'The Blue Angel' Director: Josef von Sternberg (1930) Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jennings German or English w/ English subtitles contains both Blu-ray and DVD

One of the first German language sound films and the picture that represents the initial collaboration between Josef von Sternberg and his immortal muse, Marlene Dietrich.

Emil Jannings portrays a schoolteacher whose fateful expedition to catch his students frequenting the cabaret known as “The Blue Angel” leads to his own rapture with the establishment’s main attraction Lola (Dietrich) — and, as a result, triggers the downward spiral of his life and fortune.

Directed by von Sternberg while on loan from America to the pioneering German producer Erich Pommer, The Blue Angel is at once captivating, devastating, and powerfully erotic, laced-through with Sternberg’s masterful cinematography.

Special features include:
- Audio commentary by critic and scholar Tony Rayns on the German-language version
- Video essay on the films by critic and scholar Tag Gallagher
- Original 1929 screen test with Marlene Dietrich
- Archival 1971 interview clip with Dietrich
- Three clips of Dietrich in performance from 1963 and 1972 concerts
- 48-page booklet containing a 1968 essay by Josef von Sternberg about the film; a complete timeline of the film’s production history by Werner Sudendorf; and copious rare archival imagery from the production provided by Sudendorf and the Deutsche Kinemathek