Marlene Dietrich became an immediate international star on the strength of her performance as the temptress Lola Frohlich in Josef von Sternberg's classic tale of love and obsession. Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is a strict and humorless schoolmaster who is shocked when he discovers the boys in his class have been spending their time at a sleazy cabaret called The Blue Angel, where an entertainer named Lola (Dietrich) keeps the men in thrall and sells suggestive postcards of herself.

The Blue Angel was shot in both German and English language versions; the German is preferable, as most of the cast was obviously more expert in that tongue. Dietrich introduced her theme song, "Falling In Love Again," in this picture.