Silent Era : Home Vide : The Joyless Street (1925) Review

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SILENT ERA FILMS ON HOME VIDEO
Reviews of silent film releases on home video.
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The Joyless Street
(1925)

The Joyless Street (1925) is notable in the history of silent era film for a number of reasons. It is well-known as Greta Garb o’s final film in a brief European film career. Soon after this film was completed, Garbo was snapped up to star in films for MGM in Hollywood. It is a film that also distinguishes the early career of director G.W. Pabst, who would later direct an American actress who fled Hollywood to make films in Europe, Louise Brooks. — Carl Bennett

2002 Navarre Corporation edition

The Joyless Street (1925), color-toned black & white, 61 minutes, not rated,
with The Kid (1921), black & white, 68 minutes, not rated, and The Extra Girl (1923), color-toned black & white, 69 minutes, not rated.

Navarre Corporation, 1630, UPC 7-41027-16309-4.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, dual-layered DVD disc, Region 1, 3 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 6 chapter stops, keep case, $9.98.
DVD release date: 16 April 2002.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 4 / audio: 4 / additional content: 6 / overall: 4.

The video transfer utilizes a very-good but dark British 16mm reduction print that dates to the 1950s or 1960s. This color-toned print of The Joyless Street has previously appeared on home video in a cheap VHS edition from Madacy Entertainment. The print features a number of English language insert shots that possibly date to the 1920s. Some intertitles in the print are so dark that they are nearly unreadable. However, it must be noted that this is a heavily-edited print of The Joyless Street, although whether it was edited for its English language release or for the rerelease of the reduction print at hand is unknown. Several scenes and intertitles are missing, notably much of the story featuring the character portrayed by acting legend Asta Nielsen, which confuses the storyline.

While this is the least of the three prints featured on this disc, it remains at least watchable despite its truncated and dark self. The edition of The Joyless Street from Kino International on VHS and laserdisc, compiled from a number 35mm and 16mm prints, remains the best available on American home video. However, some of the 16mm footage in the print at hand is not as contrasty as some of the 16mm footage in the Kino edition. This is The Joyless Street’s first appearance on DVD home video.

The film is accompanied by a compilation of prerecorded Mozart orchestral recordings. No effort has been made to synchronize the recordings which randomly play through the film.

This edition of The Joyless Street is passable until some company releases a quality DVD edition of the film.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.

Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

2007 Synergy Entertainment edition

The Joyless Street (1925), black & white, ? minutes, not rated.

Synergy Entertainment, unknown catalog number, unknown UPC number.
Full-frame 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD disc, Region 0, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono? sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles?, chapter stops, keep case, $9.99.
DVD release date: 20 September 2007.
Country of origin: USA

Well, this ain’t the quality edition of The Joyless Street that we have been waiting for. The word around is that, despite the listed running time of 90 minutes, this edition runs just over an hour and may well be identical to the severely-edited edition noted above from a British 16mm reduction print.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.

Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 0 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.

Other silent era GRETA GARBO films available on home video.

Other silent era G.W. Pabst films available on home video:
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)
The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927)
Pandora’s Box (1929)
Secrets of a Soul (1926)
The Treasure (1923)
The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929)

Other Asta Nielsen films available on home video:
Asta Nielsen: Danish Film Classics (1910-1919)
Der var engang [Once Upon a Time] (1922)

Other GERMAN silent era films available on home video.

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