The Blue Angel

The Blue Angel is a German drama set in a port town, most likely in the early 1920s. Professor Immanuel Rath is a strict, disliked schoolmaster who discovers that his pupils have been frequenting a cabaret to watch the singer Lola Lola. He goes to the club to confront her and to catch the boys, but the encounter changes his life: he becomes infatuated with her, is mocked by his students and loses his teaching post. He marries Lola Lola and joins her on tour, and the life he has chosen brings him repeated humiliation and moral decline.

The film is based on Heinrich Mann's novel Professor Unrat, with a screenplay by Josef von Sternberg, Carl Zuckmayer and Karl Vollmöller, produced by Erich Pommer for UFA. It was von Sternberg's first sound film and the earliest title in his directing career listed here, ahead of Morocco and later works such as Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus and Macao. Emil Jannings plays Rath, and Marlene Dietrich plays Lola Lola, with Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti, Hans Albers and Reinhold Bernt in supporting roles.

Released in 1930, the film runs 108 minutes. Its reputation has held up across very different audiences: a critics' rating of 8.7/10 from 47 reviews stands above the 7.6/10 on IMDb from around 18,000 votes and the 7.3/10 on TMDB from a smaller pool of 381 votes, suggesting strong critical standing alongside broad viewer approval.