Dirty money

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Movie
Original title Dirty money
Country of production Germany , Great Britain
original language German
Publishing year 1928
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Richard Eichberg
script Adolf Lantz ,
Helen Gosewisch
production Richard Eichberg-Film GmbH, Berlin; British International Pictures (BIP), London
music Paul Dessau (cinema music)
camera Heinrich Gärtner ,
Bruno Mondi
cut Alfred Booth
occupation

Dirty Money (alternative title: Song - love of a poor human child ) is a German-British fictional film by Richard Eichberg from 1928 based on the novel “Dirty Money” by Karl Gustav Vollmoeller .

action

After murdering his mistress, Gloria, the famous painter Jack is forced to go into hiding. In the port district he saves the poor Malay girl Song from two intrusive sailors. She loves him for it, and Song and Jack perform together in the harbor's tangle , he as a knife thrower, she as a dancer. When the manager of the restaurant keeps an eye on Song and Gloria, who Jack is still crazy about, reappears, doom takes its course. To raise money for Gloria and win her back, Jack participates in a robbery on a money transport. The attack fails, Jack's eyes are injured. Song tries to get money from Gloria to pay for an eye operation for Jack. Gloria rejects Song, but Song leads the blind Jack in Gloria's clothes that his former lover would support him. In order to raise money for the operation, she even starts stealing. Finally Jack finds out everything, and Song, who has become the sensation of the city as a dancer, dies while performing between the sharp-edged knives.

Production and theatrical release

The film was shot in Berlin with a German crew and - with the exception of Wong - German cast in German. The co-production company British International Pictures helped with the financing and took over part of the theatrical exploitation.

For the leading actress, Anna May Wong , who was committed to stereotypical Chinese roles in racist Hollywood, this film offered the opportunity to embody an Asian woman who did not correspond in every respect to the usual clichés with the full range of her theatrical means of expression . It is thanks to the influence of Karl Gustav Vollmoeller that Wong got the lead role in this film. As a result, "Dirty Money" became a huge commercial success, encouraging its producer and director to subsequently make two more films with Wong (" Big City Butterfly " and " Hai-Tang. The Road to Shame ").

The film, which has the alternate title "Song" (in the UK), "Song. The love of a poor human child ”,“ Show Life ”,“ Wasted Love ”and“ Ange maudit ”(in France) had its world premiere on August 21, 1928 on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. Süd-Film AG took over the theatrical exploitation in Germany.

A copy of the film is now in the British Film Institute's National Film Archive .

literature

  • Hodges, Graham Russell Gao: Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2004, p. 83ff, ISBN 0312293194 (English)

Web links