Blonde Venus (1932)

A cabaret singer takes up with a millionaire to pay for her gravely ill husband's operation.

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Jules Furthman (by), S.K. Lauren (by)

Stars:

Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Herbert Marshall

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Marlene Dietrich	...	Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones
Herbert Marshall	...	Edward 'Ned' Faraday
Cary Grant	...	Nick Townsend
Dickie Moore	...	Johnny Faraday
Gene Morgan	...	Ben Smith
Rita La Roy	...	Taxi Belle Hooper
Robert Emmett O'Connor	...	Dan O'Connor
Sidney Toler	...	Detective Wilson
Morgan Wallace	...	Dr. Pierce

Storyline

American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Wife Helen returns to night club work to attempt to raise the money and becomes popular as the Blonde Venus. In an effort to get enough money sooner, she prostitutes herself to millionaire Nick Townsend. While Ned is away in Europe, she continues with Nick but when Ned returns cured, he discovers her infidelity. Now Ned despises Helen but she grabs son Johnny and lives on the run, just one step ahead of the Missing Persons Bureau. When they do finally catch her, she loses her son to Ned. Once again she returns to entertaining, this time in Paris, and her fame once again brings her and Townsend together. Helen and Nick return to America engaged, but she is irresistibly drawn back to her son and Ned. In which life does she truly belong?

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Plot Keywords:

gorilla costume | cabaret singer | radiation poisoning | ill husband | dysfunctional marriage | 

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Taglines:

From the lips of one MAN to the arms of another!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Evelyn Brent was an early choice for the part of Taxi Belle Hooper.

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Goofs

Check is shown on screen written to Helen Jones. This is her stage name so not sure how she will cash the check.

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Quotes

Detective Wilson: Terribly warm today, isn't it?
Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: Warm? It's hot.
Detective Wilson: You look as cool as a cucumber.
Bartender Bringing Two Beers: What'll you have, folks?
Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: I'll have some beer. Cold beer.
Detective Wilson: Make it two.
Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: What are you doing down here, big boy?
Detective Wilson: Nothing much. Why?
Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: You don't look like the kind of a man who comes down this way.
Detective Wilson: Cigarette? I might ask you the same question.
[...]

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits are shown with a background of water reflected at a swimming hole. As the credits end, we see women swimming in the swimming hole.

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Alternate Versions

The original German release and some television prints of "Blonde Venus" exclude the opening scene, where Herbert Marshall encounters Marlene Dietrich and friends "skinny-dipping" in a lake.

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Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Cinema Today and the Future (2011)

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Soundtracks

Go Home And Tell Your Mother
(uncredited)
Written by Dorothy Fields (as Fields) and Jimmy McHugh (as McHugh)
Played on a pianola during cafe scene.

User Reviews

Fascinating Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich is spellbinding as a woman who takes her son and flees her jealous husband who threatens to take him away. The husband (Herbert Marshall) goes to Europe for his health, but on the money Dietrich makes as the Blonde Venus. When he finds out she's also had an affair with Cary Grant, he goes ballistic. Thin plot has Marshall sending detectives around the world to follow Dietrich as she sinks lower and lower. She finally gives up the boy and returns to nightclub stardom. All ends well. Dietrich sings a few songs along the way and looks gorgeous, but it's her "Hot Voodoo" number, emerging from a gorilla suit via a slow strip, that is sexy and mesmerizing. The storyline is not terribly logical, but hell ... it's Marlene Dietrich doing what she did best: hypnotizing her audience with glamorous, allure, and wit.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German French

Release Date:

23 September 1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

Indiscretion

Filming Locations:

Paramount Ranch - 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 85 min (video: cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1