Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) - G. W. Pabst

Every so often I have the urge to start off a review with the phrase "God awful dreck". This is one of those times. Diary of a Lost Girl was the second and FAR INFERIOR film that Pabst did with cult icon Louise Brooks. This picture is infuriating at nearly every turn. Of course in the land of ancient morals we do look at it in context, but with grotesque monstrous caricatures not a single character seems to have any spark of human characteristics. Nearly everyone winds up evil including those who think they're doing good. The film's one grand chance for redemption came in the obligatory "Every thing's going to be fine now" sequence which was dreadfully ruined by an act of unwarranted and undeserved generosity. Hard to begin where to complain with this. I don't want to slight the film itself as there were sequences that gave us much to admire, but the story is just so horribly bad. Rarely have I felt that a film should be remade, but this one most certainly should. I kept yelling at the screen to try and convince the characters to open their damn mouths but to no avail. Endlessly frustrating this film is rightfully eclipsed by the shadow of Pandora's Box a picture that's actually worthy of its reputation. Just plain bad melodramatic hogwash.