UK Premiere: Schmutziges Geld (Song)
Deutsches Filminstitut Filmmuseum

UK Premiere: Schmutziges Geld (Song)

classified 15 PS

part of Restored & Rediscovered

Film

Please note: This was screened in July 2025

Director
Richard Eichberg
Cast
Anna May Wong, Heinrich George, Mary Kid, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Paul Hörbiger, Julius E. Herrmann
Details
104 mins, Partially Subtitled, 1928, Germany, UK
Primary language
German, Silent

Please Note: this film is also known as Song. Die Liebe eines armen Menschenkindes.

Frustrated by the typecasting she faced in Hollywood, pioneering Chinese American actress Anna May Wong found true stardom and creative freedom in Europe, where she made several of her finest pictures, from E. A. Dupont’s Piccadilly (1929) to this little-seen rediscovered gem based on Karl Vollmöller’s Dirty Money.

Her first European production, also the first of three films with German director Richard Eichberg, Schmutziges Geld (Song) tells the story of Song (Anna May Wong), “one of Fate’s castaways,” who is attacked on a beach in Istanbul and is rescued by John Houben (Heinrich George) a music-hall knife-thrower. John soon takes Song under his wing and recruits her as the human target in his knife-throwing act. Everything goes to plan, until John’s old flame (Mary Kid) comes to town and puts a question mark on Song’s position.

What starts out as a simple melodrama turns into a film full of twists and turns with some beautifully shot dance sequences.

A 4K digital restoration c/o Filmmuseum Düsseldorf.

Presented by South West Silents.

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