Here, Helen (Marlene Dietrich) as

Blonde Venus

in the truly freaky and berserk “Hot Voodoo” dance. It plays like a pagan, taboo and primitive beauty and the beast-style ritual, with Dietrich as an albino goddess or priestess shedding her gorilla fur disguise.  All these decades later “Hot Voodoo” is still deliriously weird, and perhaps the first incidence of deliberate, knowing camp in popular culture. (It’s easy to imagine von Sternberg and Dietrich looking at each other across the camera and thinking, “Can you believe we’re getting away with this?”), 1932 / src: reflections-on-blonde-venus

more [+] Marlene Dietrich posts / more [+] Blonde Venus posts