#934: STERNBERG, Josef von: Blonde Venus (1932)

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STERNBERG, Josef von (United States)
Blonde Venus [1932]
Spine #934
DVD


Josef von Sternberg returned Marlene Dietrich to the stage in Blonde Venus, both a glittering spectacle and a sweeping melodrama about motherly devotion. Unfolding episodically, the film tells the story of Helen (Dietrich), once a German chanteuse, now an American housewife, who returns to the stage after her husband (Herbert Marshall) falls ill; she then becomes the mistress of a millionaire (Cary Grant), in a slide from loving martyr to dishonored woman. Despite production difficulties courtesy of the Hays Office, the director's baroque visual style shines, as do one of the most memorable musical numbers in all of cinema and a parade of visionary costumes by von Sternberg and Dietrich's longtime collaborator Travis Banton.

94 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2018
Director/Writer


Written by Jules Furthman and S.K. Lauren.

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

 The Booklet

Eighty-four page booklet featuring essays by Imogen Sara Smith, Gary Giddins, and Farran Smith Nehme.

Commentary

None.

Interview 1

With costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis about the films’ costumers and their designer, the legendary Travis Banton.

Interview 2

With Deutsche Kinemathek curator Silke Ronneburg about the museum’s Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin.

The Fashion Side of Hollywood

A 1935 publicity short featuring Dietrich and Banton.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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