Remembering Marlene
"They call me Naughty Lola, I'm known far and wide. I have a pianola that is my joy and pride. They call me Naughty Lola, the men all go for me. But I don't let any man lay a paw on my keys."
"The Blue Angel" was Marlene Dietrich's ticket to Hollywood, and the big studio producers couldn't get their eyes off her sultry portrayal of a cabaret singer. Josef von Sternberg based his tragicomedy from Henrich Mann's "Professor Unrat", but don't be surprised if the director changed the premise. He wanted to package Dietrich as the archetype of a female destroying a man, who would suffer from unrequited love. In the case of "Blue Angel", Emil Jannings was an instructor in literature who scolded his students for their lack of enthusiasm in books. He caught them frequenting a nightclub, but it didn't take long for him to find out what drew them to that place. It was Lola, whom the professor gave up his academic career for her. She seemed to fall in love with him (or so he thought). This won't be a Valentine flick, as Dietrich was way ahead of her time.
The German actress could lure anyone with those seductive eyes, and Paramount knew it. As a matter of fact, many of her films often featured a close-up of her face. Some might think of her as a modern reincarnation of Circe, and they wouldn't be far from the truth. "Morocco" featured the tandem of Sternberg and Dietrich, and the filmmaker didn't think of any character other than a cabaret singer (falling for a Legionnaire). It would be a matter of time before moviegoers could get tired of watching Dietrich playing the same role again and again, and it happened sooner than Paramount expected. Nonetheless, Dietrich would earn a legion of followers.
Dietrich, who was born on December 27, 1901, wasn't one of those German artists who fled Europe before Nazism spread all over Europe. She publicly showed her support for Allied soldiers, signing their cast (on their legs) or personally handing them a hot bowl of soup. The German public didn't forgive her, even forget her accomplishments. The actress was no longer a box-office material after the war, but she starred in Billy Wilder's finest works. (Moviegoers would think that Jean Arthur upstaged Dietrich in "A Foreign Affair", but the latter won't mind at all.) Agatha Christie might have kept a blind eye on Wilder's loose adaptation of "Witness for the Prosecution", which would allow a character like Dietrich to waltz through the (judicial) proceedings. No one expected to come up with a comic version of a detective short story, one of Christie's most memorable works. Dietrich's career seemed to revive after starring in Wilder's pictures.
There was no doubt that Dietrich was a huge star during the studio days, where the big honchos wanted to make their stars larger than life. It would be a blessing in disguise that the German actress wasn't around nowadays, as social media would ruin her. After all, she built her success on her mysterious aura. It won't be right to call her an amoral person, as she certainly played with the audience. They wanted entertainment, and she gave them more than they wished for.
