AllMovie

Based on a story by Hugo Bettauer, La Rue Sans Joie is a remake of German director G.W. Pabst's silent classic The Joyless Street. Dita Parlo essays the old Greta Garbo role as Jean de Romer, daughter of an impoverished Viennese professor. To keep food on her family's table, Jean is willing to make any sacrifice, which leads inexorably to a life of prostitution. The subsequent courtroom finale, wherein Jean is on trial for the murder of slimy gigolo Louis Stinno (Valery Inkijoff), is the film's dramatic highlight. Matching Dita Parlo's stunning performance are Marguerite Deval as a cold-hearted madam and Albert Prejean as a callous capitalist.