‘The Song of Songs’ a 1933 romantic drama by the acclaimed director Rouben Mamoulian and starring screen icon Marlene Dietrich has been made available in a high-definition remastered print on a limited edition Blu-ray by Powerhouse/ Indicator.

The reference to the Song of Songs / Song of Solomon alludes to the status of that Old Testament poem in the heroine’s eyes as a symbol of the purest love.  The story follows teenage Lilly (Dietrich) leaving her German village following the death of her father and moving to Berlin to live with her venal aunt Mrs Rasmussen (Alison Skipworth).  There she falls in love with young, handsome sculptor Richard Waldow (Brian Aherne), her Song of Songs.  Richard feels unable to support her and leaves Germany.  His departure leaves Lily vulnerable to the lecherous advances of middle-aged Baron von Merzbach (Lionel Atwill) who offers her marriage, stability and the advantages of an aristocratic wife.  Lilly accepts and the rest of the film is concerned with her escape from a loveless marriage and cruel husband, her becoming a courtesan in high society and the reentry of Richard into her life.

All the best elements of ‘The Song of Songs’ can be traced to the talented individuals involved in its creation.  Chief among these are the above the title names, Dietrich and Mamoulian.  When this movie was made in 1933 Marlene Dietrich as an entity, an image was largely the product of a series of films directed by Austrian-born but American-educated Josef von Sternberg; beginning with the German and US versions of ‘The Blue Angel’ (1930) and most recently by ‘Blonde Venus’ (1932).  When Sternberg declined an offer to make the film Dietrich was worried about the absence of her mentor in the director’s chair.  She needn’t have worried.  Mamoulian the great stylist created close-ups of the star as enchanting as anything by Sternberg and furthermore brought his talent for understated yet palpable eroticism to the project.  The film contains images that would have been impossible as little as a year later under a tougher Code; before their initial clinch Richard semi-paws the naked statue as he applies clay while his model is seen stripping in shadow/silhouette.

As the younger Lilly Dietrich conveys youth and innocence with peculiar bird-like movements.  Even with her beauty and flawless complexion she cannot convince as an ingénue.  However, when she segues into the older Lily, Dietrich is fascinating in suggesting the hurt and self-control that will evolve into the familiar jaded persona we see in the final act.

Besides Dietrich, ‘The Song of Songs’’ standout performance belongs to Lionel Atwill as the duplicitous Baron von Merzbach.  The feline British actor gives a performance rife with sinister suggestiveness.  It is hard not to suspect that Mamoulian isn’t having impish fun at the expense of the Hollywood Teutonic tradition that both Dietrich and Sternberg belonged to.  In his bizarre Hussar uniform, Merzbach resembles the meticulously dressed aristocratic and faux aristocratic bounders Erich von Stroheim essayed in his self-directed films like ‘Blind Husbands’(1919) and ‘Foolish Wives’ (1922).  His military cap with its prominent skull and crossbones badge will put modern British audiences in mind of the Mitchell and Webb Nazi sketch (“Are we the baddies?”).

The film benefits enormously from the marvellous cinematography of Victor Millner.  During Lilly and Richard’s lakeside idyll the sun-dappled photography gives the real locations the quality of an enchanted grotto. 

Despite these virtues, the film amounts to less than the sum of its parts.  Its main problem is its leaden storytelling with little structure and a reliance on deus-ex-machina moments for resolution of plot points.  In spite of its magisterial aspects it emerges as a rather clumsy melodrama.  ‘The Song of Songs’ stands as an interesting and gorgeously upholstered but somewhat slight entry into the Dietrich and Mamoulian filmographies.

The Indicator disk has some interesting extras.  A feature-length commentary by American film historian David Del Valle reflects his interest in horror fiction.  He points out the parallels between the film and Oscar Wilde’s ‘A Portrait of Dorian Gray’.  A featurette with critic Geoff Andrew mostly deals with his thesis that Mamoulian may have intended the relationship between Lilly and Merzbach to resemble that of Dietrich and Sternberg.  Lux Radio Theatre presents a condensed audio version of the film with Douglas Fairbanks Jnr standing in for Aherne.  There is an image gallery and the Blu-ray also contains a booklet.

Although ‘The Song of Songs’ is not one of his better films, this package from Indicator/Powerhouse is a welcome attempt to keep the memory and reputation of Mamoulian, director of classics like ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (1931), ‘Queen Christina’ (1933) and ‘Becky Sharp’ (1935) extant into the second quarter of the 21st century.