Dear Viewer,

“Hot Voodoo” is based on a song (not much of a song) sung by the mystical Marlene Dietrich in the 1932 movie, “Blonde Venus,” directed by Joseph von Sternberg. I always loved this ridiculous film where Dietrich is wed to a stuffy Herbert Marshall, he falls ill, she becomes a nightclub singer to help them get by, is an unexplained success (she can’t sing worth a lick!) and finally gives up her child to Marshall to go on to even bigger success. But, of course, in the end unless she wanted to die because of the unwritten code of early films that all wicked women be punished — she goes back to her family.

In between beginning and end there is inordinate glamour in her love affair with Cary Grant who looks good enough to eat. My favorite moment is when Dietrich comes out in a nightclub in an African number with brunette chorus girls tossing about their spears. Dietrich is in a gorilla suit and she wears it until she is ready to sing “Hot Voodoo,” whereupon she takes off her paws, showing her perfectly manicured hands, and doffs the gorilla head. She then pulls on a white Afro and gives us such lyrics as “Do you ever happen to hear of voodoo? Hear it and you won’t give a damn what you do.”

"That beat gives me a wicked sensation, my conscience wants to take a vacation, got voodoo, head to toes, hot voodoo, burn my clothes.” She ends with “I want to be bad!”

In another scene Dietrich appears in white top hat and the sequined white tails that made her famous for wearing trousers when most women didn’t. She sings a French version of “I Couldn’t Be Annoyed” where she renders “I’d still eat crackers in my bed, Do you think I’d care? I couldn’t be annoyed.”

You can actually see these two gemlike performances on Youtube.com. Enjoy. I loved “Blonde Venus” so much as a classic black and white movie that I called my memoir of a few years back, “Natural Blonde.” It worked. I got on the bestseller list.