The Joyless Street

In 1921, in the poor part of Melchiorgasse, an Austrian town, Mrs. Greifer runs a fashion boutique and a nightclub. Annexed to the nightclub is Merkl Hotel, a brothel to which the women of the nightclub bring their clients. We follow the lives of two women from the same poor neighborhood as they try to better themselves during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation. They are Marie, who becomes a prostitute, and Grete who does not.