De Lacy as August Schiller, jr., as a child Mickey McBan as Evald Betsy Ann Hisle as Charlotte Carmencita Johnson as Elizabeth Gordon Thorpe as Karl Jackie Combs as Heinrich Dean Harrell as Evald Anne Sheridan Nancy Drexel Philip Sleeman (uncredited) Production The film is a melodrama starring Emil Jannings, Belle Bennett, and Phyllis Haver. Jannings won the first Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in this film and his performance in The Last Command (the only year that acting Oscars were awarded for multiple performances). Preservation status Only two fragments survive, both from the ending, making Jannings' the only Academy Award-winning performance with no known complete copy of the film preserved. This is one of Victor Fleming's many lost silent films of the 1920s. Disputed provenance In her 1999 autobiography, Frederica Maas claimed that the idea for the movie had been stolen from her and her husband Ernest Maas. She said the story was based on the life of her husband's father, who similarly had abandoned his family after making horrible mistakes in his personal life. They named the script "Beefsteak Joe" and presented it to Emil Jannings. As a fellow German-American, Ernest had thought Jannings would help them get the script made into a movie. Instead they were shocked to learn that it had been stolen and produced without any credit or remuneration. The fact that it became an award-winning film only aggravated the situation. Remake The movie was remade in 1940 by Paramount Pictures and starred Akim Tamiroff, Gladys George, and William Henry. References External links Still at lostmediawiki.com 1927 films 1927 drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Lost American films Films set in Milwaukee Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award-winning performance Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Victor Fleming Films with screenplays by Jules Furthman 1927 lost films Lost drama films 1920s American films Silent American drama films 1920s English-language films