Joyless Street - 1925

Country: Germany

Language: German

Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writers: Hugo Bettauer (novel), F.H. Lyon (translator), Willy Haas (scenario- uncredited)

Stars: Asta Nielsen, Greta Garbo and Agnes Esterhazy 

Also known as: Die freudlose Gasse (Germany - original title); Bag glædernes maske (Denmark); Bajo la máscara del placer (Spain); Bak gledens maske (Norway); Den glädjelösa gatan (Sweden); Den gledesløse gaten (Norway -alternative title); Dromos horis hara (Greece - festival title); Iloton katu (Finland); Joyless Street (UK); La calle sin alegría: bajo la máscara del placer (Spain); La rue sans joie (France); La via senza gioia (Italy); Rua Sem Sol (Portugal); Rua das Lágrimas (Brazil); Ta dramata eis tous oikous anohis (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); The Joyless Street (USA); The Street of Sorrow (USA); Ulica bez radosti (Yugoslavia - literal title - Serbian title); Viennese Love (Canada - English title); Zatracona ulica (Poland)

Production Co: Sofar-Film

Runtime: 125 min  | France: 94 min (1981 restored version)  | Germany: 175 min (1998 restored version at Berlin Film Festival, 16 fps)  | Spain: 109 min  | Belgium: 115 min (copy with English titles at Brussels Musée du Cinéma)  | Germany: 148 min (1998 restored version at Arte/ZDF, 19 fps)  | 142 min (1998 restored version on DVD, 20 fps)  | Germany: 151 min (2009 DVD, 19 fps)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Trivia

The dark-haired woman waiting in the butcher shop line who is often mistaken for Marlene Dietrich is actually Hertha von Walther. She had a much larger role in the original uncut version of the film. She can also be seen as the lab assistant in Geheimnisse einer Seele with Werner Krauss.

Plot Keywords: Money | Food | Slum | Secretary | Depression  | Brothel | Necklace | American Red Cross | Nightclub | Creditor | Lawyer | Self Pity | Fired From The Job | Fur Coat | Murder | Post World War One | Poverty | Hunger | Sister Sister Relationship | Despair | Pain | Husband Wife Relationship | Anguish | Prostitute | Lodger | Street Life | Prostitution | Coat | Vienna Austria | Inflation | Arrest | Neighbor | Threadbare Coat | Misery | Father Daughter Relationship | Poor | Based On Novel

Genres: Drama

Vienna in the biggest depression, directly after WW1. In a slum, Lila Leid, the wife of lawyer Leid is murdered, Egon, secretary of one of Leid's clients is arrested. He was with her, and had her necklace, because he needed some money for his own stock exchange deals. The same deal brings poverty to ex-government official Rumfort, his daughter Greta, who also has lost her job, tries to get some money to get food. She rents a room of the flat she, her young sister and her father are living in to an American Red Cross official, who pays $60 rent, but the money is taken by some of her father's creditors. But their neighbour, shop owner Mrs Greifer knows how to "help", she and Mrs. Merkel are running a nightclub with a brothel... 

Robinson Kruse - 1927

Country: Sweden

Director: M.A. Wethrell

Producer: Magnus Cedergren

Production Company: Bandbreddsnöje

Audio/Visual: nosound, blank and white

Language: Swedish

Keywords: robinson,kruse,crosoe

Strike - 1925

Country: Soviet Union
Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
Writers: Sergei M. Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ilya Kravchunovsky, Valeryan Pletnyov
Stars: Grigori Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh and Mikhail Gomorov
Also known as: Stachka (Soviet Union - original title); A Greve (Brazil / Portugal); La grève Belgium (French title) / Canada (French title); La huelga (Argentina / Spain); Стачка (Soviet Union - Russian title); Gapitsva (Soviet Union - Georgian title); Grev (Turkey - Turkish title); I apergia (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); Lakko (Finland); Sciopero (Italy); Strajk (Poland); Streik (Germany); Strejke (Denmark);
Strejken (Sweden); Strike (International - English title); Sztrájk (Hungary)
Production Co: Goskino, Proletkult
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia
The earliest Russian-Soviet film included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
Plot Keywords: Strike | Factory | Spy | Working | Police  |  Public Domain | Tsarist Russia | Anti Capitalism | Water | Society | Experimental Film | Capitalist | Massacre | Infanticide | Violence | Unrest | Demonstration | Class Struggle | Breaking The Fourth Wall | Army vs Civilians | Turmoil | Cult Director | Working Class Family | Labor Movement | Capitalism | Class Society | Social Discontent | Dead Child | Suicide | Labour | One Word Title | Working Class
Genres: Drama
In Russia's factory region during Czarist rule, there's restlessness and strike planning among workers; management brings in spies and external agents. When a worker hangs himself after being falsely accused of thievery, the workers strike. At first, there's excitement in workers' households and in public places as they develop their demands communally. Then, as the strike drags on and management rejects demands, hunger mounts, as does domestic and civic distress. Provocateurs recruited from the lumpen and in league with the police and the fire department bring problems to the workers; the spies do their dirty work; and, the military arrives to liquidate strikers. 

Wolf Blood - 1925

Country: USA
Language: English
Directors: George Chesebro, Bruce M. Mitchell
Writers: Bennett Cohen (story), Cliff Hill (story)
Stars: George Chesebro, Roy Watson and Milburn Morante
Release Date: 16 December 1925 (USA)
Also known as: Wolfblood: A Tale of the Forest (USA - alternative title); Wolfsblood (USA - alternative spelling)
Production Co: Ryan Brothers Productions
Runtime: 68 min
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Wolf | Blood Transfusion | Melodrama | Werewolf | Suicide  |  Lumber Camp | Hallucination
Genres: Adventure | Crime | Drama | Horror | Romance | Western
After wolf blood transfusion, man thinks he's becoming a wolf.  

The Forbidden City - 1918

Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Sidney Franklin
Writers: Mary Murillo, George Scarborough (story)
Stars: Norma Talmadge, Thomas Meighan and E. Alyn Warren
Release Date: 6 October 1918 (USA)
Also known as: A Tale of the Forbidden City (undefined)
Production Co: Norma Talmadge Film Corporation
Runtime: 62 min
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: China | Melodrama | Interracial Romance
Genres: Drama | Romance
The daughter of a Chinese mandarin is sentenced to death for her secret marriage to an American. Their child, raised in the mandarin's palace, grows up and escapes to seek her father, now a high-ranking official in the Philippines. 

The Squaw Man - 1914

Country: USA
Writers: Edwin Milton Royle (play), Cecil B. DeMille (picturizer), Oscar Apfel (picturizer) (as Oscar C. Apfel)
Stars: Dustin Farnum
Release Date: 15 February 1914 (USA)
Also known as: Az asszonyember (Hungary), O Exilado (Portugal), The White Man (UK)
Filming locations: Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA; Green River, Wyoming, USA; Hollywood Heritage Museum - 2100 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (studio); Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA; Iverson Ranch - 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA; Railroad Station, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA; San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA; Vine & Selma Corner, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (near)
Budget: $20,000 (estimated)
Gross: $244,700 (USA)
Production Co: Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia
The first film made by (and involving) Cecil B. DeMille.
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The Motion Picture Patents Trust, headed by Thomas A. Edison, was at that time engaged in an attempt to control all motion picture production in the U.S., and went to great lengths - often including destruction of property and physical violence - to do so. The Trust was based on the East Coast, which is why many independent producers, such as Cecil B. DeMille, began shooting their films in California. The Trust's intimidation tactics probably explain why DeMille - who was one of their most vocal opponents - put no cast or crew credits on this film.
The site where most of the interior scenes were filmed, on the corner of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, is now a bank. A mural on one interior wall of the building commemorates the production with four scenes from the film.
Several one-act versions of the play were produced as early as 1904. The complete play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 23 October 1905 and closed about 1 April 1906 after 222 performances. The opening night cast included George Fawcett, William S. Hart and William Faversham.
Film debut of Raymond Hatton.
Cecil B. DeMille's ledger noted that he hired an extra named Hal Roach for $5 per day, and rejected actress Jane Darwell, who was already commanding $60 per week.
The musical composition "Nat-u-ritch: An Indian idyll. Intermezzo from The Squaw Man" by Theodore Bendix was published to promote the picture.
Revealing mistakes
When he is in his hotel room in New York, Captain Wynnegate looks out of his window. This is followed by a cut to an obvious still photograph of the Broadway/Times Square district by night, meant to represent the view from the Captain's window.
Early in the film, when Captain James Wynnegate (played by Dustin Farnum) is on board the sailing ship, he writes a note asking that a "check" enclosed with the note be cashed for him. Since Captain Farnum is an Englishman, he would have spelled the word as "cheque", the standard British spelling. (Moreover, the handwriting in the note is scarcely that of an educated British military officer: the lines of writing are crooked and the letters are crudely formed.)
Quotes
Lady Diana: If you are an honest man, you may kiss me goodbye.
Nat-U-Rich: Me kill 'um.
Captain James Wynnegate: [on death of Nat-U-Rich] Poor little mother!
Lady Diana: Jim, I want you to go away for my sake!
Big Bill: Come out West where people keep their hands in their own pockets.
Captain James Wynnegate: I won't drink with a man who robbed the orphans of the King's soldiers!
Lady Diana: We're going to find Jim and bring him home.
Big Bill: Get a-goin', Bud, and don't stop to pick flowers!
Captain James Wynnegate: I'm broke. Tell the boys I'll pay 'em somehow.
Lady Diana: Whose little boy are you?
Plot Keywords: Earl | England | Mountain Climbing | Ranch | Embezzlement  | Suicide | Ship Fire | Rescue | Fire | Ship | Constable | Aunt | Race Track | Scotland Yard | Confession Of Crime | Honor | Gambling | Jealousy | Feud | Falling From Height | Times Square Manhattan New York City | Wyoming | Pacific Northwest | Native American | Alcoholic | Historical Landmark | Saloon | Snow Blindness | Gunfire | Fight | Accidental Death | Medicine Man | Marriage | Cousin Cousin Relationship | Transatlantic Trip | Little Boy | Train | New York City | Rescue At Sea | Interracial Marriage | Drunkenness | Alps |
Old West | Manhattan New York City | Handcuffs | Native American Chief | Forgery |
Family Honor | Horse Race | Loneliness | Miscegenation | Nobility | Snowblind | Chivalry | Self Sacrifice | Frontier | Drunken Indian | Murder | Pickpocket | Based On Play
Genres: Drama | Western 
A chivalrous British officer takes the blame for his cousin's embezzlement and journeys to the American West to start a new life on a cattle ranch.

Headin' Home - 1920

Country: USA
Language: English (intertitles)
Director: Lawrence C. Windom
Writers: Arthur 'Bugs' Baer (titles), Earle Browne (story)
Stars: Babe Ruth, Ruth Taylor and William Sheer
Release Date: 19 September 1920 (USA)
Filming Locations: Polo Grounds, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Production Co: Kessell & Baumann
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Trivia
Ironically, this film was partially financed by gambler Abe Attell, a gambler who had helped Arnold Rothstein fix the 1919 World Series. Babe Ruth, the star of the film, has always been credited with saving baseball after the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
Babe Ruth received $25,000 for this, his first film. The sum was a large amount for the time, and Ruth refused to cash his paycheck and carried it around to show to friends. By the time Ruth had decided to cash his check for the film, the check bounced because of the film's poor box office results. Ruth shrugged off his loss and kept the check as a memento. 
Plot Keywords: Baseball | Actor Playing Himself
Genres: Biography | Comedy | Drama | Sport