"Asphalt" is a German 90-minute silent movie in black-and-white. This was made in 1929 and at that time, it was already the final years for silent films as sound movies took over a little later. And this film here was unfortunately also no great farewell to the old days. This film brings really nothing new to the table. It is the old femme-fatale story that was so popular during the days of silent film and her male equivalent is a police officer this time, which obviously result in quite a few issues in terms of breaking the law or not. Lead actress Betty Amann sure looks the part and it may have been her performance here that let her work with Hitchcock not much later. Yet, that part was nowhere near as big as her role here, so this stays her career-defining performance. She looks a lot like Louise Brooks by the way and I wonder why femme-fatales were basically always dark-haired in film during that era.
The writer and director here is Joe May, very simple name, but he is not really known today anymore and this one here may also be his most famous work. Sadly, I do think that it was his script that was the reason why I did not find this a particularly great watch. The actors were okay. The film also could have needed more intertitles, but that's true for 95% of the old films from the silent era. So overall, not a failure, but also not a particularly good watch and I found little to none memorable moments in this movie. I cannot recommend. Sorry, I have to give it a thumbs down.
The writer and director here is Joe May, very simple name, but he is not really known today anymore and this one here may also be his most famous work. Sadly, I do think that it was his script that was the reason why I did not find this a particularly great watch. The actors were okay. The film also could have needed more intertitles, but that's true for 95% of the old films from the silent era. So overall, not a failure, but also not a particularly good watch and I found little to none memorable moments in this movie. I cannot recommend. Sorry, I have to give it a thumbs down.