Joyless Street (), also titled The Street of Sorrow or The Joyless Street, is a 1925 German silent film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst starring Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen. It is based on a novel by Hugo Bettauer and widely considered an expression of New Objectivity in film.
Plot
In an alley called Melchiorgasse in a poor quarter of 1921 Vienna, Austria, the lives of several people coincide. Marie, daughter of an abusive war veteran father, hopes to escape her home with the help of her boyfriend Egon, a bank clerk. Grete is the elder daughter of impoverished civil servant Rumfort. Marie and Grete join the overnight line of waiting customers outside of the butcher's shop run by the abusive Josef Geiringer, but Grete passes out and loses her place. Marie and her friend Else manage to enter Geiringer's shop, where they receive a piece of meat in exchange for Else's sexual services. Else offers Marie to share the meat with her, but Marie declines, knowing that Else, whose husband is unemployed, has a young child to feed.
Marie runs away from home and asks Egon to take her in, but Egon, who is entangled with two women of Vienna's high society, hoping that they will help him climb up the social ladder, declines. With the help of Mrs. Greifer, owner of a fashion boutique and a night club, Marie becomes the mistress of Canez, a speculator on the stock exchange market. During a date with Canez, she witnesses Egon meeting with Mrs. Leid, one of his female acquaintances. When Mrs. Leid is later found strangled, Marie states that she saw Egon commit the murder.
Meanwhile, Rumfort loses his pension in a share transaction in which Canez was involved, while Grete is dismissed from her job for rejecting her employer's sexual advances. To pay for their expenses, the Rumfort family offers a room to let to American Red Cross officer Davy, who is enamoured with Grete's charms. When Davy's adjutant accuses Grete's younger sister of stealing from their supplies, Grete's father insists that they leave. Grete lends money from Mrs. Greifer, who in turn tries to talk Grete into working for her.
Out of bad conscience, Marie confesses to the police that it was she who murdered Mrs. Leid, and that she falsely accused Egon out of jealousy. When Davy witnesses Grete during a nightclub event, he scolds her for her amorality, but forgives her when he learns from her father that she only participated to save her family from starving. Outside of the nightclub, the Melchiorgasse residents have gathered and start throwing stones through the windows. Else kills Geiringer after he refuses to deliver her more meat. When the house where she lives with her husband and child catches fire, the couple manage to save their child before they both die in the flames.
Cast
Jaro Fürth as Councilor Rumfort
Greta Garbo as Grete Rumfort
Loni Nest as Mariandl Rumfort
Asta Nielsen as Marie Lechner
Max Kohlhase as Marie's father
Sylvia Torf as Marie's mother
Karl Etlinger as Max Rosenow
Ilka Grüning as Frau Rosenow
Agnes Esterhazy as Regina Rosenow
Alexander Murski as Dr. Leid
Tamara Tolstoi as Lia Leid
Henry Stuart as Egon Stirner
Robert Garrison as Canez
Einar Hanson as Lt. Davy
Mario Cusmich as Colonel Irving
Valeska Gert as Frau Greifer
Gräfin Tolstoi as Fräulein Henriette
Edna Markstein as Frau Merkl
Werner Krauss as Geiringer, the butcher
Hertha von Walther as Else
Otto Reinwald as Else's husband
Gregori Chmara as Pjotr Orlow, waiter
M. Raskatoff as Trebitsch
Krafft-Raschig as American soldier
Renate Brausewetter as woman (uncredited) Maria Forescu as woman (uncredited) Lya Mara as woman (uncredited) Iván Petrovich as man (uncredited)
Production
Screenwriter Willy Haas recalled in his memoirs that Pabst rang him up in 1924, asking him to read Bettauer's novel, which Pabst thought would make for a good film story. Haas read the book, which he regarded an awful crime potboiler ("Reißer"). He and Pabst agreed that the social aspect should be emphasised, "the strident imagery of the inflation, the bankruptcy of civil servants and academics, the corruption, the moral decay" (Haas), while the criminalistic aspect should be cast aside. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Otto Erdmann and Hans Sohnle, Mark Sorkin served as assistant director and editor.