Blonde Venus (1932)

Blonde Venus - 1932

Our next film is 1932's "Blonde Venus", starring Marlene Dietrich.  In this movie, a woman decides to pursue a stage career to help support her terminally ill husband while he seeks treatment in Europe.  Along the way, she becomes involved with a man who helps her financially.

The film's supporting cast includes Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore, Gene Morgan, Rita La Roy, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Sterling Holloway, and Hattie McDaniel.

A group of students are on a walking trip through Germany.  They stop at a lake when they see a group of women swimming there.

One of the women asks the men to go away.  One of the men tells her they won't go away.  She says they need to get to the theater, and he wants to meet her afterwards.  She smiles and swims off.

Years later, we find that the two are married, have a child, and are living in New York.

The husband (Ned) goes to a doctor and asks if he can help him.  He's a chemist and has contracted radium poisoning.  The doctor tells him of a specialist in Germany who can help him, but he'll need $1500 for the six month treatment.

At home, Ned's wife Helen puts their son Johnny to bed.  Johnny wants to hear a bedtime story...the "Germany story".

Helen and Ned tell Johnny the story of how they met in a fairy-tale style.  Johnny loves it.

As Johnny falls asleep, Helen plays a musical toy and sings a German lullaby.  After he goes to sleep, Ned tells Helen how much it's going to cost for him to be able to get well.  Helen volunteers to return to the stage to help him.

Ned isn't at all thrilled by the idea, but because he needs the treatment, he goes along with it.  Helen goes to a very crowded casting office in the hopes of seeing someone who can help her.

She alone is picked out of the crowd by the boss.  Her signs her and takes her to a nightclub he hopes will want to hire her.  They do, and she's given a dressing room and put on salary right away.

On opening night, Ned still is hesitant to have Helen go back to work.  She insists, and with a kiss goodnight to him and Johnny, she leaves for the nightclub.

She's billed as the Blonde Venus.  The novelty stage name is enough to ensure that the nightclub is packed.

When it's time for Helen's number, African-themed music begins and a group of chorus girls in chains come out leading a gorilla.  The audience is both mystified and terrified of the animal.

Emerging from the gorilla costume is Helen.  She electrifies the crowd with a song entitled "Hot Voodoo".

One man is intently focused on Helen.  He is wealthy politician Nick Townsend.

He comes backstage to meet her, and they hit it off.  Helen begins to think that maybe she can use Nick to help fund her husband's recovery trip to Germany.

He gives Helen a check for $300, which is enough to get Ned started on his trip.

When she gets home that night, Helen tells Ned that she's got some money that he can use to start with.  She tells him that she got an advance in her salary from the nightclub owner.

Helen and Johnny see Ned off as he sails for Germany.  When they are ready to leave, Nick is waiting for them.  He even presents Johnny with a little dog.  Against her better judgement, she allows Nick to drive them home.

Five months later, Helen gets a message from Ned saying that he's coming home in a month's time.  She's torn.  She has developed deep feelings for Nick, but still feels great affection for her husband.  Nick makes it easy for her by saying he's leaving for Europe so that he can forget her, which paves the way for her to go back to Ned.

They spend the next month on vacation.  Helen is completely unaware that a telegram is at her apartment which announces that Ned will be arriving home two weeks earlier than scheduled and he's completely cured.

When she returns to their apartment on the day she thinks Ned will arrive, she finds he's already been there.  She also finds the telegram from Ned.

When he comes into the room, she's frantically worried.  Initially glad to see her, Ned begins to question her about where Johnny is and where she's been.

She tells him the truth.  Ned tells her to bring Johnny back to him and then clear out.  He wants nothing further to do with her.  He's devastated and wants to know how much he owes Helen for his life.

Helen takes Johnny and disappears.  After two days, Ned gets the police involved in searching for her and Johnny.

We find that she's taken up work in a nightclub someplace.  Johnny must always wear a mask so no one will recognize him.

While trying to support her and Johnny, Helen also tries to do right by him as a mother, including teaching him to read and write.

With Ned and the police on her tail, Helen's money soon runs out.  She's forced to wash dishes for food.

She and Johnny become destitute, bouncing around from Chattanooga to New Orleans to Galveston and beyond.  In one city, she's arrested for vagrancy, and she's ordered to leave the area.

She eventually turns to prostitution.  However, one day, the police catch up with her, and she must outwit them to keep Johnny with her.

She goes so far as to flirt with the detective (who doesn't recognize her).  But as she talks with him, Helen comes to the realization that what she's doing isn't what is best for Johnny.

She tells the detective who she really is, and he sends to New York for Ned to come and collect Johnny.

When Ned arrives, he gives Helen an envelope containing $1500, which he got from the sale of a formula he's invented.  He tells her never to try and see Johnny again.

Helen is heartbroken when she has to say goodbye to Johnny.  She tearfully watches them board the train, and then she watches as it disappears out of sight.

After hitting rock bottom, Helen makes her way from the USA to South America to Paris, where she once again becomes a sensation.  She's now famous for using men to get what she wants and then dropping them coldly.

During her nightclub act, she sings a song in French called "I Couldn't Be Annoyed," to the audience's delight.

One man in the audience that night is Nick.  Surprised to see him, Helen tells him that he can come back to her dressing room after the show.  There he tells her that he couldn't forget her and proposes marriage.  He also tells her that her life is empty without Johnny.

Fighting everything inside her, she agrees to marry Nick and returns with him to New York.

He takes her to her old apartment in the hopes that Ned will allow her to spend some time with Johnny, which he grudgingly does.

Johnny is overjoyed to have his mother again.  She gives him a bath and gets him ready for bed.

He asks to hear the "Germany story" again.  He says he hasn't heard it in so long because Ned has "forgotten" it.  Helen says to ask him again.  Ned comes into the room and fumbles his way through the story's beginning.

As they tell Johnny the story of how they met and fell in love, Helen and Ned begin to rekindle those old feelings and look at each other tenderly.

After Johnny falls asleep, Helen asks Ned if she can stay with them both.  Ned tells her that this is were she belongs.

Cast rundown:

   Marlene Dietrich...............................Helen Faraday

   Herbert Marshall...............................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

   Sterling Holloway..............................Joe

   Hattie McDaniel................................Cora

And that's it for Blonde Venus.  The original script had been written by the director and Marlene Dietrich.  However, Hollywood censors demanded major changes.  By the time things were done, both the director and Dietrich walked away from the script and did not even want to do the version of the movie that had been written.

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