The use of dialogue and sound again are shown here as powerful tools. There’s really no way I’d ever go back to silent films after seeing these early successes. Marlene Dietrich is great, and you see how when you can hear the actors they become more familiar to you than just playthings on a screen.
The voices of these actors create characters more than anything silent film could do, and thus you feel more connected to the character’s journey because of that and thus films that would come during the sound era of the 30’s seem to shift their focus to character building dialogue and scenarios over spending time on visual spectacle that was needed to captivate audiences before sound.
Again, powerful themes of the ordinary problems of man; money, sex and jealousy are on full display. However, these stories are becoming more nuanced especially as foreign directors helm the production, with the issues being hidden more in social convention rather than the brutal reality of man’s desire.
Marlene Dietrich established the role of the vixen in modern culture, bringing sexuality to the fore in film discussions. It was definitely played down before because of stricter social taboos in the 20’s, and the liberated woman is a recurring theme throughout the 30’s.
We are entering a true social upheaval. Germany, the great depression, communism, the role of divorce in society, the woman’s suffrage movement, end of prohibition. All these elements are going to change the audience of the day and thus change the films of the day. Although they will come at the cost of a backlash in the form of the 1934 Hays Code.