MovieChat Forums > The Blue Angel (1959) Discussion > A Different Ending From the 1930 Origina...

A Different Ending From the 1930 Original (SPOILERS!)

posted 16 years ago by vinidici
6 replies | jump to latest

...This was aired on television when I was a youngster in the early-to-mid 1970's. Several years later, I would view 1930's "Blue Angel," starring Emil Jannings and Marlene Deitrich, and naturally concluded it was the better of the two film versions.

I shall now allow a respectable amount of "SPOILERS" space:

The script seemed much the same, except in the re-make there's a happier ending. In the original, Professor Rath ambles into his old classroom and expires at his old desk (with a vice-like death grip on its edges that a night janitor cannot pry loose). But in the remake, Rath's former boss, the school's principal ( as portrayed by John Banner, later to become known as "Sgt Schultz" of "Hogan's Heroes" fame) takes pity on the troubled Rath and places the Professor back in his old job.

I wonder why the filmmakers of this foreign picture felt the need to emulate the American norm of the day, i.e., give it a happy ending?

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rollieri 12 years ago

Not really a happy ending. Rath just doesn't die, as he does in the original.

[–] edward_eubanks 12 years ago

I watched this film in a German film course at the U of Minnesota. We watched this file, NOsfratu, M, Metropolis, and the Last Laugh. It was a great course which pointed out the German's important influence on the art of filmmaking.

I think Emil Jannings, who was probably Germany's most accomplished actor did a better job in 1924's The Last Laugh than he did as Professor Rath in the 1930's Der Blaue Engel. In some ways the two films mirror each other's endings.

Marlene Dietrich and the role of Lola LOla are inseperable. I still watch the movie just to hear her sing her signature song, "Falling in LOve Again."

And interesting sidenote to the film is the fate of actor Kurt Gerron, a german jew. Gerron was a luminary on the german screen before the takeover of the Nazis. He fled Germany to France but was later arrested where he was forced to make a propaganda film about how well Hitler treated the jews. After the film was made, Gerron was killed in Auschwitz.

I have never seen the American remake of the film, in fact I didn't know one existed until I stumbled across it on IMDB. I will try to get a copy to watch, but I don't see how it can match up to the original/

[–] kitteninparis 11 years ago

Yes, it's different but I do perfer this version over the older one. For one, I was almost in tears at how the professor finally snapped during the crowing scene. Much better actoring IMHO.

[–] grumpy736-1 8 years ago

I agree -- this 1959 film is brilliant -- couldn't take a break from watching it from the first frame -- little bits of business like a shop keeper setting his clock by the two professors passing by in the morning, tipping if the hats, the generic high school boys... I saw the original back in the 1950s and had forgotten the ending -- only remembered Lola/Dietrich. FX channel showed it without commercial interruptions on July 24,2016. Wasn't May Britt's name spelled Mai ??? I think she was at least as awesome as Marlene at the same time in their careers.

I miss Big Band music and talented singers. Leonard Cohen is my idol. Civility, harmony, unity!

[–] Clemencedane 7 years ago

She was born Maybritt Wilkens and changed it to May Britt.