BLONDE VENUS

Perhaps not the greatest of the Dietrich/von Sternberg collaborations but with so many masterpieces and near-masterpieces it's hard to choose. Here she's the cabaret singer who will do anything to save the life of her dying husband yet the plot is neither turgid nor sentimental though to see Marlene as a dull little housewife sitting at home sewing is a bit hard to swallow. The hubbie is Herbert Marshall at his stiffest and the man Dietrich turns to is Cary Grant, also not at his best. Of course, she looks fantastic, (Bert Glennon was the cinematographer), and once she glams up the film picks up considerably, (this is the one in which she puts on the gorilla costume and sings 'Hot Voodoo' and there are certainly oodles of plot to get through). It might have been better still if that most obnoxious of child stars, Dickie Moore, hadn't played the son. Luckily we don't see too much of him. It's also a pre-code movie so it's pretty risqué for the time.