You grope your way in the half-dark to an empty seat at a beer-laden table. Your eyes are immediately attracted to the stage, and through the smoke of cigarettes and cigars you can see Lola, the Queen of the Blue Angel. With black-stockinged legs spread wide and arms carelessly akimbo she stands at the center of all gazes. In a low and vibrant voice she sings her way into the heart--and libido--of even so staid a person as Professor Immanuel Rath.

The Blue Angel is one of the few cherished pictures to which people flock almost everytime it is resurrected, and its plot is well known. Hard as it is to explain what makes any picture merely good, it is quite impossible to define the elements that make a picture worth seeing may times. It's not Marlene Dietrich alone. She's brassy and long legged, she's beautiful and gravel voiced: she's wonderful. But that can't be enough for motion picture immortality.

Emil Jannings, too, does a monumental job as the stern professor of Romantic persuasion who comes to his downfall through the love of a wicked woman. He is a superb actor, registering, with amazing fidelity, emotions ranging from fatuous mooning over Lola to enraged jealousy at the sight of another man making love to her. And Director Josef von Sternberg is another amazing factor. With sparse dialogue and excellent direction, he casually achieves effects for which lesser men would waste pages of dialogue.

But still, the elusive quality that is the sum of all individual performances and techniques must be felt. This magnetism, that keeps drawing repeat crowds, is the very think making The Blue Angel a standout show. The Brattle schedule allows you a week to feel the magnetic quality either again or for the first of many times.