Blonde Venus (1932) - film review

Edward Faraday is an American research chemist whose experiments with radioactive substances have given him a life-threatening illness.  His only hope is to undergo a course of treatment in Germany, but he hasn’t the money to pay for this.  His wife Helen tells him that she can obtain the money if she returns to her former occupation as a nightclub singer.  Reluctantly, Faraday agrees and he soon gets the money he needs, not realising that Helen earned most of it by prostituting herself to the rich playboy Nick Townsend.  When Faraday returns to America, his illness cured, he is alarmed to discover that both his wife and his young son are away from  home.  When he learns that Helen has been continuing her affair with Townsend he threatens to take her son away from her.  Horrified at the prospect of this, Helen goes on the run, taking her son with her...

Blonde Venus marked the fifth collaboration of the gifted Austrian director Josef von Sternberg with screen legend Marlene Dietrich, a somewhat contrived melodrama that is salvaged from the tepid sea of mediocrity by its stunning art design, truthful performances and some moments of artistic brilliance.  The charismatic Dietrich is, as ever, resplendent and attention-grabbing, whether she is playing the devoted mother and housewife, the seductive mistress or the glamorous cabaret singer.  Here, she gets to sing three numbers, one of which, "Hot Voodoo", provides the film’s artistic highpoint, with Dietrich emerging kinkily from a monkey suit to the sound of jungle drums in an atmosphere that is charged with wild eroticism. 

That von Sternberg was reluctant to make the film (and did so only under pressure from his studio bosses) is shown up most evidently in the film’s shaky plot, which is uneven, poorly structured and lacking in credibility.  Despite this, von Sternberg’s creative flair and eye for detail save the day and the end result is both compelling and visually intoxicating.   The opening sequence, in which Dietrich is discovered swimming nude in a river, like an immaculate fairytale princess,  is one of the most poetic and sensual that the director ever shot.

Dietrich may be the film’s biggest draw but her performance is effectively matched by those of her two talented co-stars, Herbert Marshall and Cary Grant, the latter of whom was on the brink of major Hollywood stardom.  All this star power is virtually eclipsed, however, by seven year old Dickie Moore, whose captivating scenes with Dietrich resonate with the most touching poignancy and tenderness, revealing another, gentler side to Germany’s most celebrated screen actress.

© James Travers 2008

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