Tonight's movie was called "Angel" (1937) starring Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall and Melvyn Douglas, and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. I discovered the film in a library database search of "Universal Vault" dvds. We have enjoyed and reviewed several of Lubitsch's stylish comedies in the past couple of years, including "Design For Living", "Trouble In Paradise" and "To Be Or Not To Be", so "Angel" seemed a sure bet to be another good one, and it was - in fact it was a minor masterpiece - but not in the way we have come to expect.
Lubitsch's milieu (sorry but I had no choice) is light comedy, slightly screwballed and expertly edited. He was known for the liquid technical excellence of his films, and "Angel" is no exception. Where it differs is in the subject matter and consequently, the tone. "Angel" is not a comedy, nor is it light (excepting a few comedic moments from supporting players). Instead it is a serious take on what can happen to a loveless marriage.
Dietrich is married to Herbert Marshall, an English diplomat with the League Of Nations, the precursor to the UN. Marshall is always away, visiting one country or another, and when he is home he never has time for his wife. All of this we learn as the movie progresses. As it begins, we see Dietrich arriving in Paris and checking into a hotel under the name of "Mrs. Brown". It is made clear that the desk clerk knows this is a pseudonym. He assures her his lips are sealed. She is free to conduct whatever business she desires during her stay.
A party is taking place, hosted by an expatriate Grand Duchess from Russia. You know it's an old Hollywood film, directed by someone like Lubitsch or George Cukor, when you have a Grand Duchess as a character. :)
At any rate, Dietrich seems to have a passing acquaintance with the Duchess, perhaps due to her husband. It really isn't explained. But she attends the party at the Duchess's mansion, and there she meets a handsome young Melvyn Douglas. I was asking myself, "who is that actor?....I know him....who is he?" It took me a few scenes to realize it was Douglas, who people my age mostly know from his many roles as a much older actor, one in his senior years. Here he is only 36. Anyhow, she has come to Paris because she is a neglected wife, and she is open to adventure, so when Douglas starts making advances, she reciprocates. By the end of a ten or fifteen minute sequence he has fallen in love with her and dubbed her his "Angel", hence the movie's title. It all happens quickly. There is only a kiss, nothing is consummated, but Douglas tells her he will never let her go. He is head over heels.
Marlene Dietrich, however, gets cold feet and runs off while Douglas goes to buy her some flowers. She is too secure in her lifestyle to Marshall the privileged government official to risk it for a one night fling. Still, that's exactly what she wanted when she left for Paris and registered as "Mrs. Brown". She wanted a fling; until she got one. Then she regained her senses and went back home.
Her marriage to the suave Herbert Marshall isn't entirely loveless. She is devoted to him and, in the tradition of 1930s movie wives, rich and poor, she is Ever Cheerful as she stands by him even though he pays no attention to her. She is constantly suggesting little things they could do together, like walks or shopping trips, or a night at the opera. But he always has a phone call to take instead, which always leads to another trip out of the country. He makes excuses about the job and his duty to the country, but we can see that he won't even spend a little time with her.
I must digress here to say that, though I've only seen her in a handful of films, Marlene Dietrich was a very talented actress with tremendous onscreen charisma. She could do it all, and it's nice to see her playing vulnerable here. Man is she great.
Midway through the film comes a twist in plot, and it livens things up considerably. I will briefly interject again to say that, for the first twenty minutes or so, the pace and direction of the movie seemed very wooden. In his initial scenes, Melvyn Douglas might as well have been cut out of cardboard, so dull were his line readings. I was thinking, "Where's the famous Lubitsch Touch"? Where's the Lightness, the Style, the Effervescence"? I didn't yet know it was to be a serious drama, and perhaps Ernst Lubitsch wasn't used to directing Serious. So my interjection is mainly to say that if you watch "Angel", please persevere through the opening twenty minutes of mollassed-paced plot, enacted partly by the near-corpselike Douglas. Maybe Lubitsch was finding his way with dramatic storytelling, I dunno, but once the film gets going, around the 30 minute mark, it never lets up (though still at a dramatic pace) and it eventually earns it's near masterpiece marks, trust me.
The twist is that Melvyn Douglas and Herbert Marshall will meet up themselves. They turn out to be old Army buddies who haven't seen each other in a generation, While they are drinking and catching up, Douglas tells Marshall all about this beautiful woman he has just met right there in Paris, a stunner whom he has dubbed "Angel".
He has no idea that "Angel" is Herbert Marshall's wife, and Marshall has no idea that his wife went to Paris with the intention of cheating on him, even though she never did. She walked right up to the point of no return but never crossed it.
Man, what a set up. Here we have the Great Screenwriting Principle at work once again. Just try to pull off a script this great nowdays, I dare you. The three actors in the triangle will pull out every possible nuance in the dynamic of love, trust, neglect, betrayal and redemption, and every last drop will be squeezed out of the proverbial downward spiral of the marriage that cannot be saved due to lack of compromise and loving communication.
This one will spiral out of control all the way to the end, with no moral compunction on the part of Melvyn Douglas, who - while he is not an out-and-out skunk - would be more than happy to break up the marriage of Dietrich and Marshall. Dietrich has tried to get rid of him, but he won't go, and anyway she can't resist him because he is Just Too Handsome (in keeping with standard 1930s romantic protocol).
But she also knows he's a Cad, even though a subtle one, and that may yet influence her decision on whether or not to keep her marriage. ////
"Angel" gets two Very Big Thumbs Up from me, despite it's somnambulent start, because of it's realistic and very human portrayal of how such a scenario of potential infidelity would play out. Whoever wrote the dialogue to this movie really understood what motivates a woman in this situation. I am not a woman, of course, but I'm a human being and this is a human story. The roles could easily be reversed, though in the 1930s there were traditional marital roles for men and women. A woman trapped in a marriage that "had everything", luxury, prestige, travel, social cache, really only had one way out, to summon the courage to find a man who actually loved her.
In the movie, Marlene Dietrich does find such a man, so there is a happy ending.
My highest recommendation for "Angel". See you in the morning in church. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoo :):)
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