Showing posts with label Overland Stage Raiders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Overland Stage Raiders. Show all posts

Saturday, November 11, 2023

John Wayne & Louise Brooks Night in Russiaville, Indiana

The Kokomo-Howard County Public Library has announced it will screen the 1938 Louise Brooks film, Overland Stage Raiders, on Sunday, November 12 at 6:00 pm. This rare public screening of Brooks last film will take place at the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library (315 Mesa Dr) in Russiaville, Indiana. More information about this free event can be found HERE.

The announcement on a local TV website, WISHTV.COM (Channel 8), states: 

"Join us for a showing of 1938 release "Overland Stage Raiders," starring John Wayne and Louise Brooks. (Republic Pictures). In honor of Howard County Reads book, "The Chaperone" by Laura Moriarty, we will be showing the movie "Overland Stage Raiders." To honor the two movie stars, dress in your western duds or dress like a roarin' twenties flapper!"


That is an unusual pairing! If you can't attend this event and would like to view this little seen film, please note that it is available on DVD and Blu-ray on amazon.com and other shopping sites.

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saturday, September 3, 2022

Overland Stage Raiders to be shown at the Cherryvale Historical Museum

Louise Brooks last film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938), will be shown on September 3 at the Cherryvale Historical Museum, 215 E. Fourth St., in Cherryvale, Kansas. The a 55-minute western, which stars John Wayne and the Three Mesquiteers, will be shown on the lawn outside the museum beginning at about 7:45 p.m. 



Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Louise Brooks at a drive-in and other firsts from the 1950s

I come across a lot of unusual material while researching Louise Brooks. Here are the latest, each related to the 1938 film Overland Stage Raiders, a western from Republic Studios which featured  Brooks alongside John Wayne.

Would you believe that in 1954 Overland Stage Raiders was shown at a drive-in in Carbondale, Illinois? The film was part of a Friday-Saturday triple bill, along with another Wayne film, Lady from Louisiana (1941) and a crime drama called Million Dollar Pursuit (1951). Both films were from Republic. The following day, the drive-in was showing the more recent The Wild One (1953), starring Marlon Brando.

Pictured left is an advertisement for the Waring Auto drive-in near Carbondale. This venue opened in July, 1948 as the Waring Auto Theatre, with space for 500 cars. It was later renamed the Campus Drive-In, after its proximity to Southern Illinois University. During the 1970’s, it played mostly horror and adult movies, before closing towards the end of that decade. The drive-in has since been demolished and a hog farm s(h)its on the site today.

And that's not all....

Overland Stage Raiders was reissued in 1953, and that same year it was shown as part of a double bill alongside Zombies of the Stratosphere in Kokomo, Indiana! The film was also screened on various bills in small towns and large cities across the United States, from Paris, Texas to Detroit, Michigan, from Green Bay, Wisconsin to St. Louis, Missouri.

Zombies of the Stratosphere, for those not familiar, was a 1952 black-and-white Republic Studios serial that was the second to feature Commando Cody. Today, it is best remembered as one of the first screen appearances of a young Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), who plays one of the three Martian invaders.

Overland Stage Raiders was also shown on television numerous times between 1953 and 1959. I found listings from across the United States. It was shown in Los Angeles, California and Phoenix, Arizona and Asbury Park, New Jersey and Rochester, New York (just before Brooks moved there) and elsewhere.

Certainly, Overland Stage Raiders was the first film featuring Louise Brooks to be shown either on television or at a drive-in. The earliest television listing I came across for the film was from March 8, 1953 in Hazelton, Pennslyvania as part of "John Wayne Theater." The film then showed two days later in Los Angeles. As far as television goes, 1953 is pretty early. Pictured below is a June, 1953 advertisement for "Sunday Televiewing" in Los Angeles. KTTV is now known as Fox 11 in Southern California.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Overland Stage Raiders - A round-up of reviews

Overland Stage Raiders, Louise Brooks' last film, was officially released on this day in 1938. The film, part of the "Three Mesquiteers" series, is a western with a 20th century setting involving hijacked gold shipments, cowboys, and airplanes.

The film stars John Wayne as Stony Brooke, Ray Corrigan as Tucson Smith, Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin, Louise Brooks as Beth Hoyt, and Anthony Marsh as Ned Hoyt. 

The 55 minute Republic Pictures film is drawn from a screenplay by Luci Ward, adapted from a story by Bernard McConville and Edmond Kelso, based on characters by William Colt McDonald. The director was George Sherman. The film was not as widely shown as other Brooks films. Here is a round up of a few magazine and newspaper reviews and articles drawn from the Louise Brooks Society archive.


Parson, Louella. "Hedy is Excited Over Next Film." August 5, 1938.
--- "Louise Brooks, who used to get glamour girl publicity about her famous legs, is starting all over again as a leading lady in a Western with John Wayne."

anonymous. "Reviews of the New Films." Film Daily, September 28, 1938.
--- "Fast-moving cowboy and bandit story will entertain the western fans. . . . Louise Brooks makes an appearance as the female attraction."

anonymous. "Overland Stage Raiders." Variety, September 28, 1938.
--- "This series improves with each new adventure. . . . Should please juveniles and elders alike."

East Coast Preview Committee. Fox West Coast Bulletin, October 15, 1938.
--- "The production is wellacted and directed and presents several novel touches, as well as excellent photography."

East Coast Preview Committee. "Overland Stage Raiders (Republic)." Selected Motion Pictures, November 1, 1938.
--- capsule review; "The production is well acted and directed and presents several novel touches, as well as excellent photography."

anonymous. "Movie Guide." St. Lawrence Plain Dealer, January 24, 1939.
--- "Fast moving cowboy and bandit story will entertain the western fans. Children, exciting." 


Thursday, April 3, 2014

Overland Stage Raiders, starring John Wayne

To mark the publication of Scott Eyman's terrific new book, John Wayne the Life and Legend (just out from Simon and Schuster), here are a couple of lobby cards from the one film John Wayne and Louise Brooks appeared in together, Overland Stage Raiders. Eyman devotes half-a-page to the 55 minute Western, which was released in 1938.

Though a minor film, its making was a key moment in the career's of both actors. Overland Stage Raiders was the last film Brooks would make. Her 13 year career was over. Wayne, only a year younger, just just getting started: he would soon rocket to stardom in Stagecoach (1939), directed by John Ford. Read more about Eyman's new book at the publisher's website (or check out the previous entry here on the Louise Brooks Society blog).



Wednesday, April 2, 2014

New book: John Wayne the Life and Legend, by Scott Eyman

Scott Eyman, the author of eleven books and the critically acclaimed biographer of Hollywood legends Mary Pickford, Ernst Lubitsch, Cecil B. DeMille, Louis B. Mayer, and John Ford (as well as the author of highly recommended study The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930), has now penned a great big detailed and highly readable biography of John Wayne. Eyman's new book, John Wayne the Life and Legend, is just out from Simon and Schuster. It mines new sources and new material to bring readers the definitive biography of the legendary leading man. Learn more, read more, about this terrific new book at the publisher's website.


According to the publisher, "John Wayne was one of Hollywood’s most famous and most successful actors, but he was more than that. He became a symbol of America itself. He epitomized the Western film, which for many people epitomized America. He identified with conservative political causes from the early 1930s to his death in 1979, making him a hero to one generation of Americans and a villain to another. But unlike fellow actor Ronald Reagan, Wayne had no interest in politics as a career. Like many stars, he altered his life story, claiming to have become an actor almost by accident when in fact he had studied drama and aspired to act for most of his youth. He married three times, all to Latina women, and conducted a lengthy affair with Marlene Dietrich, as unlikely a romantic partner as one could imagine for the Duke. Wayne projected dignity, integrity, and strength in all his films, even when his characters were flawed, and whatever character he played was always prepared to confront injustice in his own way. More than thirty years after his death, he remains the standard by which male stars are judged and an actor whose morally unambiguous films continue to attract sizeable audiences.

Scott Eyman interviewed Wayne, as well as many family members, and he has drawn on previously unpublished reminiscences from friends and associates of the Duke in this biography, as well as documents from his production company that shed light on Wayne’s business affairs. He traces Wayne from his childhood to his stardom in Stagecoach and dozens of films after that. Eyman perceptively analyzes Wayne’s relationship with John Ford, the director with whom he’s most associated and who made some of Wayne’s greatest films, among them She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, and The Searchers. His evaluation of Wayne himself is shrewd: a skilled actor who was reluctant to step outside his comfort zone. Wayne was self-aware; he once said, 'I’ve played the kind of man I’d like to have been'."

This past weekend, director Peter Bogdanovich gave the book a great review in the New York Times. Read his review here.

As fans of Louise Brooks know, the actress appeared in one film with John Wayne, Overland Stage Raiders, from 1938. The film, which features a group of characters called the "Three Mesquiteers" (a play on the French "Three Musketeers") is set in the modern-day West, where buses bearing gold shipments to the East are being hijacked. To thwart the bad guys, the Mesquiteers ride their horses and even use an airplane to track the buses and capture the crooks. Brooks has a supporting role in the 55 minute film. Long available on VHS, Overland Stage Raiders was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2012 by Olive films.

The "Three Mesquiteers" was the overall title of a series of 51 B-westerns released by Republic Studios between 1936 and 1943. The films feature characters Stony Brooke, Tucson Smith, Lullaby Joslin, and Rusty Joslin. Over the run of the series, each were played by various B-western stars.

John Wayne, Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune along with Louise Brooks
Overland Stage Raiders marked Wayne's second appearance in the series. Wayne took over the role of Stony Brooke in 1938, and appeared in eight Mesquiteer films over the course two years. During that time, he was joined by Ray Corrigan as Tucson Smith and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin in six films, while former silent film star Raymond Hatton (who starred alongside Brooks in Now We're in the Air) played Rusty Joslin in two more films. All eight Mesquiteer films featuring Wayne were directed by George Sherman.

Eyman devotes about half-a-page in his new book to Overland Stage Raiders. Eyman writes, "It's a fairly standard Mesquiteer's picture, except for the fact that the leading lady was Louise Brooks, the luminous erotic icon of G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box, who drank and talked her way out of a potentially great career."

Eyman goes on to quote Brooks. "At sunrise one August morning I was driven in a company car to location on the ranch where Republic shot all its westerns. Where was I supposed to go I wondered, after I got out of the car and stood alone in a cloud of dust kicked up by a passing string of horses. . . . Up the road a bunch of cowboys were talking and laughing with two men who had stood slightly apart from them. When the company car honked for them to get off the road, the two men looked around saw me, and came to greet me. One was a cherub, five feet tall carrying a bound smile; the other was a cowboy, six feet four inches tall, wearing a lovely smile. The cherub, who was the director, George Sherman introduced me to the cowboy who was John Wayne ..... Looking up at him I thought, this is no actor but the hero of all mythology miraculously brought to life."

Louise Brooks and John Wayne at the
wrap party for Overland Stage Raiders.
Along with Empty Saddles (1936), an earlier B-Western starring Buck Jones, Overland Stage Raiders is one of the more atypical and least interesting films to feature Brooks. Why did she do it? When asked in later years, Brooks replied that she needed the money. "I felt that I was reaching the end of my career in 1938. . . . the sorely needed $300 salary did little to cheer me up at the prospect of working in a typical Hollywood western whose unreality disgusted me." This prosaic programmer turned out to be the last film Brooks ever made.

At the height of Wayne's popularity in the 1950's and 1960's, a number of his earlier films were reissued, including Overland Stage Raiders. These re-releases were screened in theaters, usually local revival houses, and shown on local television, often as the "afternoon movie." In all likelihood, Overland Stage Raiders marked one of Louise Brooks' very first appearances on American television.


Here is the trailer from the 1950s reissue of Overland Stage Raiders. Unfortunately, it doesn't include any footage of Brooks, as the original 1938 trailer had. At the time, Brooks was largely forgotten and wasn't considered a draw. Likewise, the posters, lobby cards and other promotional materials from the time also left-off Brooks' name.


If you have an interest in John Wayne and like reading film biographies, the Louise Brooks Society highly recommends this new book by Scott Eyman. Wayne started in films during the silent era, and John Wayne the Life and Legend is a detailed, revelatory study of one of the longest lasting careers in Hollywood history. The early notices have been rightly positive.

“Scott Eyman has taken a legend and a statue and given us an odd, decent, muddled but deeply likeable man. That’s what makes this book so readable and so touching.” (David Thomson, author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film and Moments That Made the Movies)

“Drawing deeply on interviews with family and friends, acclaimed biographer Eyman colorfully chronicles Wayne’s life and work. . . . Compulsively readable.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

"A fine show-biz biography, delivering what fans want about the star’s career but probing with uncommon depth into his personality.” (Booklist)

Friday, December 14, 2012

Recommended New Releases for the Louise Brooks Fan

It’s that time of the year when critics, journalists, bloggers and others issue their "Best of" lists - the year’s recommended new releases in the world of books, movies, music and more. Here's the best of 2012 with a twist, exceptional new releases for fans of the silent film star Louise Brooks.

Like last year, 2012 saw the release of a small but distinguished number of new releases related to the legendary silent film star. Prominent among them is Laura Moriarty's widely acclaimed bestselling novel, The Chaperone, as well as a handful of DVD's including the first ever DVD release of Brooks' last film, Overland Stage Raiders. Fans of the actress will want to check out all of these recent releases.


In 1922, only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star, fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks left Wichita, Kansas to study dance in New York City. Accompanying Brooks was her thirty-six-year-old, somewhat stodgy neighbor, who acted as chaperone. Based on these few facts, Laura Moriarty has penned a captivating, quietly powerful, and moving historical novel about these two woman and the summer they spent together which changed them both. Both critically acclaimed and a New York Times bestseller, this new book is highly recommended. Also available as an audio book read by actress Elizabeth McGovern. (Riverhead)



DVD-R: God's Gift to Women, directed by Michael Curtiz

It's no secret that Louise Brooks appeared in mostly mediocre sound films. With her career in decline, the one-time silent era star took what roles came her way in the sound era. God's Gift to Women, one of three films she made in 1931, is easily the actress' best talkie. It is also an enjoyable pre-Code romp, a comedy about romance with an impressive cast that includes Frank Fay, Laura La Plante, Joan Blondell, Charles Winninger, Yola d'Avril and Margaret Livingston (Brooks' voice double in The Canary Murder Case). Brooks doesn't have a very big part in this farce, but she makes an impression in a bedroom scene when some of the film's pulchritude gets into a cat fight.  (Warner Archive)


BOOK: Valentina come Louise Brooks. Il libro nascosto, edited by Vincenzo Mollica and Antonio Crepax.

This Italian book was the companion publication to "Valentina Movie," an exhibit held this past summer at the Palazzo Incontro in Rome. It featured the work of the late Italian comix artist Guido Crepax, a longtime admirer of Louise Brooks. The exhibit detailed the influence the actress had on the creation and development of Crepax's best known creation, Valentina, a popular character who appeared in numerous comic strips, graphic novels, books, and spin-off films. Whether or not you read Italian, the dedicated fan will want to own this illustrated book. (Fandango Libri)





Louise Brooks' film career came to an end in 1938 with a supporting role in Overland Stage Raiders, a B-western starring a young John Wayne. This new release marks the film's first official release on DVD and Blu-Ray. (It had been released on VHS some years ago, and is now hard to find.) Said to be only for the John Wayne or Louise Brooks completist, Overland Stage Raiders (presented here in a 1950's revival print) is worth watching at least once. Brooks, 32 years old and sporting a new look, is still alluring and holds her own in what is essentially a guy's film. (Olive Films)





While a young man in the early 1980s, Berkal had the almost unique experience of meeting and befriending  the then older and reclusive Louise Brooks. The story of that friendship is chronicled in this self-published, ebook-only release. (It is also referenced in Barry Paris' 1989 biography.) Benevolent Siren is a brief recounting, which in the end leaves you wanting more. (Smashwords) Also keep in mind Youthful Places, a small collection of poetry also by Berkal. It contains "MLB," a poem about and dedicated to the actress. (Amazon Digital Services)




DVD/BluRay: La Canarina Assassinita (Canary Murder Case), directed by Malcolm St. Clair. 

The Canary Murder Case (1929), with Brooks in the title role of the "Canary," has not yet been released on DVD in the United States. But it has been, at least twice, in Italy. This new release is the latest out of Europe. Not seen at time of review. (Ermitage Cinema) Also keep in mind Mystery Movies Series of 1930's Hollywood, by Ron Backer. This recommended book opens with The Canary Murder Case and details the many subsequent Philo Vance films which followed. (McFarland)






This collection of academic essays on popular German literature of the late nineteenth century includes "Taking Sex to Market: Tagebuch einer Verlorenen: Von einerToten and Josefine Mutzenbacher, Die Lebensgeschichte einer wienerischen Dirne, von ihr selbst erzählt," by the English academic Elizabeth Boa. The essay, by a noted German scholar whose fields of interest include Frank Wedekind, looks at the book which was the basis for the 1929 Louise Brooks' film, The Diary of a Lost Girl.  That book was Margarete Bohme's Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, a controversial bestseller which sold more than 1.2 million copies. In its review of this new book, the Times Literary Supplement said, "The essays are often fascinating and always informative. The best of them make their arguments against the forgetting of their once-bestselling authors exciting. They share a passion for getting to the bottom of why, in or outside Germany, we know so little about books that were, in the main, not just flashes in the pan, as they often endured for up to a century." That's true for Boa's take on Bohme's still valuable and provocative work. (Camden House)

ALSO KEEP IN MIND....


Colleen Moore was the cute-as-a-button silent era actress who first achieved stardom in Flaming Youth (1923). It was in that film, in which Moore plays a flapper, that the actress first sported bobbed-hair. That was also a couple years before Louise Brooks entered films and made her own mark. Both actresses were known for their signature look, a straight bob with bangs, and that fact has led some to wonder who first wore the iconic hair style. Codori discusses that question and more in this appealing biography. (McFarland)




Mae Murray, popularly known as "the girl with the bee-stung lips," was a fiery presence in silent-era Hollywood. Renowned for her sultry beauty, Murray rocketed to stardom as a dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies before entering films. She appeared in The Delicious Little Devil (1919), Jazzmania (1923), and most famously, The Merry Widow (1925). With the coming of sound, her career went into decline, and eventually Murray found herself nearly destitute. The parallels with Louise Brooks' career are striking. This highly recommended biography, featuring much original research, includes never before published observations about Murray drawn from Brooks' letters to Kevin Brownlow.  (University Press of Kentucky)

Monday, September 17, 2012

Overland Stage Raiders coming on DVD

Good news: the Louise Brooks film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938), will be released on DVD and BluRay on October 2 by Olive Films. This marks the first time Brooks' last film has been released on disc. The film had previously been issued on VHS in 1997.

Here is what the Olive Films website has to say: "The Three Mesquiteers was the umbrella title for a series of fifty-one B-westerns released between 1936 and 1943. The films featured the characters Stony Brooke, Tucson Smith and Lullaby Joslin or Rusty Joslin as the threesome; played by many B-western stars of that era. In 1938, John Wayne took over for Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke and starred in eight Mesquiteers films between 1938 and 1939, he was joined by Ray Corrigan as Tucson Smith and Max Terhune as Lullaby Joslin for the first six and Raymond Hatton as Rusty Joslin for the last two… all eight films were directed by George Sherman (Big Jake). John Ford’s Stagecoach was perfectly sandwiched between the eight films and John Wayne portrayal of the outlaw gunfighter made him a superstar and ended Wayne’s Stony Brooke run… Livingston was rehired as Brooke and went on to make fourteen more Mesquiteers films and for an incredible total of twenty-nine. Overland Stage Raiders (the second of eight Wayne Mesquiteers films) co-stars silent film icon, Louise Brooks (in her final performance) and Anthony Marsh as siblings who partner up with the three amigos to save their struggling airline, standing in their way is an evil business man and his band of outlaws."

More on this new release once it is out.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Beggars of Life in Singapore, Overland Stage Raiders on TV

The recent screening of Beggars of Life at the Cinefamily theater in Los Angeles may have got some wondering about its source material, Jim Tully's novelistic memoir of the same name, and the film made from it. Tully's 1925 book is described as a "bestseller" and the 1928 William Wellman directed film one of the more acclaimed films in the year it was released. 

But just how big were they? 

Recently, while digging through some Singapore newspapers from the 1920's I came across these two items, each advertisements. The first is a booksellers advertisement listing some new books for sale. It dates from 1931. And there, among the 35 cent novels being offered - likely reprints or today's equivalent of the paperback, is Jim Tully's Beggars of Life. Some of the other books offered were by H.G. Wells and Nobel Prize winner John Galsworthy.


The other Tully item I came across is this advertisement for some records for sale. It dates from 1929. Among the records listed is a vocal waltz recording of Beggars of Life, which was the theme song for the movie of the same name. It was recorded by a few different artists, so I am not sure who performed on this one.


I show these two items in order to make a small point: Jim Tully and his book got around. Even  around the world, and all the way to Singapore. Was Beggars of Life shown there? I am not sure. Many of Louise Brooks' films showed in Singapore in the 1920's and early 1930's, though I have yet to come across a listing or advertisement or clipping for Beggars of Life. However, I did come across something else a bit unusual - a listing for Overland Stage Raiders (1938), Brooks' last film. This is a 1976 clipping listing programing on Singapore television. Overland Stage Raiders followed coverage of the XXI Olympics held in Montreal, Canada. Brooks is given forth billing after John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, and Max Terhune.


Thursday, January 21, 2010

John Wayne's West: In Music and Poster Art

A follow-up to the previous blog . . . . Late last year, Bear Family Records released a massive and rather expensive 11 disc set called John Wayne's West: In Music and Poster Art. Though Bear Family (who are known for issuing large retrospective collections) is an European company, the set is available in the United States. The amazon.com listing for the set can be found here. (There's also one currently for sale on eBay.)


This impressive set includes the soundtrack music to John Wayne's numerous westerns (he made a lot of them), including all the title songs by the original artists as well as songs inspired by the movies. Also included is a 464-page LP-sized book with a biography by historian Richard W. Bann, and reproductions of hundreds of western movie posters as well as stills and lobby cards. A bonus DVD contains trailers and exclusive 'behind-the-scenes' footage.

I don't count myself a John Wayne fan. But what caught my eye, or rather my ear, about this set is the inclusion of a single track among the 10 audio discs. Track 51 on disc 8 is the orchestral sequence from Overland Stage Raiders, the 1938 B-western John Wayne made with Louise Brooks. That film was Brooks' last.



The Louise Brooks Society would be interested in finding out to what degree Overland Stage Raiders is represented in the book included in this set. And, if any Louise Brooks / John Wayne fans want to spring for a copy of John Wayne's West: In Music and Poster Art for the LBS archives . . . . well then, step right up partner.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Overland Stage Raiders highlighted in new book

McFarland & Company, one of the world's leading publishers of film books, has just released Western Film Series of the Sound Era. This 475 page hardcover book, by Michael R. Pitts, is an impressive reference work.

Pitts is the author of 30 earlier books, including Poverty Row Studios, 1929-1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies (McFarland), and the two volume Famous Movie Detectives (Scarecrow Press). Those notable works, like Western Film Series of the Sound Era, touch on the career of Louise Brooks.


The western was hugely popular genre in the 1930s, and it packed cinemas during the early sound era. This volume covers 30 western film series produced from the mid 1930s to the early 1950s. Included are such long-running series as Hopalong Cassidy, The Durango Kid, and The Three Mesquiteers, as well as those that had moderate or brief runs like The Singing Cowgirl and The Texas Rangers. There are also chapters on The Cisco Kid and The Lone Ranger. Major stars like John Wayne, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, Tim McCoy, and Johnny Mack Brown headlined such popular fare.  

Western Film Series of the Sound Era contains a plot synopsis and analysis of each series, it's place in cinema history, photographs, illustrations, a bibliography and a detailed filmography. Western Film Series of the Sound Era does not contain material on Empty Saddles (1936), the western Brooks made near the end of her film career. That film starred Buck Jones and was a stand alone - and thus is not included in this new book devoted to series films.

However, Western Film Series of the Sound Era does contain a substantial chapter on the many films made under The Three Mesquiteers banner. One of them, Overland Stage Raiders (1938), was the last in which Louise Brooks had a role. It starred a youthful John Wayne, who would soon find film immortality as the Ringo Kid in John Ford's Stage Coach (1939). Brooks wrote about Wayne in an uncollected essay, "Duke by Divine Right."

Pitts' book has interesting background material on The Three Mesquiteers series (it's history and changing actors), as well as on the making of Overland Stage Raiders. For example, I hadn't known that the silent film star Raymond Hatton, who appeared along side Brooks in Now We're in the Air (1928), later appeared in the The Three Mesquiteers series. Brooks herself is mentioned on page 352, and the author notes that the actress "was paid $300 for her work in the Republic feature." Pitts also encapsulates the film's admittedly "rather complicated plot."

Western Film Series of the Sound Era is available on-line and at better bookstores. Check it out.

Monday, December 6, 2004

Overland Stage Raiders


Louise Brooks' last film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938), will be broadcast in the United States on the STARZ Westerns cable station on December 8th at 1:15 pm, and again on December 21st at 4:30 pm and December 28th at 4:00 am. It will also be shown on the MOVIEplex cable station on December 8th at 2:15 pm. Consult your local listing for further deatils.
Overland Stage Raiders (1938) is not a great film, but is worth seeing because Louise Brooks is featured in it. Though she then sported a brushed-back 1930's hairstyle (and not her trademark bob), she still looked quite lovely at age 31. The film is approximately 55 minutes long, and is considered part of the "Three Mesquiteers" series. Brooks co-stars along with John Wayne, Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune.
Interestingly, because it starred John Wayne (before he made it big in the movies), this otherwise b-grade picture has occassionally been shown theatrically in the United States in the decades since its release. These screenings tool place in the 1940's and 1950's. The film was also shown on television in the 1970's. I wonder how many viewers then recognized the once and future Lulu?

Monday, November 10, 2003

Empty Saddles / Overland Stage Raiders

The other day, I got a flier in the male from Grapevine Video. Among their new offerings is a "Louise Brooks Double Feature" dvd-r featuring Empty Saddles and Overland Stage Raiders. The item number is #LBDFDVD abnd it retails for $14.95.

As was announced earlier, Grapevine is going out of business. So, if you are interested in this release or any of their earlier dvd-r or vhs items, the time to order is now. More info at http://www.grapevinevideo.com
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