Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

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 Garbo’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.

Thought to be politically inflamatory in content, the film was cut by German censors, and no print of the original German version survives. While more than 700 metres (approximately 30 minutes of screen time) of the original film is presumed lost, the film was reconstructed by Filmmuseum München, produced by Enno Patalas, Jan-Christopher Horak, Gerhard Ullmann and Klaus Volkmer, reinstating subplots that were missing from the well-known short version prints of the film.

— Carl Bennett

The 2009 reconstruction version of the film by Filmmuseum München has been transfered to home video in this PAL DVD edition. The reconstruction was in process over many years and utilized print materials from at least nine of the world’s film archives. The film will never look better or be more complete than in this home video edition — especially on systems capable of HD line doubling.

The film is accompanied by a music score for piano, violin and violoncello by Aljoscha Zimmermann.

The supplementary material includes Der andere Blick (1991, revised 2009, 111 minutes), Pabst wieder sehen (1997, 21 minutes), Outtakes and Intakes (1925, 14 minutes), sound document with memories of assistant director Mark Sorkin (49 minutes), screenplay drafts, shooting script and documents in DVD-ROM section, and a booklet with essays by Klaus Volkmer, Werner Sudendorf and Stefan Drössler.

This high-quality edition is recommended to all. North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 0 PAL DVD edition is available directly from . . .

The film may be accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

This may be one of the home video options for North American collectors without a region-free DVD player and cannot view the recommended Edition Filmmuseum DVD edition referenced above.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

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 was 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 out-of-print edition of The Joyless Street is not recommended.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

We have not viewed this DVD edition and cannot recommend it at this time.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

We have not viewed this DVD edition and cannot recommend it at this time. We are extremely suspicious of the advertised running time.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

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 Navarre edition noted above taken from a British-version 16mm reduction print.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other silent era G.W. PABST films available on home video.

Other ASTA NIELSEN films available on home video.