Film Archive
Blue Angel, The (Blaue Engel, Der)
In a small-town music hall, gorgeous Lola, who is forever "falling in love again", does a chansonette act every night. Amongst the admirers of her erotically-spiced delivery are several grammar-schoolboys. When strict Professor Rath finds out about his pupils' dubious source of entertainment, he decides to pay a visit to the disreputable establishment himself. To his surprise, he finds Lola - despite her ambiguous act - to be a woman with a heart, and he helplessly falls in love with her. Their precipitate marriage makes the professor a social outcast and brings him ever further down the ladder of human degradation. His destruction is complete when the former scholar appears on stage as a clown at whom raw eggs are thrown. His life has lost all meaning, and, in desperation, he goes his somber way into hopelessness.
Josef von Sternberg was born in Vienna in 1894 and died in Hollywood in 1969. He studied Literature and earned a doctorate degree in Philosophy. His films include: The Docks of New York (1928), Morroco (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), Macao (1952), Jet Pilot (1953), The Saga of Anatahan (1957) and many more. The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel, 1930) was his only German film and was the breakthrough film for Marlene Dietrich in the USA.Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1930
Director Josef von Sternberg
Screenplay Robert Liebmann, Karl Vollmoeller, Carl Zuckmayer
Directors of Photography Günther Rittau, Hans Schneeberger
Editor Sam Winston
Music by Friedrich Hollaender
Production Design Emil Hasler, Otto Hunte
Producer Erich Pommer
Production Company Universum-Film (Ufa)/Berlin
Principal Cast Hans Albers, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Emil Jannings, Rosa Valetti
Length 107 min, 2,928 m
Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37
Dubbed Versions English
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions English, French
Festival Screenings Huesca 2005
German Distributor Transit Film/Munich
World Sales
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