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From Kino: The Blue Angel – 1930 Full-frame, Dolby Digital 2.0, both English and German Versions of the film. Audio commentary by film historian Werner Sudendorf. Marlene Dietrich’s screen test, Dietrich interview footage, Dietrich concert footage from ’63 & ’72, original trailer and rerelease trailer. Directed by Joseph Von Sternberg. Screenplay by Robert Liebmann, Karl Vollmoller and Carl Zuckmayer. Photographed by Gunther Rittau and Hans Schneeberger. With Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich.

This double-disc presentation must have been a logistical nightmare. Somehow the Kino Company has cobbled together the German and English-language versions, both rendered in creamy nitrate flavors, a side-by-side comparison between classroom scenes in both (wish there’d been more since there’s a twelve minute difference between the two films), Dietrich’s Blue Angel screentest (which is fun to watch over and over with different guests, and in which she displays a deft ability to change emotional color from sweet and frivolous to cold predator, all while singing “You’re the Cream in My Coffee” in English and cursing her pianist out in German, thus anticipating the bilingual job ahead of her), concert footage from ’63 in Stockholm and ’72 in London where she does her three numbers from the film, and a brief segment from one of her cantankerous interviews where she speaks about her unexpected stardom.

Germany was writhing in humiliation, which of course led to their embrace of Hitler many years down the pike, but here it is just subtext in a story of one man’s fall from grace. Emil Jannings, Germany’s greatest star of the period, is off-putting in both the first and second acts, leaning heavily on the ham, with a healthy slathering of ego. However, it was the country’s first ‘talkie’, and he can be forgiven for not entirely shedding his heavy-handed silent film mannerisms. Dietrich came in fresh; she didn’t have to unlearn the caricatured style.

At times Janning’s shy professor conjures up Oliver Hardy, and facially he goes from Burl Ives to Chuck McCann. However in Act three he loses all the actorly stuff and becomes a statue of catatonic despair, and in this he is quite powerful, so the weak spots are worth sitting through for the last twenty-five minutes. His ‘ cock-a-doodle-doo’ seems an original expression of the wail of degradation heard by Beryl Reid in Robert Aldrich’s The Killing of Sister George (1968 – on DVD from Anchor Bay) and also brings to mind Anthony Quinn’s tragic clown act in the ring in Requiem For a Heavyweight.

Dietrich, unlike Jannings, is consistent. Her songs sum up her character – mercurial in love, casual and flirtatious, luring men like moths to a flame, and refusing any responsibiltiy for the consequences. In life she may have exhibited these qualities as well, among other, more supportive ones, if we’re to believe Douglas Fairbanks Jr’s autobiography, for instance. His wife later destroyed all pictures of him with Marlene.

The commentary by film historian Werner Sudendorf is useful. At times he tells us what we can see, but he also (and often simulteneously) interprets what we see on a symbolic level, or gives an historical context, or compares the German and English-language versions. He quotes from von Sternberg’s autobigraphy, illustrating ways in which the content of the film was inspired from personal experiences in the director’s life.

Possibly a companion piece to this is Maximilian Schell’s so-called documentary Marlene (Image Entertainment). The NBR gave it best documentary of 1983 despite my vehement protestations: I still despise its falseness, and the way it’s mostly about the megalomania of its director, who didn’t want to give the money back even though Dietrich renegged on her part of the deal. But we do get her at the tail end of her life, having suffered a stroke, no longer the sweet, nurturing Marlene we’ve heard about from the past, now just cynical and contemptuous.

And for the self-released Indie DVD: Mau Mau Sex Sex – 2001, 80 mins, a collection of original exploitation film trailers, a photo album of rare exploitation poster art, promotional materials, publicity and personal photographs. Audio commentary tracks featuring Dan Sonney, David Friedman, Ted Bonnitt and Eddie Muller. Original soundtrack music available, as is the DVD, at www.maumausexsex.com. Produced and Directed by Ted Bonnitt, written by Eddie Muller and Bonnitt, Executive Producer Keith Robinson. Featuring Dan Sonney, David Friedman, Mrs. Sonney and Mrs. Friedman, Frank Hennenlotter, Mike Vraney.

This is one of the year’s best documentaries, a warm, sweet and unexpurgated breeze-over of the careers of ‘America’s oldest living independent filmmakers’ – 84 year old Dan Sonney and 76 year old David Friedman, who made their mark in sexploitation films that played the off-theaters of their time. Titles like Blood Feast, The Defilers, and The Erotic Adventures of Zorro are indicative of their oeurve. The boys are delightful raconteurs, and director Bonnitt has dogged their trail with style and wit. The sense one comes away with is that these intrepid cinema explorers broke with the traditional mores of Hollywood and pulled it off, and their overriding triumph adds a sympathetic glow to whatever you may feel about the subject matter of the movies they churned out. I think you’ll love this one, and…

…From Image Entertainment, I would pick a few of Something Weird’s line of double bills to accompany Bonnitt’s doc, thus making a rollicking evening of oddly innocent exploitation from a time long, long ago. I would hazard a guess that as many as fifty DVDs have been issued of the work of these filmmakers and other like them – Doris Wishman, the short vestiges of Betty Page, Hershel Gordon Lewis, etc – that belong on the completist’s DVD shelves as surely as the big studios’ classics have their place there. Go to Image’s website and browse through the scores of titles. It’s really a choice by intuition. There are some I loathe, but friends love them. They’re great with groups. Probably perfect for a season’s party.

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