Vienna in post-WWI 1920s. People are starving and barely making ends meet, if at all, versus the well-to-do partying and living it up. You see the heartbreaking hypocrisy of society and how the poor suffer (and go without) and the rich oblivious to anything other than their own world. You even see the rich being unnecessarily cruel by influencing the stock market, so that the common people (or all who can afford to) will invest all they have only to lose it by the rich's deceptive means. The bleak, realistic subject matter does keep the viewer from really seeing the film as true entertainment, but that may be as the director intended. Enter Garbo, her father, and her sister. Average people desperate to do all they can to survive. If you're looking for Garbo in a movie with not so much realism, watch something else first. But "Joyless Street" shouldn't be ignored. Garbo does what she can with what little action there is, and is good in showing the depth of despair she must feel in her helpless situation. Will she find some kind of soft place to fall? Will her family make it through these tough times? Will love find her? This isn't just a Garbo film, it's a statement of society, about any time and any place.
Review of The Joyless Street
