“Blonde Venus” tears down the cultivated facade of Marlene Dietrich the cabaret idol and lets her flex her range as an acting icon.
Director Josef von Sternberg’s 1932 work is an early entry in the weepie genre that would come to see entries like “Dark Victory” and “Now, Voyager.” Dietrich, as a retired actress who sells herself back to the stage to pay her husband’s medical bills, is at her most vulnerable and dynamic in the role.
Of course — audiences of the time hated it.
“Venus” was the start of the slow Dietrich-Sternberg collaboration collapse, which would continue to crumble as their next and final two films also failed at the box office.
There is something deeply discomforting about…