Asphalt (1929)

Highly Recommended

Germany
Feature Film
Director: Joe May
Writers: Rolf E. Vanloo, Joe May, Hans Székely
Cinematographer: Günther Rittau
Composer: Karl-Ernst Sasse (1995)
Cast: Gustav Fröhlich, Betty Amann, Albert Steinrück, Else Heller, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Hans Albers

A good natured young policeman catches a sexy vamp stealing a valuable diamond from a jewellery store, and although the injured party doesn’t wish to take the matter any further, he determines to bring her to justice, but unfortunately for him he doesn’t bargain for her feminine wiles and his own baser instincts, in this seductive, beautifully shot film, which boasts some excellent performances – the contrast between the melodramatic Amann and the more naturalistic Fröhlich is particularly striking – and a surprisingly moving finale (it should really have been rather cheesy, silly, and sentimental, but miraculously it isn’t). Iain.Stott