The Joyless Street (1925)

Vienna in the biggest depression, directly after WW1. In a slum, Lila Leid, the wife of lawyer Leid is murdered, Egon, secretary of one of Leid's clients is arrested. He was with her, and ... See full summary »

Director:

Georg Wilhelm Pabst (as G.W. Pabst)

Writers:

Hugo Bettauer (based on the novel by), F.H. Lyon (translator)

Stars:

Asta Nielsen, Greta Garbo, Ágnes Eszterházy

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Asta Nielsen	...	Maria Lechner
Greta Garbo	...	Greta Rumfort
Ágnes Eszterházy	...	Regina Rosenow (as Agnes Esterhazy)
Werner Krauss	...	Metzger von Melchiorstrasse
Henry Stuart	...	Egon Stirner
Einar Hanson	...	Lt. Davis
Gregori Chmara	...	Kellner
Karl Etlinger	...	Max Rosenow
Ilka Grüning	...	Frau Rosenow
Jaro Fürth	...	Hofrat Rumfort
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dorothea Thiele	...	Lia Leid

Storyline

Vienna in the biggest depression, directly after WW1. In a slum, Lila Leid, the wife of lawyer Leid is murdered, Egon, secretary of one of Leid's clients is arrested. He was with her, and had her necklace, because he needed some money for his own stock exchange deals. The same deal brings poverty to ex-government official Rumfort, his daughter Greta, who also has lost her job, tries to get some money to get food. She rents a room of the flat she, her young sister and her father are living in to an American Red Cross official, who pays $60 rent, but the money is taken by some of her father's creditors. But their neighbour, shop owner Mrs Greifer knows how to "help", she and Mrs. Merkel are running a nightclub with a brothel...

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Plot Keywords:

fired | money | slum | secretary | nightclub | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

5 July 1927 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Joyless Street

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sofar-Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min 94 min (1981 restored) 175 min 115 min (copy with English titles at Brussels Musée du Cinéma) 148 min 142 min 151 min 150 min (2012 print of the Filmmuseum München 1989-2009 restoration) 60 min (edited)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The dark-haired woman waiting in the butcher shop line who is often mistaken for Marlene Dietrich is actually Hertha von Walther. She had a much larger role in the original uncut version of the film. She can also be seen as the lab assistant in Secrets of a Soul (1926) with Werner Krauss.

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Alternate Versions

In 1997 the film was digitally remastered by the Filmmuseum Munich. It also got a new music score.

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Connections

Featured in Duels: Dietrich, Garbo, l'ange et la divine (2015)

User Reviews

Die freudlose Gasse

The Joyless Street in one of the great classics of the German silent cinema. The film, which deals with the interwoven stories of various woman in Vienna at the time of great inflation, represents German silent cinema's move away from the fantastic tales of its Expressionist works towards the portrayal of everyday reality that heralded the style of the New Objectivity. It is also the only silent film that brings together two of the movies' greatest luminaries: Asta Nielsen, the European icon of the Teens, and Greta Garbo, who at the end of the 20's would become the undisputed reigning star of the American cinema. And it is the film that catapulted its director into the top echelon of German screen directors à la Fritz Lang or F.W.Murnau: Georg Wilhelm Papst, who later, with Louise Brooks, would make silents that were no less stylistically influential, as well as masterpieces of the early German sound cinema. (Source:Stefan Drössler)