The Blue Angel

    The Blue Angel
    1930

    Synopsis

    Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.

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    Cast

    • Emil JanningsImmanuel Rath
    • Marlene DietrichLola Lola
    • Kurt GerronKiepert
    • Rosa ValettiGuste
    • Hans AlbersMazeppa
    • Reinhold BerntThe Clown
    • Károly HuszárThe Blue Angel's Proprietor
    • Eduard von WintersteinSchool Headmaster
    • Hans RothBedel
    • Rolf MüllerPupil

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Christian Science Monitor

      This great masterpiece of German film is evocative and inventive from its first shot to its last.
    • 100

      TV Guide Magazine

      The one and only; an unqualified masterpiece and milestone.
    • 90

      Washington Post

      The Blue Angel it's clear to Von Sternberg, and to us, that he's connected with some pure being of cinema, whose power to ignite an audience was unstoppable. She became a great star.
    • 90

      New Times (L.A.)

      This film made Dietrich a star, and it's easy to see why: Slightly more voluptuous than in her later films, Dietrich is the embodiment of the pleasures of the flesh.
    • 90

      Chicago Reader

      Reeks with decay and sexuality.
    • 90

      Variety

      A standout picture.
    • 88

      Chicago Sun-Times

      Lumbers a little on its way to a preordained conclusion, but is intriguing for its glimpses of backstage life in shabby German postwar vaudeville, and for Dietrich's performance, which seems to float above the action as if she's stepping fastidiously across gutters.
    • 80

      Village Voice

      Dietrich is the movie's primary cannon: Her amused eyes, open face, and relaxed sensuality monopolize our sympathies.

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