Blonde Venus (1932) *** (out of 4) Helen Faraday (Marlene Dietrich) learns that her husband Edward (Herbert Marshall) is dying of radiation poison but there's a doctor who might be able to save him. The only problem is that they don't have the money so she goes back to working as a cabaret singer where she meets millionaire Nick Townsend (Cary Grant). At first Helen is just after the money to save her husband but soon her and Nick fall in love.Dietrich and director Joseph von Sternberg once again create a winning film that manages to be highly entertaining even though some pretty big flaws. Even though the film does have some flaws there's no question that the cast is terrific and once again the director offers up a beautiful looking film to say the least.The biggest problem with the movie is how melodramatic it gets in the middle. There's a long subplot dealing with the husband snapping after he learns of the affair and Dietrich takes off with the kid. This is where we see her struggling to do anything good for the kid as she has to keep avoiding detectives and others who are looking for her. I found all of this stuff to be rather silly because it makes the husband out to be an incredible villain and for the life of me it just didn't make too much sense.It didn't make too much sense in many reasons because this was a Pre-code and it did feature a woman cheating on her husband with several men and she was made for the viewer to root for. A lot of credit has to go to Dietrich because she's extremely strong here. She's given a couple musical numbers that she nails just fine but I was really impressed with her dramatic work and especially her love for her son. Marshall is great playing the bad guy and Grant is wonderfully charming in his part. The early romance scenes between he and Dietrich are certainly the highlight of the film. Dickie Moore is also good in his role as the son.BLONDE VENUS isn't a masterpiece but it's certainly an entertaining film. Yes it has some major plot flaws but there's no doubt that fans of Dietrich and Grant will enjoy it.

Josef Von Sternberg's films of the 1930s are some of the most unique ever made. Sternberg was one of the most promising directors of the 1920s, but of course there was a paradigm shift with the advent of sound near the end of the decade, causing most filmmakers to abandon the experimental cinematic techniques so instrumental to the most successful silent films. Dialogue heavy films in which visuals took a backseat to plot and characterization became the norm. Sternberg seems to have been the only director to integrate sound successfully into his normal filmmaking routine without completely changing his style. Thus, in a film like Blonde Venus Sternberg still employed his slick editing techniques and Impressionistic camera tricks such as superimpositions. As simple as this sounds, it's quite off-putting to see a film like this when expecting the relatively primitive filmmaking techniques of the popular films of the 1930s. While Sternberg naturally evolved his style and progressed through the '30s in his own way, nearly every other filmmaker regressed to a more stagy film style. It's for this reason that Sternberg's films of the 1930s look so different: this is an offshoot of film evolution that unfortunately didn't have much influence on contemporary films; what you see when you watch Sternberg's films from this era is the style that films could have moved toward if the retreat to the old dramatic forms hadn't occurred. So, what makes Blonde Venus off-putting? Well, in spite of its relative lack of length (it's only ninety-minutes long) a lot of ground is covered in this film. There's a love triangle established early on which is resolved almost before it's fully formed and the plot doesn't slow down as a character goes from riches to rags and becomes a fugitive from justice in just a few moments; in fact, things just speed up from there and in twenty minutes or so there's a manhunt that stretches across several states, several close brushes with the law, and a dramatic showdown about child custody before the character hits bottom, heads to Europe, and quickly vaults back to riches again. This is the sort of plot that would never be told in less than twice this amount of time today, in fact I've seen entire seasons of television shows with less plot packed into them. Throughout all this, Sternberg's visual panache guarantees the viewer's interest and, at the same time, narrative coherence is easily maintained. There's even some good thematic material here about self-sacrifice and women's roles in the period. Like most of Sternberg's films from this decade, Blonde Venus offers an embarrassment of riches when compared to its contemporaries in spite of a pacing style that will be difficult for viewers used to (non- Sternberg) films for this era to adjust to. For a viewer with a bit of context, this is a wonderful glimpse at what film could have been.

We do not know, that moment in history, we lost the direction and the feeling of having made some of the worst paradigms we have taken as a way of life. How many times will God - and even the devil himself - his brow contracted a smile, to hear men say: "This is mine," "She's mine","He's mine." ¿When will we understand that all have diminishing the love? If it restricts your freedom, not for your sake but because I need you... and so is my love. ¡Who cares if you're not happy as long as I'm happy! I will compensate you somehow. ¡What can I do if the world is full of interesting people! But, as you're concerned, the only (only) that may be interested, is me. You leave or I'll kill you if you are unfaithful... but do you know? I, too, how many times I've wanted to tell you the infidel!... And I would confess that sometimes I have been: thinking (million times!), word (hundreds of times!) and work (a few times).On a planet with millions of beautiful and interesting beings, ¿how one person belong to?, ¿How do swear that I will be yours? ¡Illusory promises! We are a couple standing in a bucket full of lies. Problems, tantrums, separation... raged in the day to day because of the possession. ¿What is that you can own? Become well this question. ¿Someone I can have?, ¿I would allow someone who owns me? Every time you flow, and generate ideas, feelings, words, actions... ¿Can someone "own" (have), except occasionally, all you are? "Blonde Venus" is a nice movie that I have moved to these reflections. It is the story of a woman who loves her husband, but, wanting to help, she meets another man who is sexy, gallant, generous, rich, and no possessiveness. He gives all of himself and is happy to have her what she wants to give. And when he feels she wants to return to the other, he walks away. No calls, no require, no charges... just accept. THIS IS CALLED LOVE! This is how he truly loves.Legitimate husband, in contrast, takes revenge on her, leaves and stalks to remove your child, you bitter and puts on a face an opportunistic world that becomes cold as an iceberg. And when it succeeds legitimacy, one feels that won the absurd laws of society, but also feels that lost love. We grant the benefit of the doubt because there is no reconciliation and forgiveness. Let us hope that love is born again. The Dietrich strikes a role that impacts and moving our fibers. Runs her life and gives an example of character and resilience. And, as usual, the teacher Josef von Sternberg delights with a proposal not exotic, sensual, irreverent, and scenarios perfectly romantic decorating adventure.This film is making history. Do not miss it.

As testament to her large array of skills, yet I have seen it only in this film, and never discussed by anyone elsewhere:As opposed to the low alto voice she used in 'Destry Rides Again' and all other performances I am aware of, in a very early, short scene in this movie, just after she has met her future husband Herbert Marshall, she is riding back to town from swimming with her friends, when she breaks out in a very short song with an amazingly beautiful, operatic-quality SOPRANO voice.Why she chose to always sing in the lower, more speaking-quality voice later in her career, when I assume she could have shown off her vocal range, has always intrigued me.