The Song of Songs (1933)

Memorable, crazy movie

Better Late Then Never

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film is a strange opposite of Blue Angel. In this one Dietrich is an angel, who is taken from innocent to mature by 2 men. It is a delightful reverse. An underrated film for many reasons, especially that this one did not get the proper release to theaters and television that some of her other films did.Ahern, as the sculptor manages to create a terrific statue of Dietrich and then falls in love with the real thing. Meanwhile, a plot is hatched with a German Colonel to make Dietrich a Baroness, and after she is left by Ahern, she does this to get revenge.Precode, she sells herself for money, and the nude image of her statue dominates this film. What is really outstanding, is that Dietrich thick accent is hardly noticeable in this one. She sings a very good song, and plot wise, this one works better than many of her films.Dietrich's acting is perfect, her looks are great, and her direction seems to let her bloom in this film more than most of her other films. There are plenty of good reasons to check this one out.

The plot to this film is pretty simple, but wow, Marlene Dietrich is fantastic in the leading role, and director Robert Mamoulian makes the most of his actors and the script in crafting a beautiful film. Dietrich skillfully handles her role which shifts from a naïve young country girl, to a model and lover of a sculptor, to the unhappy wife of an older man, and lastly to a cabaret girl. Her performance is especially impressive for the time, when over-acting and exaggerated facial gestures were common; Dietrich by contrast is polished and smooth, sexy in a sultry, understated way, and quite a singer on top of all that. Director Robert Mamoulian, who also directed the brilliant Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1931, pulls all the right strings here, and there are some beautiful shots, examples of which are shifting clouds in front of the moon and sunlight reflecting off the water as Dietrich is out riding. The movie is also elevated by quotes from the poetry of the Biblical book of the Song of Songs, and it's a nice mix of sophistication and pre-Code naughtiness. The scene when Dietrich disrobes for a nude modeling session, where Mamoulian cuts to sculptures to represent her body, brings a smile. The plot itself isn't going to blow you away, but Dietrich will. Very enjoyable.

THE SONG OF SONGS (Paramount, 1933), directed by Rouben Mamoulian, from the novel by Hermann Sudermann and play by Edward Sheldon, was released at a time when movie musicals proved popular again following an over abundance of them produced during the 1929-30 dawn of sound era. With the new cycle of successful musicals that began with 42nd STREET (Warners, 1933), THE SONG OF SONGS doesn't fit into that category in spite of its musical sounding title. In fact, it's a dramatic story about a German peasant girl named Lily who dreams about becoming like her favorite character from the Bible's "Song of Songs." Lily, as portrayed by Marlene Dietrich, appears in her fifth Hollywood production. Unlike her previous screen efforts ranging from her initial starring success in Germany's THE BLUE ANGEL (1929), to Hollywood's MOROCCO (1930), DISHONORED (1931), SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932) and BLONDE VENUS (1932), all under the direction of Josef Von Sternberg, THE SONG OF SONGS provides her with another director whose direction paved the way for a new and different Dietrich persona.  The story revolves around Lily Czepanek (Marlene Dietrich), a shy German girl leaving the grave of her father for the next train to Berlin where she is to live with her aunt, Frau Rasmussen (Alison Skipworth). Working in her aunt's book store, Lily captures the attention of Richard Waldow (Brian Aherne), a young sculptor living across the street who selects her as his next model. Discovering she'll have to pose in the nude, Lily at first declines but after his assurance that he has no interest in her, she agrees to become the replica of the proposed statue he calls "The Song of Songs." When the aunt learns Lily has been sneaking out while asleep, she whips her. When all else fails, she turns her out into the street. With no where else to go, Lily, who has fallen in love with Waldow, comes to his studio only to find his best friend, August Von Merzbach (Lionel Atwill), a middle-aged baron, awaiting her with the news of Waldow leaving for Italy with no promise of returning. Desperately in love with Lily because of Waldow's statue, the Baron talks her into marrying him instead. Acquiring culture through French lessons, piano playing and social functions, Lily stirs up jealousy from Fraulein Von Schwartzfegger (Helen Freeman), the Baron's housekeeper, who soon arranges for Lily to have Edward Von Prell (Hardie Albright) act as her lover in hope of destroying both her reputation and marriage with the Baron.With so many motion pictures made and remade, THE SONG OF SONGS was one that had, not one, but two earlier screen adaptations from the silent era each by Paramount: 1918 with Elsie Ferguson, and 1924 as LILY OF THE DUST starring Pola Negri. Aside from some European style camera techniques, THE SONG OF SONGS comes off best with its fine photography by Victor Milner and impressive musical score by the uncredited Nathaniel W. Finston. Mamoulian, a stylish director in his own right, quite different from Von Sternberg, brings out the best in Dietrich's performance from shy/ innocent girl to scandalous lady of confidence singing "Jonny" (by Frederick Hollander and Edward Heyman) in a night club. Von Sternberg would borrow this transformation style for Dietrich as Catherine the Great in his upcoming production of THE SCARLET EMPRESS (1934). Although Mamoulian leaves much to the imagination with camera capturing the motion of Dietrich's nude posing from head down to her bare shoulders, he manages to get by the censors by having camera capture both pencil sketch and statute in full form.Had THE SONG OF SONGS been produced for MGM, chances are the Dietrich, Aherne and Atwill roles would have been played by Greta Garbo, Nils Asther and Erich Von Stroheim, or possibly that of Anna Sten, Melvyn Douglas and Reginald Owen under Samuel Goldwyn. Brian Aherne, in his Hollywood debut, does well as the poor sculpture interested more in art than marriage. His noteworthy scene occurs with him imagining Lily speaking to him through her replica of his statue; Lionel Atwill, looking very European with his white hair, bushy mustache, monocle and military hat containing skull and crossbones, comes off better as the jealous Baron, along with Alison Skipworth, in the manner of MGM's own Marie Dressler's performance from "Anna Christie" (1930), quite satisfactory as the very strict, boozing aunt. Dietrich, Atwill and Skipworth would be reunited under Von Sternberg's direction in THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (1935).Unseen regularly on commercial and later public television since the 1980s, THE SONG OF SONGS did make its rare cable television broadcast on the Movie Channel in 1991 before turning up on home video in 1998 as part of the "Marlene Dietrich Collection." When Marlene Dietrich was selected as "Star of the Month" in January 2002 on Turner Classic Movies, all of her films, especially those from Paramount, were presented, with the exception of THE SONG OF SONGS. It wouldn't be until June 13, 2017, that it finally premiered on TCM. Not quite the cinema masterpiece as anticipated, it's worth looking into solely as a rarely revived motion picture and being the only collaboration of Dietrich and Mamoulian. (***1/2)

The Song Of Songs was Marlene Dietrich's first American film without her German Svengali, Josef Von Sternberg. Maybe the German Von Sternberg might have been able to do something more with German author Hermann Sudermann's melodramatic plot. Something was terribly missing in the translation.When we first meet Dietrich she's an innocent country lass just lost both her parents come to live with her big city aunt, Alison Skipworth. Skipworth hasn't any great maternal feelings for her niece, but she does give her room and board and her job assisting at Skipworth's bookstore requires no great strain. In fact Marlene is a bright young woman and takes to the job.She gets a different job soon enough when sculptor Brian Aherne hires her as a model for a nude statue. Some of the nude sketches and the statue itself would not have made it in the film two years later when The Code was in place. She gets silly romantic notions about Aherne, but the guy whose mojo she gets going is Baron Lionel Atwill who's willing to marry her and does on the rebound.Of course that doesn't work out, for crying out loud it's Lionel Atwill she's marrying and who catches her with riding instructor Hardie Albright during a fire when both flee the scene. After that she becomes the Marlene whom we met in Shanghai Express, Shanghai Lily. Curiously enough Dietrich's character is Lily Czepanek.The film is carried by Dietrich on the strength of her performance, she transforms herself into several different characters, the country innocent, the degraded baroness, to the jaded woman of the world. It took more than one man to turn her into German Lily.One thing I was very much looking forward to is hearing her sing Jonny after having Dietrich's recording of it on one of my record albums. The song is by Frederick Hollander who wrote Falling In Love Again for her. The record I have is in the original German, Dietrich sings it in English in the film. I'm hear to tell you that the German comes across far better than the English. That come hither voice loses a lot in translation.Rouben Mamoulian does his best with the film, but it's a let down after such work as Love Me Tonight. Anyway Dietrich was back with Von Sternberg after this film didn't light the world on fire.