Die Freudlose Gasse
AKA The Joyless Street in the United Kingdom; The Street of Sorrow and Streets of Sorrow in the USA
(1925) German
B&W : Five reels / 4200 feet
Directed by G.W. Pabst

Cast: Greta Garbo [Greta Rumfort], Asta Nielsen [Maria Lechner], Robert Garrison [Don Alfonso Canez], Valeska Gert [Mrs. Greifer], Werner Krauss [Melchior Street butcher], Henry Stuart [Egon Stirner], Tamara (Tamara Tolstoy) [Lia Leid], Countess Gräfin Tolstoy [Fräulein Henriette], Grigori Chmara [Kellner], Gräfin Agnes Esterhazy [Regina Rosenow], Einar Hanson [Lieutenant Davis], Karl Etlinger [Max Rosenow], Ilka Grüning [Mrs. Rosenow], Jaro Fürth [Hofrat Rumfort], Herta von Walther [Else], Loni Nest [Rosa Rumfort], Max Kohlhase [Maria’s father], Silvia Torf [Maria’s mother], Alexander Mursky, Mario Cusmich [Colonel Irving], Edna Markstein [Mrs. Merkel], Raskatoff [Trebitsch], Krafft-Raschig [American soldier], Otto Reinwald, Marlene Dietrich

Hirschel-Sofar-Film-Verleih GmbH production. / Produced by M. Salkind and R. Pinès. Scenario by Willi Haas, from the novel Die Freudlose Gasse by Hugo Bettauer. Production design by Hans Söhnle and Otto Erdmann. Assistant director Marc Sorkin. Cinematography by Guido Seeber, Kurt Oertel and Robert Lach. / Premiere 18 May 1925 in Berlin, Germany. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / Asta Nielsen’s character was edited out of early USA release prints. The film was released on 5 July 1927 in the USA. The film was rereleased in 1937 with synchronized music and sound effects as The Street of Sorrow. The film was restored by the Munich Filmmuseum in 1999.

Drama.

Survival Status: Print exists in the Munich Filmmuseum film archive; also in private film collections [16mm reduction positive].

Keywords: Americans (Abroad) - Apartments - Austria: Vienna - Butchers - Families - Offices - Poverty - Sexuality

Listing updated: 25 February 2007.

References: Film viewing : Ball-Shakespeare p. 387; Bardèche-History pp. 56, 253, 254, 344, 350; Barry-Griffith p. 32; Bohn-Light pp. xxiii, 132, 133, 135, 168; Card-Seductive p. 39; Everson-American p. 191; Higashi-Virgins p. 77; Leish-Cinema p. 34; Limbacher-Feature p. 128; McIlroy-Sweden pp. 31-32; Walker-Garbo pp. 27, 28, 30, 31, 183 : Website-IMDb.

Home Video: DVD.