Watch a rare screen test of Marlene Dietrich auditioning for ‘The Blue Angel’
Born in Berlin, Marlene Dietrich rose to prominence in the 1920s during the Golden Age of the Weimar Republic, which fostered creative prosperity. During this time, she became a chorus girl and starred in silent films by the likes of Josef von Sternberg, becoming an icon of German cinema and theatre.
Her first film role was in 1923’s The Little Napoleon, directed by Georg Jacoby. From there, she continued performing minor roles before working her way up to more significant parts on stage and screen. Still, Dietrich’s success didn’t come overnight, and it wasn’t until 1930 that she earned her breakthrough with von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel.
In the film, she plays a cabaret performer, Lola-Lola, whose presence seduces a well-to-do school teacher after he witnesses her perform at the Blue Angel cabaret. This marks his subsequent downfall, resorting to a career as a clown to support himself after he resigns from his respectable teaching job.
The movie was incredibly successful and remains one of the most prominent films from the Weimar Period. However, the film shocked many people, including the Nazis, who condemned it as “mediocre and corrupting kitsch”. Dietrich’s seductive Lola-Lola was a far cry from the ideal Aryan woman that Hitler and his followers championed.
With her performance in The Blue Angel, the first feature-length German sound film, Dietrich was noticed by Hollywood and shortly signed to Paramount Pictures. Soon enough, she became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, appearing in movies such as Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, and The Devil Is A Woman.
In 1933, the Nazis attempted to use Dietrich as the face of their Aryan propaganda due to her captivating, blonde persona, yet she couldn’t have been less interested. She stood in avid opposition to the Nazis, with Kate Lemay, the curator of ‘Marlene Dietrich: Dressed for the Image’, stating, “She saw the rise of the Third Reich in her home country and could not stand it. She was so upset about the betrayal she felt the Third Reich was doing to her homeland.”
The Nazis subsequently banned all of her movies, although Hitler allegedly kept a secret copy of his favourite, The Blue Angel. The film was the first step towards Dietrich’s boundary-pushing career. That same year, she starred in Morroco, where she demonstrated her penchant for challenging gender norms. In the film, she donned a suit and kissed a woman, something that was really quite radical in 1930.
Dietrich spent much of her career experimenting with androgynous outfits, which greatly influenced future artists such as Madonna and Freddie Mercury. She was also extremely politically active, using much of her income to help Jewish people escape Nazi Germany.
Dietrich became the most famous German actor of all time thanks to her incredible performance in The Blue Angel. However, her star power was always present, as demonstrated by a rare screen test for the film. Ahead of the audition, the piano player was instructed to deliberately mess up to see how the actor would react, and it was Dietrich’s stern and angered reaction – different to every other contender’s – which won her the part. However, once the audition was over, she apologised straight away, stating that she was acting the whole time.
Watch the video below.
