Blonde Venus is a 1932 is a Pre-Code drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant. The movie was produced and directed for Paramount Pictures by Josef von Sternberg with a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The music score was by W. Franke Harling, John Leipold, Paul Marquardt and Oscar Potoker, and the cinematography by Bert Glennon.
Dietrich performs three musical numbers in this film, including the now-obscure "You Little So-and-So" (music and lyrics by Sam Coslow and Leo Robin) and "I Couldn't Be Annoyed" (music and lyrics by Leo Robin and Richard A. Whiting). The highlight is perhaps "Hot Voodoo" (music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Sam Coslow), which is nearly 8 minutes long and mostly instrumental, featuring jazz trumpet and drums. Dietrich sings the lyrics toward the end of this sequence, which takes place in a nightclub.
This movie predates She Done Him Wrong by a year, although Mae West claimed to have discovered Cary Grant for that film, elaborating that up until then Grant had only made "some tests with starlets", an assertion rejected by some other actresses, including Sylvia Sidney.
Famous quotes containing the words blonde and/or venus:
“When Brad doesn’t come nights, you’ll know the blonde he’s sitting up with is a giraffe.”
—Fredric M. Frank (1911–1977)
“And Venus to the Loves around
Remarked how ill we all dissembled.”
—Matthew Prior (1664–1721)