Tragedy of the Street (Dirnentragödie) 97 years old

Before road movies there were street films, a distinct cycle within German silent cinema. The essential ingredient - misalliance between bourgeois and slum dweller - is present here, though somewhat displaced by Asta Nielsen's star persona. She plays an aging hooker who falls for handsome Felix, a student who has rowed with his parents and ventured into the lower depths. Dreaming of a new life, she ejects her pimp and invests her savings in a cake shop. Even without that title, though, you wouldn't bet on a happy ending. Nielsen is a quite restrained sort of diva, and Rahn likewise soft pedals the melodrama, except for the grand finale. He died soon after making this, his contemporaries regretting the masterworks the cinema was thus denied. Well, maybe.

Credits

Tragedy of the Street Cast

Name Character
Oskar Homolka He was 28, 79 years old when he died as Anton - Pimp
Hilde Jennings She was 20, 63 years old when she died as Clarissa - Young Street Walker
Asta Nielsen She was 45, 90 years old when she died as Auguste - Old Street Walker
Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein She was 60, 98 years old when she died as His Mother
Gerhard Dammann He was 44, 62 years old when he died
Otto Kronburger He was 37, 54 years old when he died as His Father
Hermann Picha He was 62, 71 years old when he died as Kauzke - Pianist

Tragedy of the Street Crew

Name Department
Guido Seeber as Director of Photography. He was 47 (61) years old when He died Camera
Tragedy of the Street (97 years)

  • Release day: Thursday, April 14, 1927
  • Runtime: 114 minutes