath is supposed to perform on stage as the assistant to a magician. Rath is dressed up as a clown. Everyone in town comes out to see him. He freezes and then suffers a mental breakdown on stage.

The movie ends with Rath returning, late at night, to the school where he used to teach. He sits down at the desk from which he used to teach and dies.

Thoughts

This film was originally filmed in both German and English. I saw the German version.

This feels like Emil Jannings film but Marlene Dietrich plays a big part in it. Her fortunes rise and his fall but the story begins and ends with him, not her.

I found the scene where Jannings breaks down to be disturbing and very moving. I am conflicted as to whether he was mostly to blame for how his life turned out but that doesn't keep me from feeling pity for him.

This movie feels moralistic but I think that there is more than one moral that can be read from it. What is Rath's error? Is it falling in love with Lola? Is it misreading Lola? Is it allowing his baser desires to rule him? I think any of these could be read into this movie.

I'm not crazy about this movie. It it left me feeling cold for the most part. It wasn't until almost the end of the movie that anyone had a moment that moved me. It did give me food for thought and that counts for something.