DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE
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ALTERNATE TITLE |
The Joyless Street (USA)
The Street of Sorrow (USA)
A Joyless Street (UK)
Joyless Street (UK)
Viennese Love (CANADA)
La rue sans joie (FRANCE)
Den glädjelösa gatan (SWEDEN)
La via senza gioia (ITALY)
Bajo la máscara del placer (SPAIN)
La Calle sin alegría: bajo la máscara del placer (SPAIN)
Den Glädjelösa gatan (SWEDEN)
Iloton katu (FINLAND)
Rua Sem Sol (PORTUGAL)
Rua das Lágrimas (BRAZIL)
Zatracona ulica (POLAND)
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FILM SCENES |
   
   
   
   
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COMPANY |
Sofar-Film (Hirschel-Sofar Filmproduktion)
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CREDITS |
Directed by G.W. Pabst.
Adaptation by Willy Haas, from the novel by Hugo Bettauer.
Photography by Guido Seeber, Curt Oertel and Robert Loch.
Art Direction by Hans Sohnle and Otto Erdmann.
Recording supervised by H. Landsmann.
Assistant Director: Marc Sorkin.
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TECHNICAL SPECS |
Belgium: 115 min (copy with English titles at Brussels Musée du Cinéma)
France: 94 min (1981 restored version)
Germany: 145 min (restored version)
Germany: 175 min (1997 restored version)
Spain: 109 min
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| DIE FREUDLOSE GASSE - GIF |
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CAST |
Asta Nielsen - Maria Lechner
Greta Garbo - Greta Rumfort
Werner Krauss - Butcher of Melchior Street
Einar Hansson - Lt. Davis
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| GARBO'S CHARACTER |
Greta Rumfort
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FILM POSTER |
More HERE!
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SYNOPSIS |
Postwar Vienna is filled with greedy men and, opposed to them, families made poor by the war. Franz Rumfort (Jaro Furth) is the head of such an impoverished family. Greta (Greta Garbo) is the eldest of his daughters and is trying to hold the family together. Maria Lechner (Asta Nielsen) is part of this society. She has a lover, and kills to keep him from marrying someone else.
Then she turns herself in to save her lover. A butcher (Werner Krauss), who symbolizes the type of lecher that a postwar society can create, is killed by those he has abused. Greta is about to become a woman of ill-repute when she is saved by her father, with the help of a Red Cross lieutenant (Einar Hanson).
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| MOVIE PROGRAM |
More HERE!
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PREMIERED/RELEASED |
Premiere Date: May 18, 1925 at the Mozartsaal in Berlin/ Germany .
TV Premiere Germany: 31.10.1972 / 24.11.1974 / 11.12.1977 (ZDF).
TV Premiere Germany (restored version): 17 December 1998
Release Date in Finland: 21 February 1927
Release Date in USA: 5 July 1927
Release Date in Japan: 28 September 1928
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LOBBYCARDS |
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See HERE!
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PRODUCTION |
| Production Dates: February–March 1925
Production Location: Berlin
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| MOVIE STILLS |
| The Still photographer was Curt Oertel.
   
More HERE!
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TRIVIA
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 Garbo's only finished German-made movie.
In 1997 the film was digitally re-mastered by the Filmmuseum Munich.
For Decades there was this rumour that Marlene Dietrich played a minor role in this film.
A dark-haired woman waiting in the butcher shop line is often mistaken for Marlene.
Actually Hertha von Walther. She had a much larger role in the original uncut version of the film.
In 1938 a french remake was made – starring Dita Parlo.
International censorship removed these segments long ago.
They were deemed too controversial and too dangerously political.
Most of the story line involving Asta Nielson's character Maria Lechner was cut out of the film.
Most of the story line involving Warner Krauss' abhorrent butcher was cut out of the film.
Other story lines, involving other characters, were cut out or toned down.
The film shocked European governments. England banned the film from public viewing.
Italy, France Austria and elsewhere would show the film only after it had been considerably mutilated.
Americans thought that the only value of the film was the presence of Greta Garbo.
Garbo was paid in American dollars rather than worthless German ones.
Over the years, Nielson's leading part in the film will almost entirely vanish.
The film was based on Hugo Bettauer's 1924 serialized novel.
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BACKGROUND STORY |
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| PORTRAITS |
Alexander Binder (for Atelier Binder) made the portraits during the filming.
   
More HERE!
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| REVIEWS
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Unsuited for the average audience. Film might originally have been, but the obviously-cut remains make for a badly jumbled picture. Greta Garbo, Asta Nielsen, Einar Hanson and Werner Krauss capable, but their work is greatly overshadowed by the picture's shortcomings. Probably there was a picture here, but the evident mutilation of the censors has left but scattered remnants of a story which gives every indication of having served some high-flung sensations in its original form.... The production is poor, the atmosphere drab, and the tempo far too slow.
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Variety: |
The picture's only commercial value is the presence at the head of the cast of Greta Garbo.... It's a lobby asset rather than a screen recommendation, for the role is a poor one, of a rather furtive and bedraggled heroine.... A pretty dingy lot are these Vienna daughters of joy. Several elaborate bits are introduced, apparently with the intent to exploit the gay night life of Vienna. It doesn't register gaiety, but rather drab squalor.
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| PICTURE FROM THE FILM-SET |
More HERE!
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STORY FROM THE FILM-SET |
(in Treatment)
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GRETA'S CONTRACT |
| Greta's contract with G.W. Pabst 1925.
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| ALTERNATIVE SCENES |
(in Treatment)
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| THE SCORE BY THE PANOPTIKOM ORCHESTRA |
The "Panoptikon Orchestra" is an orchestra that plays music for silent movie performances, both re-composed scores and improvised music, on traditional instruments as well as modern - using prerecorded tapes, sound effects, rare instruments (like the saw or the mellotron) to be able to create both melody and atmosphere to match the shifting moods of the screen performance. Included in the repertoire are scores for many silent films is also Pabst's The Joyless Street with Greta. The music from PO's succesful ciné-concert with the Pabst classic was also arranged and recorded on an CD album.
Get the CD HERE!
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| THE ORIGINAL NOVEL |
Based on the novel Die Freudlose Gasse, by Hugo Bettauer
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| SIMILAR FILMS |
| La Rue Sans Joie – with Dita Parlo (France 1938)
Poster art
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DVD/VHS |
Available on VHS (Edited Version) and DVD (Edited Version).
See HERE!
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| VIDEO-FILE |
See More HERE!
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SOURCES |
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Karen Swenson – A life Apart
Barry Paris – Garbo
IMDB – International Movie Database
plus many other books, magazines and internet sites. |
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