Anjo

Lubitsch is recognized as one of the great directors of the 30s, and yet this wonderful film is not on any of the usual critical lists of notable films. Perhaps it was too modern for its time. It is perhaps Dietrich's best English performance (though even here she could be a bit more subtle), but the real star is the director, shining in the shots he composes and performances he coaxes from his actors. Lubitsch is a master of subtlety, and when he places important moments off-screen, it is in such a way as to heighten their impact. Since the censorship code is in effect, the sexual elements are cleverly concealed. For example, Halton and Barker discover that in Paris they both visited the same... seamstress. The naive Hays Office must have thought that was the joke, but the real joke is on them for it is clear--at least today--that the two did not visit her to get their sewing done. The sophistication of the film is unusual for its time.

Pages could be written about this film. Suffice it to say that if you like 30s film at all, see this. In certain moments, it feels perfect. Probably one of the top 25 of the decade.

Ernst Lubitsch has managed not only to assemble three strong character actors here, but he also manages to get them to play well with/against each other without the whole thing descending into predicable melodrama. The lynch pin of the plot is the glamorous "Lady Maria" (Marlene Dietrich) who is married to her loyal, if maybe not the most lively, diplomat husband "Sir Frederick" (Herbert Marshall). Whilst feeling a bit neglected when he is away on one of his trips, she heads to Paris to visit her friend, the Russian Grand Duchess "Anna" (Laura Hope-Crews). As was customary for ladies of great social station, her function was largely that of a facilitator for the great and the good (or not so good) to meet at glittering soirées and it is at one such function that "Maria" encounters the rather rakish "Halton" (Melvyn Douglas) and the seeds for our developing love triangle are gradually sown. Now she has been using an alias ("Angel") in France, and when it turns out that her husband and her new beau have some wartime experiences in common - and they are all on the guest list to the same gathering - her wicket starts to look distinctly sticky! The plot is not especially remarkable, but there are four strong and engaging performances for us to enjoy here. Dietrich and Douglas gel well on screen together, Marshall always did manage that slightly aloof statesmanlike role well, and Crews cleverly plays her game to ensure that she, too, always gets what she needs from the various predicaments she encounters. It's also helped by a small cast, some quickly paced and sharp dialogue and it looks good to watch, too.

Lady Barker (Marlene Dietrich) benignly ignored by her British diplomat (Herbert Marshall) sneaks off to Paris to visit an old friend running a fashionable salon where discretion is highly valued. There she meets a brash American Anthony Halton (Melvyn Douglas) and has a whirlwind affair with him before disappearing. Circumstance brings the two men together however and once revealed as rivals Barker is left with no option other than to decide who she will walk with.

One of Lubitsch's minor efforts from his Paramount period Angel is a well mannered romantic comedy that never raises its voice as adults behave like adults. Marshall and Douglas display charming civility with each other while the usually ice like beauty Dietrich supplies the right amount of hopeless romantic, strong woman to balance the trio. The usual stalwart Paramount supporting cast is in evidence with Edward Everett Horton, Edward Cossart, Herbert Mundin and Laura Hope Crews adding wit and humor to the proceedings while Lubitsch applies his famous touch of deft incidentals and open doors. The arrested passions and lack of high comedy however allows Angel to fly no higher than a mildly pleasant entertainment ably assisted by the grace and charm of its stars.

This is one of Ernst Lubitsch's less conspicuous films, while the performance of Marlene Dietrich in it is the more outstanding. Herbert Marshall is all right, he played against her before in "Blonde Venus" four years earlier, he was a jealous husband even there, but that was Josef con Sternberg, while Ernst Lubitsch is a completely different thing, although both are Viennese, and Marlene Dietrich is German. Melvyn Douglas is the tricky thing here. He makes a perfectly abominable offensive character insisting on constantly importuning on her, and you can't understand how she can tolerate it, but Marlene is Marlene, always superior to any critical situation, and also here she finally provides a solution, but not without the clever psychological empathy with her on the part of Herbert Marshall. Both Melvyn and Herbert appear, however, as perfect dummies at her side, while she makes the entire film worth while and watching. It's very European, while poor Melvyn keeps blundering on without noticing anything of the subtleties going on. She enters as a mystery of an intrigue, but when she has solved the knot she is already gone.

The Lubitsch touch is omnipresent in this relatively unknown but extraordinary romantic comedy. The theme of a potential marital infidelity of a disaffected upper class wife (a gleaming Marlene Dietrich) is dealt with unusual sophistication and insight, building up slowly to a brilliant denouement, while the core dilemmas and the predicament of the main character are continuously and subtly underscored. The confrontations between the characters are a delight of restrained pathos, whereas Lubitsch, unsurprisingly, perfectly recreates a confined world of rigid social norms that suppresses any emotional profusion. All the performances are top notch, the secondary characters are equally memorable and the whole film is pervaded by the genius of one of cinemas most charismatic directors, Ernst Lubitsch. One wishes that modern romantic comedies had only maintained even a fraction of the wit and incisiveness that Lubitsch established as a norm in the 30s.