A Depression-era phone booth Cinderella who'd rather hustle than weep.
The street urchin Scampolo (which means, "A Nothing"), who sleeps at night in a telephone booth and earns a little money running errands for a laundry, falls in love with a despondent, out-of-work bank manager in Depression-torn Germany, and thereby becomes a woman in the eyes of other men.
Acting
Dolly Haas's feral charm—part pickpocket, part poet.
Production
Authentic Berlin street locations, Depression visible in every frame.
Director
Hans Steinhoff
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Dolly Haas fled Nazi Germany in 1936; this role captures Weimar's dying spirit of working-class resilience.
The telephone booth gimmick was real—Berlin's homeless actually used them, and the censors nearly cut it for being too depressing.
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