The image is legendary: a woman in a top hat and stockings, straddling a chair with defiant allure. But the story of how Marlene Dietrich became Lola Lola in 'The Blue Angel' is one of creative clash, relentless ambition, and calculated genius.
The Director's Obsession
In 1929,
the German film studio UFA was mounting its first major sound film, 'The Blue Angel'. The picture was meant to be a vehicle for Emil Jannings, then a global superstar who had just won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actor. He was to play a pompous professor who falls for a cabaret singer. For the female lead, director Josef von Sternberg needed someone who could embody 'Weimar sleaze' and smoldering indifference. While the studio pushed other, more famous actresses, von Sternberg became fixated on a lesser-known stage performer named Marlene Dietrich. He had seen her in a revue and was captivated by her cool disdain and aloofness, a stark contrast to the other performers. He saw in her the perfect Lola Lola, even if no one else did. Dietrich, for her part, reportedly feigned disinterest, a move that only confirmed von Sternberg's belief that he had found his star.
Forging an Icon
The collaboration between Dietrich and von Sternberg was famously intense. He was a notorious perfectionist, and she was his raw material. Von Sternberg took credit for 'discovering' Dietrich and meticulously began crafting her persona. It wasn't just about the acting; it was about the light, the camera angles, the very way she held herself. Dietrich was a quick study. Having already experimented with how to best light her own face to accent her cheekbones, she absorbed von Sternberg's lessons in cinematic glamour. The relationship was a crucible, burning away the stage actress and forging a movie star. On set, tensions flared, particularly with Jannings, who grew jealous of the director's focus on Dietrich and reportedly threatened to quit. But von Sternberg's vision was unwavering. He was creating not just a character, but an immortal image.
The Scene That Changed Everything
The film's most famous scene sees Dietrich, as Lola Lola, performing 'Falling in Love Again'. Perched on a barrel, then straddling a chair, she sings with a casual, almost lazy, seduction that is utterly magnetic. It looks effortless, but its creation was anything but. Filmed simultaneously in German and English, the production was grueling. Yet through the exhaustion, something singular was captured on film. It was the birth of her signature song and the crystallization of her femme fatale persona. The song, with its world-weary lyrics about being unable to resist love, became inextricably linked to her. In that moment, she wasn't just a nightclub singer in a seedy bar; she was a modern goddess of desire, confident and in control, drawing men to her like moths to a flame.
From Berlin to Hollywood
The impact was immediate and explosive. 'The Blue Angel' was an international sensation. On the night of the Berlin premiere on April 1, 1930, Dietrich was already on a ship to America. At von Sternberg's insistence, she had signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. She arrived in Hollywood not as an unknown, but as a fully formed star, her legend preceding her. She and von Sternberg would go on to make six more films together in Hollywood, including 'Morocco' and 'Shanghai Express', each one further cementing the icon that had been born in that German studio. She had left Germany on the cusp of seismic political change, renouncing the rising Nazi regime that would later try to lure her back with lavish promises. But her future was already set, launched by a single, perfectly crafted scene.
