The Blue Angel (1959)
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Starring: Curd Jürgens, May Britt, Theodore Bikel
Synopsis:
A stuffy schoolteacher falls for a nightclub singer and brings about his own ruin.
Impressions:
About the only justification for this remake of The Blue Angel is that it was able to be in color. If the original didn't have an English version filmed simultaneously, you could have had the additional excuse of presenting the material in English. This isn't as good as the original, but it's almost a shot-for-shot recreation and if you don't consider the original, then it does well enough in its own right. Curd Jürgens is fine as Professor Rath but he doesn't have the buffoonish side Emil Jannings did that further cemented him as the butt of everyone's jokes. I will credit May Britt for doing a rather spot-on impersonation of Marlene Dietrich's distinctive singing voice, but she's no Marlene Dietrich. The initial plan of having a Marilyn Monroe/Spencer Tracy pairing might have been more interesting. It would've been less like the original, but that may have put it far enough out of the original's shadow to carve its own place for itself. Like I said, taken by itself, it's good enough to warrant a watch, but if you've seen the original, you may want to pass this one over.
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