Review of The Blue Angel (1930) by Alanjohn J — 14 Apr 2009

I feel mildly guilty for not liking this more, but it's not as good as "M" or "The Last Laugh," so that mitigates the guilt somewhat. Also, as it turns out, I think I'm more of a Garbo than a Dietrich.

There are a handful of really wonderful shots here, especially the slow tracking shots von Sternberg uses to exit from rooms, none more poignant than the last. The story is too conventional, though, and the treatment of Dietrich's character is too superficial, I think, to remain compelling some 80 years later.

If "Sideways" was loved because cranky, balding, middle-aged film critics saw themselves in Giamatti's failed novelist, then the genre begins here: Jannings' sad sack professor is clearly the template for every buttoned up square that ever fell in love with a hooker.