SHORT TAKES : Dietrich Appeals to Save Studio

BERLIN —  Reclusive screen legend Marlene Dietrich made a rare public appeal to save the famous studio where she filmed “Blue Angel” more than 60 years ago.

Dietrich, 89, said in a New Year’s Eve telephone interview on Germany’s ARD television that she had “only the loveliest memories” of her days at the now-foundering DEFA Film Studios outside Berlin.

“I hope they have the success that they rightly deserve,” she said from her home in Paris.

DEFA was known in the 1920s as the Universal Film Co., where Dietrich began her career. Fritz Lang filmed his classic “Metropolis” at the huge studio complex, located in the small town of Babelsberg outside Berlin.

Babelsberg became part of Communist East Germany and the studio, renamed DEFA, became an outlet for forgettable movies with socialist themes.

Now that Germany has united under democracy, DEFA must venture into the private market without government subsidies. It had 2,400 employees but the studio plans to trim employee rolls to 800.