THE BLUE ANGEL

Love and marriage

Marlene had learned on the cafe society grapevine that the best school for actresses was run by an Austrian Jew, Max Reinhardt (he had changed his name from Goldmann to sound more German). He used the actors and actresses he had trained to perform in his own theatres, and the numerous film companies circulated the school with details of their requirements for extras and small bit parts in their films. To gain entrance to the school it was necessary to perform some theatrical pieces and one day in late spring of 1922 she arrived - inwardly quaking - at the school which was situated on the top floor of one of Max Reinhardt's four Berlin theatres. There were dozens of girls milling about, all eager to be taken on at the prestigious academy and she immediately realised she would have to attract the attention of the teachers in some way. There were a dozen girls lined up away from the makeshift stage. They had been told to recite a piece from a play or poem of their choice, and then to perform Gretchen's prayer from Goethe's Faust. Marlene was convinced her heavenly muse, Goethe, would guide her in her performance after the long days of adoration in Weimar.

The first piece was very close to her heart, she saw herself as the spirit of a dead girl speaking to a dying nobleman who in her imagination easily became her dying father - it was from Hugo von Hofmannsthal's mystical piece, Der Tor und der Tod - 'Death and the Fool'.

'Your letter came, the last, the dreadful one; And then I wished to die.

One letter more I meant to write in parting; No lament, not passionate or fierce unbridled grief But just to make you yearn a little for me.'

This recitation was received with polite murmurings among the assembled teachers.

'Thank you. Now recite Gretchen's prayer,' called a voice out of the gloom. 'On your knees please.'

She stood fixed to the spot, unprepared for this command to kneel.

A pillow sailed through the air and landed at her feet.

'What is this for?' she asked coquettishly, playing the innocent dumb girl.

'So you can kneel,' said the teacher patiently.

She knelt, taking care to maintain her dignity, and recited poor Gretchen's prayer, it was as if she were her, seeking release from the uncertainties of her life.

After the dozen girls were auditioned, some were told they had been accepted. No one came to tell Marlene she could join the school but the teacher who had thrown the cushion at her feet came over. He was relaxed and very confident, she immediately felt weak at the knees in his presence, he was the key to her future she realised.

'You look like an actress,' he began, 'but you have no natural talent for it that I can see, you will have to work at it.'

She smiled, willing to admit she needed teaching.

'Can you teach me then?' she asked.

'The school only has very limited vacancies. But I do hold private classes for individual girls, perhaps that would help you to be accepted by the school.'

She understood the drift of the conversation, it had echoes of her music teacher in Weimar's approach to bestowing his knowledge for a price. Private lessons began the next day and included a brief passionate encounter in a small room at the back of the theatre. The teacher, Berthold Held, was a friend and colleague of Reinhardt, he explained, after their brief but ecstatic coupling against a wall where he unceremoniously hoisted her skirts and entered her with little preliminary delicacies. He took it as a matter of course that a grateful young actress would show her affection in a physical way and she took care not to disappoint him. It was just like the times with her music teacher, she played the helpless pupil while the older man initiated her into the ways of love, or so he thought. By now, she was rapidly gaining experience in this theatre of life and knew how to satisfy a man by gushing all over him, they almost always welcomed her taking the lead after the initial seduction where she was meek and passive. She made sure Berthold would remember her as she frantically worked herself against him.

After a month, the flames of the affair were cooling. Berthold and Marlene were good friends. He made sure she joined the regular acting classes and was accepted as a full member of the school. Another girl joined the classes at the same time as her, Grete Mosheim. Marlene discovered that they had shared Berthold's favours, that he had told Grete exactly the same as her, that she had the looks of an actress but no talent. Berthold took great delight in introducing the two girls. 'You have a lot in common,' he enigmatically stated with a half smile. In no time at all they were great friends, and confided their secrets to each other.

Although Max Reinhardt's School of Drama was essentially a training ground for his four theatres, all the young actors and actresses were well aware of the growing attraction of the motion pictures. Marlene did not pretend to understand the economics of the situation, for her own finances were so bad she had to return home, not even able to finance her share of the rooms in Kaiserallee with Gerda Huba. Her mother suffered in silence as Marlene told her of her plans to be an actress. Wilhelmine was certain it was the beginning of a downward path, in her mind only women of easy virtue became stage - or worse - screen actresses.

One day, for a dare, Marlene managed to get an introduction for Grete Mosheim and herself to meet Georg Jacoby, who they heard was casting for parts in an historical romance comedy Der kleine Napoleon - 'Little Napoleon'. Well aware of how young actresses could get the attention of a director, Marlene laughed and joked with him, displaying all her newly acquired Berlin wit and self-confidence. He appreciated the good humour, for to her astonishment he agreed that both Grete and she could have small parts in the film, her very first. He was not exaggerating about the smallness either. She appeared in just one scene as a lady's maid which required her to be on set for just a few days in August. But those few days of bright sunlight and good humoured camaraderie she discovered at the studios made her more determined than ever to make motion pictures her career. It was confirmed for her when she met Stefan Lorant in the street, he asked how her film career was progressing. Less gauche than the previous year, and also a little less innocent, she simply told him that her progress was slow but that she would persevere.

Then a rare invitation arrived at the drama school - the girls were invited to come to a casting session for a major new film production by Joe May. The invitation was signed by Rudolf Sieber, his young assistant. Marlene made a note of the name and went to the casting session with Grete Mosheim. To catch the eye of the casting director, who she was surprised to find was only about 25 but tall blond and handsome, she fluttered her eyes, flailed a feather boa about her neck, carried a small dog in her arms and turned her easy flowing charm in his direction. There were a dozen girls who had gone from the school and as usual the session ended with a 'We'll let you know.' But Rudolf Sieber motioned to Marlene to follow him into a room where the director himself, Joe May, was shown the new discovery by the casting director. He told her to turn, smile, act like a street courtesan and be provocative. All this came naturally to an habitu‚ of the Kurfurstendamm cafes and she knew he was impressed, though by now Marlene had learnt to hide her enthusiasm under a guise of having done this many times before. Rudolf Sieber was keen to have some of the crowd scenes played by 'amateurs' rather than trained actors and actresses to make it more authentic, so he was not worried by her lack of movie experience, although she made much of having just finished work on 'Little Napoleon'. Unlike that film, Tragodie der Liebe - 'Tragedy of Love' - was a big production with one of Germany's leading actors, Emil Jannings, in the starring role. The story revolved around Jannings standing trial as a wrestler who was led into committing murder. The film captures the mood of the times, as it portrays criminals in gambling casinos where violence permeates their every move. Since inflation was roaring ahead ever faster and a meal now cost a million marks, that was indeed the situation on the streets. It was everyone for himself, the only way to survive, and many were not, the destitute grew ever larger in number in Berlin, amidst the cacophony of expensive cars forcing their way through thoroughfares where people were selling their last few precious possessions in competition with each other. Street hawkers attempted to sell every imaginable knickknack to the thousands of refugees and unemployed aimlessly walking up and down. It was a kind of bedlam. But once you got used to the constant commotion it had a raw edge of dangerous excitement, a sense of vitality had returned to the streets after the sense of futility which had been all pervading just two years before.

The day after the audition, while at home, Marlene was stunned to hear Rudolf Sieber talking to her mother at the door. Wilhelmine ushered him in severu got used to the happiness shines through. You see a chubby faced, cheeky young girl of just 21 making eyes at the judge, laughing with sheer joie de vivre, while he only dares to look briefly in her direction in the crowded courtroom.

When the film shooting was too soon over, Rudolf began calling to take her to the film parties to which he was regularly invited since he was regarded as someone with much influence. Her mother remained stiff and reserved with him, even insisting that she return home at a reasonable hour. In spite of the deteriorating economic situation,somehow the people on the fringe of the film world still had the money for lavish parties where wine and food were in abundance, and many experimented with drugs like cocaine and opium as well. Marlene went against her mother's wishes and accompanied Rudolf everywhere. He found the restrictions her mother tried to place on them vexing in the extreme.

'I could have any girl I want,' he said one night, 'there are thousands of beautiful Russian girls trying to get into films, and your mother wants me to act like an old fashioned Prussian!'

Marlene was terrified that Rudolf would quickly become bored with her and return to his former womanising ways but he seemed content to take her to the theatres where she had small supporting parts to play after drama lessons all day. These parts were unpaid, it was expected that the school's pupils would gain practical experience as part of their drama course. When Rudolf was busy on his film work as an assistant Marlene made her own way all over Berlin by bus and subway, sometimes appearing in three bit parts in three different plays in one night. She was overflowing with an energy that allowed her to do all this and stay up half the night at a post-play party before reappearing dutifully at the Drama School the next morning.

By the winter, everyone in Berlin was feeling the impact of the inflationary spiral. You ate when you could, those who somehow held on to their possessions were suspected of being involved in shady deals, but no one any longer asked questions or tried to preserve a front of respectability, the casualties were too numerous and too near to home for that. One night she took some coal and some scraps of food from her mother's pantry and made her way over to Rudolf's flat. When he trudged in after a hard day, he found a warm fire and a meal to welcome him, with Marlene as the delicious dessert. In that tough winter of early 1923 it was enough to seem like heaven, from this time on she had won over the heart of Rudolf, his other glamorous women did not provide for his creature comforts like her. It was the very practical hausfrau approach to men.

By the spring they were married. The couple had a civil wedding in the town hall of Berlin-Friednau on the 17 May, 1923, with many of Marlene's relatives present but fewer of Rudolf's. She was 21, he was 26. Her hopes, like those of every young girl at that age, were to have a loving relationship blessed with a family, although she always presumed this could be combined with a career in motion pictures.

The month before the wedding she had her third film part when, recommended by Rudolf, she had been cast as a peasant girl by Wilhelm Dieterle in his film Der Mensch am Wege - 'Man by the Roadside'. His only requirement was that she show plenty of leg in her peasant outfit.

'If they want legs, they can have legs,' she told him matter of factly, Berlin girls believed in being direct. Perhaps Dieterle saw her as a peasant because of the very simple lifestyle most people were forced to live. Perhaps he could detect the Swabian farm folk who had left for the attractions of Berlin a century before. The film people somehow managed to survive all the tribulations and even prosper. They did this through film sales abroad paid for in foreign currency that could purchase mountains of German paper money. Money was weighed out from suitcases and barrows as the great inflation roared away without check.

But Marlene was torn between theatre and film. The film world paid better certainly, but part of her yearned for the respectability of serious plays. Indeed, she had a small part in 'The Taming of the Shrew' which featured the major star, Elisabeth Bergner. Marlene was so hypnotised by her performance that she nearly missed her lines each of the 42 nights that the play was performed the October before her marriage. After marriage, it was theatrical roles that came her way. She was aptly cast as a woman with the sap of life urgently rising in Wenn der junge Wein bluht - 'When the Young Vine Blooms'. At the rehearsals for this play she met a young actress who devastated Marlene with her powerful beauty, so much so that her young and jealous husband took to escorting her to the theatre each night and then escorting her home after the performance, so afraid was he that he would lose Marlene to her charms. But their first year of marriage was happy - even though it became clear to Marlene that Rudolf led as precarious a life as an assistant director or producer as that of any actress. She would have to rely on her own talents to make sure the household survived.

By early 1924 a meal could cost a trillion marks, the whole country appeared on the brink of collapse. Yet they carried on with their lives, fortified by the resilience and unknowingness of youth. There was only a small film part that came her way in the first part of the year, she played a two-minute part in Der Sprung ins Leben - 'The Leap into Life' - in July. She was a poor girl in love with a death-defying acrobat in this little melodrama, the most vivid impression it left on her was the magnificence of the ringmaster's outfit, with his shiny boots and whip, rather like the women out on the streets who increasingly resorted to the bizarre in their efforts to attract trade.

She was happy to be four months pregnant and escaped into the female world where the pulse of life can be felt and seen all around with a growing human being inside as confirmation of e melodrama, the most vivid impression it left on her was the magnificence of the ringmaster's outfit, with his shiny boots and whip, rather like the women out on the streets who increasingly resorted to the bizarre in their efforts to attract trade.

She was happy to be four months pregnant and escaped into the female world where the pulse of life can be felt and seen all around with a growing human being inside as confirmation of over from the screaming, blood- filled ordeal at home for many months. It was not until the summer of 1925 that she felt completely back to her normal zesty self and they took a carefree family holiday at Westerland on the German coast with friends. Only then did Marlene seriously contemplate her return to film work. Earlier in the year she had heard that a Swedish star was at work in Berlin at the Hirscher-Sofar Film studios and had joined one crowd scene to see the effect created by this femme fatale, a role she had tried herself in the theatre late in 1922, but Marlene was still too young to bring off the tantalising attractions of a woman with a secret (or many). Greta Garbo, yes it was she, departed for America that summer. But Marlene had seen her future during that fleeting visit to the set of 'Joyless Street'. Greta Gustaffson, renamed Garbo, had about her an air of purity and remoteness, as though a child of the heavenly stars, almost an angel, though not an innocent. What appealed to Marlene's sense of drama even more was Garbo's departure with her own Svengali figure - the mid-European Jewish film director Mauritz Stiller - immediately after the film premiŠre on board a ship bound first for Gothenburg and then New York. It was a splendid way to leave Europe behind for a young girl of 21 who had worked in a barbershop in Stockholm before being discovered by this middle-aged mentor who worked magic in the films he directed.

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