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((short description|1932 film))
((Use mdy dates|date=December 2020))
((More citations needed|date=May 2019))
((Infobox film
| name           = Blonde Venus
| image          = Blonde Venus (1932) poster.jpg
  
| caption        = Original theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Josef von Sternberg]]
| writer         = [[Jules Furthman]]<br />S. K. Lauren<br />'''Uncredited:'''<br />Josef von Sternberg
| based_on       = "Mother Love"<br />[[short story]] by [[Marlene Dietrich]]
| producer       = Josef von Sternberg
| starring       = ((plainlist|
* Marlene Dietrich
* [[Herbert Marshall]]
* [[Cary Grant]]
* [[Dickie Moore (actor)|Dickie Moore]]
))
| cinematography = [[Bert Glennon]]
| editing        = Josef von Sternberg ((small|(uncredited)))
| music          = [[W. Franke Harling]]<br />[[John Leipold]]<br />Paul Marquardt<br />[[Oscar Potoker]]
| distributor    = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| released       = ((Film date|1932|09|16))
| runtime        = 94 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English<br />German<br />French
))

'''''Blonde Venus''''' is a 1932 American [[Pre-Code Hollywood|pre-Code]] [[drama film]] starring [[Marlene Dietrich]], [[Herbert Marshall]] and [[Cary Grant]]. It was produced, edited and directed by [[Josef von Sternberg]] from a screenplay by [[Jules Furthman]] and S. K. Lauren, adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The original story "Mother Love" was written by Dietrich herself. The musical score was by [[W. Franke Harling]], [[John Leipold]], Paul Marquardt and [[Oscar Potoker]], with cinematography by [[Bert Glennon]].

==Plot==
Ned Faraday, an American chemist, has been inadvertently poisoned by [[radium]] and expects to die within a year, until he learns that Professor Holzapfel, a famous physician in [[Dresden]], has developed a treatment that may be able to heal him. The night after he hears this good news, while putting his son Johnny to bed, Ned and his wife Helen recite the story of the day on which they had met. While traveling in Germany as a young man, Ned encountered Helen swimming in a pond with several other girls. She coyly told him that she would grant him a wish if he left, and Ned wished to see her again. He watched her perform onstage at a local theater and then they went for a walk and had their first kiss.
[[File:Blonde Venus - The Film Daily, Jul-Dec 1932 (page 444 crop).jpg|thumb|356x356px|Blond Venus ad from ''[[The Film Daily]]'', 1932]]
After Johnny falls asleep, Ned discusses with Helen the possibility of traveling to see Professor Holzapfel. To help pay for the trip, Helen decides to return to the stage and finds employment at a local nightclub. She befriends fellow [[cabaret]] girl Taxi, who tells her about Nick Townsend, a wealthy politician and frequent patron of the club who gave Taxi an expensive bracelet in exchange for a "favor."

Helen, billed as "blonde Venus," has a successful debut performance, singing "Hot Voodoo" after emerging from a [[gorilla]] suit, and is noticed by Nick. Enamored of Helen, he approaches her after the show, and the two begin to talk. Upon learning of Ned's medical condition, Nick gives Helen $300 as a down payment for Ned's treatment.

After Ned's departure for Germany, Nick offers to house Helen and Johnny in a nice apartment and support her so she that she will not have to work. She and Nick develop a romance, but after learning of Ned's impending return, she tells him that she must end the relationship. The two take a two-week vacation together just prior to Ned's scheduled return date, but Ned arrives ahead of schedule and finds his home empty.

When Helen returns to her old apartment after her vacation with Nick and discovers that Ned is already there, she confesses that she has been unfaithful. Ned sarcastically thanks her for saving his life and tells her to bring Johnny to him and then leave their home, assuring her that the law will be on his side if she decides to fight for custody. Helen instead flees with Johnny, and Ned reports them missing.

While on the run, Helen initially supports herself and Johnny by performing in nightclubs. This makes her too easy to find, so she resorts to doing whatever she can to quietly subsist, such as washing dishes in exchange for meals. She is arrested for vagrancy in [[New Orleans]] and is nearly jailed because she cannot afford the fine, but the judge, learning that she has a child, releases her providing that she leave town. Eventually realizing such a lifestyle is unstable for Johnny, Helen voluntarily surrenders to a detective in [[Galveston]], Texas. Ned collects his son and gives Helen enough money to repay what Nick had provided for his treatment.

Following an emotional breakdown, Helen begins to work relentlessly, singing and performing in cabarets. She makes her way to [[Paris]], where she reunites with Nick when he attends one of her shows. He does not believe her when she says that she is better on her own, so he invites her to return to New York with him to see Johnny. At first she declines, but ultimately accepts.

At Ned's apartment, Nick arranges for Helen to visit Johnny and then leaves the family alone. Before Helen goes to Nick, whom she plans to marry, Johnny requests that his mother relate the story of how she met his father. She tells him to ask his father, who says that he has forgotten, so Johnny begins to tell the story himself, encouraging Ned and Helen to join him. Helen and Ned realize how their separation has affected Johnny. To help Johnny fall asleep, Helen sings a [[Heinrich Heine]] poem that she used to sing to him before bed each night. Reminded of their feelings for each other, Helen and Ned agree to reconcile.

==Cast==
((cast listing|
* [[Marlene Dietrich]] as Helen Faraday ([[stage name]] Helen Jones/Blonde Venus)
* [[Herbert Marshall]] as Edward 'Ned' Faraday
* [[Cary Grant]] as Nick Townsend
* [[Dickie Moore (actor)|Dickie Moore]] as Johnny Faraday
* [[Gene Morgan]] as Ben Smith
* [[Rita La Roy]] as 'Taxi Belle' Hooper
* [[Robert Emmett O'Connor]] as Dan O'Connor
* [[Sidney Toler]] as Detective Wilson
* [[Morgan Wallace]] as Dr. Pierce
* [[Andrea Palma (Actress)|Andrea Palma]] as Dietrich's stunt double (uncredited)
* [[Al Bridge]] as Bouncer (uncredited)
* [[Glen Cavender]] as Ship's Officer (uncredited)
* [[Emile Chautard]] as Chautard, the French nightclub manager (uncredited)
* [[Marcelle Corday]] as Helen's Maid in France (uncredited)
* [[Cecil Cunningham]] as Norfolk Woman Manager (uncredited)
* [[Bess Flowers]] as Minor Role (uncredited)
* [[Mary Gordon (actress)|Mary Gordon]] as Landlady (uncredited)
* Robert Graves as La Farge (uncredited)
* [[Sterling Holloway]] as Joe, a hiker friend of Ned in the introduction (uncredited)
* [[Hattie McDaniel]] as Cora, Helen's maid in New Orleans (uncredited)
* [[Charles R. Moore (actor)|Charles R. Moore]] as Bartender
* [[Charles Morton (actor)|Charles Morton]] as Bob (uncredited)
* [[Dennis O'Keefe]] as Minor Role (uncredited)
* [[Evelyn Preer]] as Viola (uncredited)
* [[Dewey Robinson]] as Greek Restaurant Owner (uncredited)
* [[Francis Sayles]] as Charlie Blaine (uncredited)
* [[Ferdinand Schumann-Heink]] as Henry (uncredited)
* [[Gertrude Short]] as Receptionist (uncredited)
* [[Larry Steers]] as Hotel Manager in Baltimore (uncredited)
* [[Jerry Tucker (actor)|Jerry Tucker]] as Otto (uncredited)
* [[Lloyd Whitlock]] as Baltimore Manager (uncredited)
))

==Production==
[[File:Marlene-dietrich-blonde-venus-1932-09-g.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Marlene Dietrich in the film trailer]]
At the time of production, the [[Motion Picture Association|Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America]] (MPPDA), formed in 1922, regulated film content. The MPPDA reviewed scripts using the 1930 [[Motion Picture Production Code]] which, while banning forced prostitution, allowed characters to engage in voluntary solicitation provided that the subject be handled with care.

During negotiations between director von Sternberg and the MPPDA regarding scenes in which Helen is found by Detective Wilson in New Orleans, references to direct solicitation were removed from the script; in the finished film, the interaction between Helen and the private detective becomes ambiguous.<ref>((cite journal |last=Campbell |first=Russell |title=Prostitution and Film Censorship in the USA |journal=Screening the Past |issue=2 | page=C/6 |date=1997 |url=https://www.academia.edu/9206052 |url-access=registration |access-date=July 5, 2020))</ref> Other plot aspects, such as adultery, remain inconsistent with the Production Code, which went unenforced until 1934.<ref>((cite journal |last=Sarasin |first=Rachel |title=The "Utterly Impossible" Story of ''Blonde Venus'' |journal=Screen Culture Journal |issue=4 |publisher=[[Oakland University]] |location=Rochester Hills, Michigan |date=April 30, 2018 |url=http://www.screenculturejournal.com/2018/04/the-utterly-impossible-story-of-blonde-venus/ |access-date=August 22, 2020))</ref> The stricter enforcement prevented Paramount from reissuing ''Blonde Venus'' after 1934.((sfn|Jacobs|1997|p=106))

To promote, the September 1932 film magazine ''[[Screenland]]'' published the story "The Blonde Venus" by Mortimer Franklin. This was based upon the second version of the script and not the final product, perhaps as this version was more similar to the romances that appealed to the magazine's female readers.((sfn|Staiger|2000|p=86))

===Music===
Dietrich performs three musical numbers, including:
* "You Little So-and-So" ([[Sam Coslow]], [[Leo Robin]])
* "I Couldn't Be Annoyed" (Leo Robin, [[Richard A. Whiting]])
* "Hot Voodoo" ([[Ralph Rainger]], Coslow): Nearly eight minutes long and mostly instrumental, featuring jazz trumpet and drums. Dietrich sings toward the end.

==Reception==
''Blonde Venus'' received a mixed reception upon release.

[[Mordaunt Hall]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' called it a "muddled, unimaginative and generally hapless piece of work, relieved somewhat by the talent and charm of the German actress [Dietrich] and Herbert Marshall's valiant work in a thankless role."<ref>((cite web|first=Emmanuel|last=Levy|authorlink=Emmanuel Levy|url=https://emanuellevy.com/review/blonde-venus-1932/|website=EmmanuelLevy.com|title=Blonde Venus (1932): Von Sternberg Directs Dietrich and Cary Grant|date=September 20, 2014|accessdate=February 26, 2024))</ref>  

Jose Rodriguez of ''Script'' remarked that the theme is as "old as life, and almost as interesting," praising the "force" and "instinctive cunning" of the director.

Forsythe Hardy of ''Cinema Quarterly'' gave the film a gushing review, calling the picture "more brilliantly polished than any other America has sent us this year," Hardy praised the cinematography, writing: "For an hour the screen is filled with a succession of lovely images—finely assembled detail and imaginatively composed settings, photographed with a camera unusually sensitive."((sfn|Deschner|1973|pp=42-44))

''Blonde Venus'' is considered a [[cult film]].<ref name="auto9">((cite book|first=Paul|last=Jobling|date=2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wPkqAwAAQBAJ|title=Advertising Menswear: Masculinity and Fashion in the British Media since 1945|publisher=[[A&C Black]]|location=London, England|ISBN=978-1472533432|page=136|via=[[Google Books]]))</ref>

==References==
((Reflist))

==Sources==
* ((cite book |last = Deschner |first = Donald |title = The Complete Films of Cary Grant |publisher = Citadel Press |year = 1973 |isbn = 0-8065-0376-9 ))
* ((cite book |last=Jacobs |first=Lea |title=The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928–1942 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDe_Ksrr3JMC |isbn=0-520-20790-4))
* ((cite book |last=Staiger |first=Janet |author-link=Janet Staiger |title=Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception |publisher=New York University Press |year=2000 |chapter=The Romances of the ''Blonde Venus'' |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dGgTCgAAQBAJ |isbn =0-8147-8138-1))

==External links==
((commons category|Blonde Venus))
* ((IMDb title|id=0022698|title=Blonde Venus))
* ((allMovie title|6079|Synopsis))
* [http://www.carygrant.net/reviews/blonde.html Reprints of historic reviews, photo gallery at CaryGrant.net]
* ''[http://pre-code.com/blonde-venus-1932-review-marlene-dietrich/ Blonde Venus]'' at pre-code.com
* [https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/blonde-venus?mediatype=photography&phrase=%22blonde%20venus%22&sort=mostpopular Stills] at gettyimages.com

((Josef von Sternberg))

[[Category:1932 films]]
[[Category:1932 drama films]]
[[Category:American drama films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films set in cabarets]]
[[Category:Films set in Germany]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Josef von Sternberg]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Jules Furthman]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:English-language drama films]]

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