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Blonde Venus

1932 · 93 min · US

Directed by Josef von Sternberg

Dietrich emerges from a gorilla suit in a blonde Afro for the Hot Voodoo number, and that is Sternberg's. The story is the studio's: Helen Faraday goes back to the cabaret to pay for her husband's radium cure, takes up with a politician to pay for it faster, runs south with the child when the husband finds out, working her way down through flophouses and police stations, becomes a star in Paris, and comes home. Between the two, Dietrich plays a mother, which she was, and the scenes with the boy are the ones without armour. Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant. The fifth Sternberg and Dietrich film. Paramount, 1932.

Drama

Watch now

Watch Blonde Venus

1932 · Source: Internet Archive

Public domain presentation

Public Domain Source

Internet Archive

Cast & Crew

Josef von Sternberg · DirectorMarlene Dietrich · Helen Faraday, aka Helen JonesHerbert Marshall · Edward 'Ned' Faraday

Available Subtitles

No subtitle tracks are currently listed.

From the Reading Room

Article
Blonde Venus (1932) | The Criterion Collection — Criterion Collection

Criterion's overview of Sternberg and Dietrich's melodrama about a chanteuse's moral decline.

Article
The Birth of a Hollywood Bad Girl

Cast

Principal players
Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones

H

Herbert Marshall

Edward 'Ned' Faraday

Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Nick Townsend

Dickie Moore

Dickie Moore

Johnny Faraday

Gene Morgan

Gene Morgan

Ben Smith

Rita La Roy

Rita La Roy

'Taxi Belle' Hooper

Robert Emmett O'Connor

Robert Emmett O'Connor

Dan O'Connor

S

Sidney Toler

Detective Wilson

Morgan Wallace

Morgan Wallace

Dr. Pierce

Al Bridge

Al Bridge

Bouncer (uncredited)

Marcelle Corday

Marcelle Corday

Helen's Maid in France (uncredited)

Cecil Cunningham

Cecil Cunningham

Cabaret Manager in Norfolk (uncredited)

Sterling Holloway

Sterling Holloway

Joe, Hiker (uncredited)

Hattie McDaniel

Hattie McDaniel

Cora, Helen's Maid in New Orleans (uncredited)

Dennis O'Keefe

Dennis O'Keefe

(uncredited)

Crew

W. Franke Harling

composer

Jules Furthman

writer

Bert Glennon

cinematographer

S.K. Lauren

writer

John Leipold

composer

Paul Marquardt

composer

Josef von Sternberg

writer

Oscar Potoker

composer

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