Also known by its alternative German title Der Blaue Engel, Joseph von Sternberg’s 1930 expressionist classic The Blue Angel is a fine example of the difficulties many proficient actors encountered in making the painful transition from silent cinema to sound. In some respects, the film’s male lead, Emil Jannings, was one of the talkies’ earliest casualties; his pronounced accent successfully terminated his lucrative career as one of Germany's most prolific actors.

The recipient of the 1929 Academy Award for Best Actor - due to his roles in both 1927’s The Way of All Flesh and 1928’s The Last Command - Jannings’ star waned with the invention of sound and he soon faded into obscurity.

Seemingly destined to be the film's headline act, Jannings was informed that the level of The Blue Angel's success would be measured "in the naked thighs of Miss Dietrich." Consquently, she received star billing. Often regarded as the film’s main attraction, screen siren Marlene Dietrich’s part is significantly smaller than that of her co-star’s, and it is clearly evident that much of The Blue Angel’s dramatic impact is derived from Jannings' formidable performance.

However, Dietrich’s contribution cannot be understated; indeed, it can be argued that without her sultry persona, The Blue Angel may not have achieved the classic status that it now enjoys. Ironically, Dietrich had severe reservations about the film’s then-sordid content, citing that it was "awful and vulgar" - yet it was her definitive role as the icy-hearted temptress Lola Lola which brought her international fame.

Utilising the same cast, two versions of The Blue Angel were filmed simultaneously - one in German, the other English. Naturally, the German is considered to be superior to its English counterpart on the basis of the latter’s inability to adequately translate the film’s thick foreign dialect. The DVD release of The Blue Angel, distributed by Force Video, contains the original German edition and is the version discussed here.

Scripted by Robert Liebman and adapted from Heinrich Mann’s novel “Professor Unrath�, The Blue Angel revolves around Professor Immanuel Rath (Jennings), a high school lecturer who - upon first introduction - is a well-respected and strict disciplinarian. A habitually ritualistic man, Rath is the epitome of 1925 Germany’s elite social order - educated, wealthy, dignified and intellectual.

Morally outraged when he learns that his students have been visiting a disreputable nightclub named The Blue Angel, Rath resolves to raid the establishment with the intention of catching and reprimanding his renegade pupils. However, Rath is soon entranced by the bewitching Lola Lola (Dietrich), the club’s premier showgirl. Determined to protect her torrid reputation as a loose woman and reinstate her honour, Raft foolishly proposes marriage to Lola; his decision is the catalyst for his eventual ruination.

Filmed in black-and-white, The Blue Angel is presented in a 1.33:1 screen aspect ratio and features embedded English subtitles. Because it was produced in the infancy of the talkie era and sound recording techniques were primitive, The Blue Angel’s transfer is unavoidably problematic.

Typical for a film of this vintage, there are copious amounts of film artefacts - consisting of nicks, scratches, dirt, and some evidence of print damage. Due to poor editing, there are numerous jumps from one frame to another, lending some scenes an unintentional comic aspect. Nevertheless, these faults were not completely unexpected and cannot be deemed as intrusive to the viewing experience.

There are no evident MPEG artefacts, although there seems to be slight grain present - but this a characteristic of the film and not the transfer itself. Blacks are solid, and shadow detail is non-existent. Detail itself is extremely soft and never aspires to be anything more than adequately defined. Brightness and contrast levels fluctuate with great regularity; in some instances, the screen image seemed inundated with darkness.

The Blue Angel was viewed via the Dolby Pro-Logic decoder, which accomplished nothing in expanding the soundstage. Although the audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, both sound and dialogue are positioned firmly in the centre speaker. Not expecting audio perfection, I was nevertheless disenchanted with the amount of distortion present throughout the film whenever dialogue was featured - in particular, Dietrich’s cabaret rendition of “Falling In Love Again.�

To be perfectly fair, Force Video have no responsibility over the actual transfer as its flaws are inherent within the source material. If there is a positive side to this print, then it lies in the fact that it has been restored to its original length of 106 minutes.

The extras are woefully lacking, with only a two page text-based feature providing basic biographical details on Dietrich herself. Regrettably, there are no filmographies on her, Jannings, or von Sternberg.

The Blue Angel remains an emotionally powerful film, largely in part to von Sternberg’s solid direction and Jannings’ harrowing portrait of an esteemed man who is subjected to ever-increasing human degradation. This film deserves its status as a true cinema classic, and is one of my personal favourites. Unfortunately, because of the sub-standard video and audio presentation, I cannot recommend it to anyone other than fanatical aficionados of German expressionism and, of course, Marlene Dietrich.