Thursday, September 22, 2016

The Blue Angel

After finding lewd photos of a local showgirl (Marlene Dietrich) in the possession of his students, a high school professor (Emil Jannings) travels to her cabaret with intentions of reprimanding her but instead falls victim to her deadly charms. Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel starts on a hysterically funny path that follows its course to a seedy, tragic, and even horrifying destination while depicting Dietrich at her sexiest and most devious while featuring Jannings in a humiliating, impressively mannered performance.
*** 1/2 out of ****