Asphalt (1929 film)

Young police sergeant Holk lives with his mother and father in a middle-class apartment. He serves as a traffic cop in a very lively and busy city where street crime is rampant: we see a woman's purse being stolen by pickpockets while she is looking at a special window display. Holk is flattered by a woman in a convertible: although she clearly violates the right of way at the intersection where he is directing traffic, thereby causing a traffic jam, he takes her personal details with obvious interest.

A young woman seeks detailed advice from a jeweller: she charms the jeweller, distracting him in order to steal a gemstone using a rigged umbrella. After the woman leaves the store, the jeweller's employees notice that a stone has been lost. The jeweller's son follows the woman and confronts her on the street; a crowd appears.

After the changing of the duty shift, on his way home Holk notices this commotion. To clarify the situation, he takes the woman and the jeweller's son to the jewellery store, where the woman is outraged by the accusations and insists on being immediate searched. The woman is led by a female employee into an adjoining room while Holk and the two men examine her handbag and fur muff. The stone is not discovered at first, and the woman is about to leave the jewellery store when the jeweller's son asks again for the umbrella to be examined. Holk notices the hidden stone.

The older jeweller is still taken with the young woman, who tearfully tells him that she stole the stone out of necessity and was inspired by a newspaper report about such a theft. The jeweller asks the police officer to decline prosecution, since the store has not been harmed. Holk points to his status as a civil servant and arrests the woman for jewellery theft. As she is driven away in a police car, the two street thieves mock her, emphasising the difference between "old professionals and a novice."

In the police car, the woman tearfully tries to evoke sympathy from Holk: she declares her rent is in arrears, she is facing eviction from her apartment, and her fear of homelessness. Arriving at the police station, she begs the police officer to at least let her get her papers from the nearby apartment. He is persuaded when she suggests that he accompany her to her apartment. There, Else seduces Holk using her allure.

Holk weakens, drops the charges against her, and releases her. He soon bitterly regrets this decision. Holk quickly falls for the beautiful stranger and visits her again the next day. Else confesses to him that her boyfriend is a wanted criminal. Suddenly, this man, pompously calling himself Konsul Langen, arrives and attacks the sergeant. In the ensuing scuffle, Holk knocks the villain down so badly that he is killed.

Holk confesses the fatal accident to his father, a veteran police sergeant major. Declaring that "the law is the law", his sense of duty compels him to arrest Holk junior, his own son, now suspected of murder. However, Else's conscience takes over. She turns herself in to the police and confirms young Holk's version that he acted in self-defence. Else, who has since fallen in love with Sergeant Holk, confirms the identity of her criminal ex-lover and is subsequently arrested as his accomplice and charged. Holk regains his freedom, and says he will wait for her.

Asphalt was made by UFA, one of Germany's most prestigious film studios. It was shot between October and December 1928. With the exception of a few cleverly edited live-action shots, the street scenes were filmed at the UFA Studios in Neubabelsberg.^[3] It was subtitled The Police Sergeant and the Diamond Else.

The set streets consisted of wooden structures under artificial light.^[4] The buildings for Asphalt were designed by Erich Kettelhut, and the costumes were designed by René Hubert.

Asphalt was one of the last silent films, alongside Fritz Lang's Woman in the Moon, to have been partly filmed in Babelsberg.

This was the last fully completed film role for Albert Steinrück, who plays the dutiful father. He did not live to see the premiere of the film.

Asphalt was distributed theatrically by UFA-Filmverleih GmbH and premiered in Berlin at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo on 11 March 1929.^[1]

Its first screening after the war took place on 26 June 1973, on ZDF. An FSK rating on 31 May 1995 (No. 72660) resulted in an all-ages rating and a public holiday rating.

Asphalt was originally only available in a shortened version with English-language intertitles.^[5] In 1993, the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin discovered a print of Asphalt at the Gosfilmofond archive in Moscow which seemed to have been sourced from the original film negative.^[5] The chronology of scenes in the print differed from earlier versions and included extra scenes with German intertitles.^[5] The newly discovered version of the film was released on DVD by the Masters of Cinema on 11 April 2005 with a score by Karl-Ernst Sasse.^[6][5] Kino Video released the film on DVD again on 18 July 2006.^[6]

In 1997, the British duo In the Nursery released their own soundtrack to the film as part of their Optical Music Series.