Hot Voodoo

That beat gives me a wicked sensation
My conscious wants to take a vacation
Got voodoo, head to toes
Hot voodoo, burn my clothes
I want to go dancing, just wearing a smile

Hot Voodoo (m. Ralph Rainger, w. Sam Coslow)

Marlene Dietrich and chorus — in the film Blonde Venus (1932), produced and directed for Paramount Pictures by Josef von Sternberg with a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg.

It is sung by Marlene Dietrich, with dancing by a chorus of girls decked in sequined leotards with feather tutus, and otherwise equipped and adorned in pseudo-primitive-tribal style, carrying spears and painted shields, and wearing large Afros (hairstyle) and tribal face paint. Dietrich dons a blonde Afro-like wig after removing the head portion of her gorilla costume. IMDb indicates that the club at which the number is performed in the film is known as O’Connor’s*.

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* I don’t know if O’Connor’s is a real or fictional club. Also at IMDb, the “Star Cafe”, and an unnamed “Paris nightclub,” are given as the locations of two other performances. There is no band identification for any of the five numbers in the film, other than “the orchestra” for Hot Voodoo.

Lys Gauty interprétait en 1932 cette version française

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