You remember when Melanie sang 'I've got a brand new pair of roller skates, you've got a brand new key"? The subliminal subtext was more than palpable, and it's what I immediately thought of when Lola Lola sang "But I don't let any man lay a paw on my keys". When Melanie Safka wrote her song there wasn't any hidden agenda there, she said "I thought it was cute; a kind of old thirties tune", while people hearing it read their own ideas into the lyrics. Well, so much for that.
This film just struck me the wrong way on all kinds of levels. There's no way I could rationalize the attraction Lola (Marlene Dietrich) could have had for Professor Rath (Emil Jannings). I could see it going the other way of course, who wouldn't, but at the same time, the Professor would not have had a realistic view of himself to have fallen for a cabaret singer like Lola. Sure, the physical attraction was there, but throwing one's own life away for an unattainable goal seemed quite unrealistic. And yet, she married him anyway. Wow, I don't get it.
It's difficult for me to figure out what director von Sternburg was trying to convey here. Throughout, I never got the impression that Lola loved Rath, and after four years of married life she threw him over for the Maestro Mazeppa (Hans Albers), another man for whom there didn't seem to be any attraction. Rath going berserk and getting the strait jacket treatment was probably the most realistic aspect of the story for me, otherwise most of the film just didn't resonate with this viewer.
This film just struck me the wrong way on all kinds of levels. There's no way I could rationalize the attraction Lola (Marlene Dietrich) could have had for Professor Rath (Emil Jannings). I could see it going the other way of course, who wouldn't, but at the same time, the Professor would not have had a realistic view of himself to have fallen for a cabaret singer like Lola. Sure, the physical attraction was there, but throwing one's own life away for an unattainable goal seemed quite unrealistic. And yet, she married him anyway. Wow, I don't get it.
It's difficult for me to figure out what director von Sternburg was trying to convey here. Throughout, I never got the impression that Lola loved Rath, and after four years of married life she threw him over for the Maestro Mazeppa (Hans Albers), another man for whom there didn't seem to be any attraction. Rath going berserk and getting the strait jacket treatment was probably the most realistic aspect of the story for me, otherwise most of the film just didn't resonate with this viewer.