page_title: Josef von Sternberg
section_title: Magnum opus: The Blue Angel: 1930
hierarchical_section_title: Josef von Sternberg / Paramount: 1927–1935 / Sound era: 1929–1935 / Magnum opus: The Blue Angel: 1930
caption_attribution_description: English: Den blaa Engel (The Blue Angel) (film) Danish poster Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings UFA/Paramount Pictures
context_page_description: Josef von Sternberg born Jonas Sternberg, 29 May 1894 – 22 December 1969 was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major Hollywood studios. He is best known for his film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s, including the highly regarded Paramount/UFA production, The Blue Angel.
  Sternberg's finest works are noteworthy for their striking pictorial compositions, dense décor, chiaroscuro illumination and relentless camera motion, endowing the scenes with emotional intensity. He is also credited with initiating the gangster film genre with his silent era movie Underworld. Sternberg's themes typically offer the spectacle of an individual's desperate struggle to maintain their personal integrity as they sacrifice themselves for lust or love.
  He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Morocco and Shanghai Express.
context_section_description: Sternberg was summoned to Berlin by Paramount's sister studio, UFA in 1929 to direct Emil Jannings in his first sound production, The Blue Angel. It would be "the most important film" of Sternberg's career. Sternberg cast the then little-known Marlene Dietrich as Lola Lola, the female lead and nemesis of Jannings character Professor Immanuel Rath, whose passion for the young cabaret singer would reduce him to a "spectacular cuckold." Dietrich became an international star overnight and followed Sternberg to Hollywood to produce six more collaborations at Paramount. Film historian Andrew Sarris contends that The Blue Angel is Sternberg's "most brutal and least humorous" work of his oeuvre and yet the one film that the director's "most severe detractors will concede is beyond reproach or ridicule ... The Blue Angel stands up today as Sternberg's most efficient achievement ..."
  Sternberg's romantic infatuation with his new star created difficulties on and off the set. Jannings strenuously objected to Sternberg's lavish attention to Dietrich's performance, at the elder actor's expense. Indeed, the "tragic irony of The Blue Angel" was "paralleled in real life by the rise of Dietrich and the fall of Jannings" in their respective careers.
  Riza von Sternberg, who accompanied her spouse to Berlin, discerned that director and star were sexually involved. When Dietrich arrived in the United States in April 1930, Mrs. von Sternberg personally presented her with $100,000 libel lawsuits for public remarks made by the star that her marriage was failing, and a $500,000 suit for alienation of [Josef] Sternberg's affections. The Sternberg-Dietrich-Royce scandal was "in and out of the papers", but public awareness of the "ugly scenes" was largely concealed by Paramount executives. On 5 June 1931 the divorce was finalized providing $25,000 cash settlement to Mrs. Sternberg and a 5-year annual alimony of $1200. In March 1932, the now divorced Riza Royce dropped her libel and alienation charges against Dietrich.
caption: A measure of The Blue Angel's European marketing and its "instant international success": Danish movie poster.[107][108]
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