Plot
Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is an esteemed educator at the local Gymnasium – a college preparatory high school – in Weimar Germany. After he punishes several of his students for circulating photographs of the beautiful Lola-Lola (Marlene Dietrich) the headliner for the local cabaret, "The Blue Angel". Hoping to catch the boys at the club, Rath goes there later that evening and meets Lola herself.
Consumed with desire for Lola, Rath returns to the night club the following evening, to return a pair of panties that were smuggled into his coat by one of his students, and stays the night with her. The next morning, reeling from his night of passion, Rath arrives late to school to find his classroom in chaos and the principal furious with his behavior.
Rath subsequently resigns from his position at the academy to marry Lola, but their happiness is short-lived, as they soon fritter away the teacher's meager savings and Rath is forced to take a position as a clown in Lola's cabaret troupe to pay the bills. His growing insecurities about Lola's profession as a "shared woman" eventually consume him with lust and jealousy. The troupe returns to his hometown and "The Blue Angel", where he is ridiculed and berated by the patrons, the very people he himself used to deride. As Rath performs his last act, he witnesses his wife embrace and kiss the strongman Mazeppa, her new love interest, and is enraged to the point of insanity. He attempts to strangle Lola, but is beaten down by the other members of the troupe and locked in a straitjacket.
Later that night, Rath is freed, and makes his way towards his old classroom. Rejected, humiliated, and destitute, he dies in remorse, clenching the desk at which he once taught.
Read more about this topic: The Blue Angel
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