Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Robert Florey, the French Expressionist by Brian Taves

Here is a book well worth recommending, Robert Florey, the French Expressionist by Brian Taves. Originally published in hardback by Scarecrow Press in 1986, Taves groundbreaking work was reissued last year in softcover by BearManor Media.

Florey is a director of great accomplishment perhaps best known to fans of Louise Brooks as the director of King of Gamblers (1937), a terrific little proto-noir crime film in which Brooks had a small role. (Her part was later cut).

King of Gamblers is a low-budget gangster film in which Akim Tamiroff takes an unusual featured role as a slot-machine racketeer whose bombing of an uncooperative barber shop leads to a murder charge. (The film was also known as Czar of the Slot Machines.)

By her own account, Brooks accepted a bit part in the film because the director "specialized in giving jobs to destitute and sufficiently grateful actresses," referring both to herself and to Evelyn Brent , who also had a role. King of Gamblers is extensively discussed in Taves' book. (During his career, Florey also worked with actress Anna May Wong. That's her on the cover.)

From the publisher: "Discover the remarkable film career of Robert Florey, in Robert Florey: The French Expressionist by Brian Taves. During almost a half-century in the movies, from 1916 to 1963, Robert Florey directed sixty five features and 220 television films at most of the major studios. His greatest success came in thrillers, scripting the original Frankenstein and directing such horror classics as Murders in the Rue Morgue with Bela Lugosi and The Beast with Five Fingers with Peter Lorre.


Robert Florey (far left) looks over Louise Brooks shoulder,
as Evelyn Brent (far right) looks on.

Displaying skill in many genres, Florey also co-directed two renowned comedies, The Cocoanuts with The Marx Brothers and Monsieur Verdoux with Charlie Chaplin. Florey was always known as an artist, gaining fame first through his experimental avant-garde shorts, such as The Life and Death of 9413 - a Hollywood Extra, and he is renowned for directing episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series.

His features remained distinctive for integrating European filmmaking styles into the Hollywood studio system. Author Brian Taves takes advantage of numerous primary sources, including studio archives, interviews with associates, and access to all of Florey's papers. Taves thoroughly analyzes and locates Florey's films within the context of the times, relating them to such topics as the influence of expressionism and other techniques, the realm of the "B" film, the position of the contract director in the studio system, and the transition of movie talent to television.

This new edition of a book out of print since 1995 delves more deeply into Florey's remarkable career. In addition to a Bibliography, the book contains several appendixes, including a Filmography, a Television Filmography, and "Charles Chaplin's Tirade Between Takes of Monsieur Verdoux" (transcribed by Robert Florey), as well as an Index."

"A book on Florey is long overdue… Now the job has been done, and done magnificently…. I’ve already used the book in one of my film history courses, and I hope it’ll find is way on to a lot of university shelves. And for the film history enthusiast, it’s a must…. Worth every penny…” -- William K. Everson, Films in Review

 "A crucial biography in the study of film history. Robert Florey, the French Expressionist reveals deep insight about the important director thanks to skilled writing and access to rare archival materials." -- Gary Rhodes, Film historian and Bela Lugosi biographer

“One of the most ambitious studies of a director who worked largely in B filmmaking…” -- Kristin Thompson, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Essential…. An epic work that every horror fan should own…. The depth of interpretation of Florey’s style, his background, his detailed film career as recreated by Taves is simply gripping in its detail.” -- Gary J. Svehla, Midnight Marquee



About the author: Brian Taves is author of a range of books on film history and popular culture, from the silent cinema to the era of television, on genres from science fiction to historical adventures. Taves earned his doctorate in Cinema-Television Critical Studies at the University of Southern California in 1988 and has been a film archivist with the Library of Congress since 1990.

The newest book by Taves, Hollywood Presents Jules Verne, chronicles more than a century of adaptations of the science fiction pioneer's stories to the screen. Taves has been the author of countless articles on Verne over the last thirty years, and edited and coauthored The Jules Verne Encyclopedia (1996), a Locus nominee for Best Nonfiction Book. Taves is currently editing the Palik Series, stories and plays by Verne never before translated into English, for the North American Jules Verne Society, published by BearManor Fiction.

Taves wrote the first biography of the acclaimed silent movie producer, Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer (University Press of Kentucky, 2011) , a volume named to the "ten best" film books of 2011 on Huffington Post, and chosen by Turner Classic Movies channel (TCM) as their "book-of-the-month" for January 2012.

Examining different film making professions, Taves wrote his first book on director Robert Florey. Taves explored the career of P.G. Wodehouse as a screenwriter, commentator on Hollywood, and the source of numerous screen adaptations (McFarland, 2006).

In a series of volumes, Taves offered the first scholarly examination of the historical adventure genre. He examined the genre first in film and television, in The Romance of Adventure (University Press of Mississippi, 1993), then delineated one of its most distinctive authors, Talbot Mundy, Philosopher of Adventure (McFarland, 2005), following it with a critical anthology of Mundy stories, articles, and poems which had never appeared in book form before, Winds From the East (Ariel Press, 2006).

Friday, April 24, 2015

Louise Brooks co-stars: Alice Roberts & André Roanne together

Here is something a little unusual, a couple of film stills featuring Louise Brooks' one-time European co-stars, Alice Roberts & André Roanne, in a scene from the French film, Quand nous étions deux (1930). Roberts & Roanne are the leads in this Léonce Perret directed production. Each image is currently for sale on eBay.

Alice Roberts (29 July 1906 – 29 October 1985) was a Belgian actress active from the late 1920s to the late 1930s. She is best-remembered for her role in G.W. Pabst's German silent, Pandora's Box (1929). The film was memorable due to the overt lesbian overtures between Roberts' character, the Countess Geschwitz, and Brooks' character, Lulu.

André Roanne (22 September 1896 – 4 September 1959) was a French actor. He began his career playing in short films, and acted in 91 films in total, most notably those of Fernandel. Most of his films were French productions; he did, however, also appear in German and Italian works. He also served occasionally as an assistant director, screenwriter, technician, and film editor. Roanne is best known in these circles as the dissolute Count Nicolas Osdorff in G.W. Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl (1929).

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Top Ten Louise Brooks character names

Longtime Louise Brooks Society member Mark Armstrong-Roper, from Melbourne, Australia, composed a top ten list of Louise Brooks character names. Mark emailed "I composed the list below for my own amusement, thought you might like it too." 

Top Ten Louise Brooks character names:

Lulu (Pandora’s Box)
Snuggles Joy (City Gone Wild)
Fox Trot (Evening Clothes)
Mademoiselle Godiva (A Girl in Every Port)
Kitty Laverne (A Social Celebrity)
Thelma Temple (It Pays to Advertise)
Thymiane (Diary of a Lost Girl)
Boots Boone (Empty Saddles)
Lucienne (Prix de Beaute)
Miss Bayport (American Venus)

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Pandora's Box, aka LouLou, aka La Boite de Pandore - starring Louise Brooks

Pandora's Box, aka LouLou, aka La Boite de Pandore, screens today at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.  And coincidentally, today, this colorful vintage Belgian movie poster (measuring 23 x 32 inches) was listed for sale on eBay at $18,500. Its a lulu all-right. (Notice that Alice Robert, a Belgian actress, was given second billing ahead of Fritz Kortner, an already well established German actor.)


Monday, April 20, 2015

Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks plays in Rochester, New York on April 21

The George Eastman House in Rochester, New York will be screening the classic 1929 German silent, Pandora's Box, on April 21st. The film, which will be shown in the Dryden Theater at 8pm, stars Louise Brooks as Lulu. (Undoubtedly, Louise Brooks watched this film in this  theater.)

Here is what the GEH website says:

(Die Büchse der Pandora, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Germany 1929, 133 min., 35mm)

"For James Card, there was only one Louise Brooks. The cineaste referred to his lifelong infatuation as an emotional devotion that had begun at the age of 14, calling Brooks an inadvertent femme fatale who could in no way be coquettish or even deliberately seductive—ideal for the role of Lulu in Pandora’s Box, heroine of Frank Wedekind’s beloved German plays. An innocently immoral sexual predator, Lulu discards and destroys men as she tries to get ahead, until she meets Jack the Ripper. The steamy story is a tangled web of intrigue and deception—the camera work, sets, and direction brilliantly economical, powerfully simple."

“Pabst’s was the keyhole system: I’ll put your eye to the keyhole—become a voyeur of this scene and make of it what you will. A viewer is forced to participate intellectually in a Pabst film.” – James Card

Live piano by Philip C. Carli.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Louise Brooks Society - new cards


Here is one of the new Louise Brooks Society business cards. Methinks its looks good.... Also please note the new email address for the LBS. (Apologies to those who may have sent email to the old pandorasbox.com email account and had their message bounce or lost. The LBS account had been overwhelmed by spam in the recent past. Curses to spammers everywhere!)

Front of card

Back of card




Thursday, April 16, 2015

Happy birthday Charlie Chaplin, from the Louise Brooks Society

Happy birthday to Charlie Chaplin, from the Louise Brooks Society. In this excerpt from the 1986 BBC Arena documentary on Louise Brooks, the actress looks back on her summer long affair with the famed actor.

Listen to Louise Brooks on Arena describe her two months summer romance with Chaplin, during one of his visits to New York for the premiere of 'The Gold Rush' in 1925.

From: Louise Brooks (1986). Directors: Charles Chabot and Richard Leacock. Series editor: Anthony Wall. Narration by Linda Hunt.


Happy birthday Charlie Chaplin! (16th of April 1889)Listen to Louise Brooks on Arena describe her two months summer romance with Chaplin, during one of his visits to New York for the premiere of 'The Gold Rush' in 1925.From: Louise Brooks (1986). Directors: Charles Chabot and Richard Leacock. Series editor: Anthony Wall.#arenaoftheday
Posted by BBC Arena on Thursday, April 16, 2015



Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) in a Little Free Library


There is a Little Lending Library on Vicksburg street (just off 24th) in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. My wife and I pass by it occasionally while walking our dogs, Sherlock and Buster (aka "Sherlock Jr.").

For those not familiar with the concept, little lending libraries or little free libraries are small "take a book, return a book" gathering places where neighbors share favorite books and literature. In its basic form, a Little Free Library is a box or shelf full of books where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and return another to share.

This local little free library was stocked with a number of good reads, like Jane Smiley's Moo, T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, and Jean Cocteau's Diary of an Unknown. When I saw that latter title, it occurred to me to donate a copy of Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition), which I edited and published back in 2010. I hope my neighbors like it. Here are a few snapshots of the book in situ.


Curious to know which libraries around the world have a copy of The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition) in their collection, besides the Wichita Public Library, George Eastman House, or Motion Picture Academy? Check out the book's WorldCat listing.  More information about The Diary of a Lost Girl may be found HERE.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Bruz Fletcher - Louise Brooks' Gay Friend from Indiana

A timely look back. . . . at Louise Brooks' gay friend from Indiana, the one-and-only Bruz Fletcher.

Chances are, even the most ardent Louise Brooks devotee will not have heard of Bruz Fletcher (1906 - 1941), a 1930s recording artist and entertainer. Tyler Alpern's groundbreaking book, Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & a Riotous Vamp (Blurb.com, 2010), tells the story of this multi-talented performer, composer, novelist, and artist. At the heart of Alpern's book, and Fletcher's life, was his sexuality. Fletcher was queer – an entertainer associated with the Pansy Craze of pre-WWII America – and about as out as one could be in the 1930s. Fletcher was also friends with Louise Brooks. In fact, in 1935 the two performed on the same bill for a few weeks at The Patio, a Palm Beach, Florida nightclub (see advertisement below). A few years later, Brooks was also known to frequent Fletcher’s nightclub performances at Club Bali in Hollywood.

In the late 1930s, Fletcher was a fixture on the Hollywood scene. His name regularly shows up in society and gossip columns of the time. As a popular local nightclub act, many film world celebrities saw him perform at the Club Bali, where his campy though coded routine was showcased. According to newspaper accounts of the time, Brooks saw Fletcher perform on at least five different occasions in 1937 and 1938. The well known costume designer Travis Banton, who was also gay, was her companion on at least two of those outings.

Brooks plays only a small role in Fletcher’s story, though their connections went beyond social encounters. Earlier on in 1929, for example, Fletcher appeared on stage with Brooks’ American Venus co-star, Esther Ralston. Fletcher wrote her act, his partner Casey Roberts designed her gowns, and together they played to packed houses in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and elsewhere. Fletcher also wrote songs for Peggy Fears, another one-time friend and fellow performer of Brooks (in the Ziegfeld Follies). Over the years, Fletcher wrote material and sometimes toured with other silent era films stars, including Leatrice Joy.

Brooks’ sexual orientation – and attitudes towards gays and lesbians – has been a matter of some debate. Was she straight, or bi-curious, or simply open to possibilities? In her apparent friendship with Fletcher, we find yet one more example of a homosexual or lesbian with whom Brooks associated. (Another example is Pepi Lederer, Marion Davies niece.)

Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & a Riotous Vamp pieces together the story of how Fletcher came to associate with early Hollywood stars – and how he came to enjoy a celebrated run at the Club Bali. It was the pinnacle of his all-to-brief career.

Notably, Fletcher's record-breaking four-year run at Club Bali (8804 Sunset Blvd.) had been originally been booked for just two weeks in 1935, but was so popular that it ran until early 1940. In 1938, Los Angeles Times columnist Hedda Hopper wrote that entertainer had the longest local run in nightclubs of anyone she could remember, and that was two years before Fletcher's run ended. (Others who checked out Fletcher's act included Humprhey Bogart, Beatrice Lillie, Norma Talmadge, Ronald Reagan, Howard Hughes, and Gypsy Rose Lee.) Remarkably, Fletcher was mentioned in the Los Angeles Times nearly two hundred times during his Club Bali run.



Fletcher was born to one of the wealthiest and most dysfunctional families in Indiana. It’s said that Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons was inspired, in part, by the Fletcher family. (The Magnificent Ambersons was later turned into a magnificent film by Orson Welles.) In fact, Fletcher’s Aunt married the popular Pulitzer Prize winning novelist.

Fletcher’s father lost the fortune his family had built over generations, only to became an elevator operator in Tarzana, California. Bruz Fletcher ran away from home at age 8, and later attempted suicide as a teen. While home from school for the holidays, his mother and grandmother drank poison in committing a double suicide. His older sister escaped family life and lived as a man, joined a Broadway show, then went to Germany where she was jilted by a count. Later, she was committed to an asylum and was arrested for attacking the fraudulent Lady Bathurst before dying at age 24.

In his short life, Fletcher would twice live a rags-to-riches experience. As an entertainer, he overcame it all and sparkled as he performed nightly in glamorous high society nightclubs, delighting his often well-known patrons with his witty, sophisticated and often risqué songs.

Though he killed himself at age 34 in 1941, Fletcher left behind three albums of remarkable songs as well as two novels that give colorful and candid glimpses into his world – a world populated by society dowagers, misfits, celebrities, addicts, servants, lovers and eccentrics that covered a variety of sexualities and mores.

Six years in the making, Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & a Riotous Vamp tells the story of one of the forgotten pre-Stonewall artists whose story has only recently come to light. It is heavily illustrated, and contains lyrics to most of Fletcher’s songs, contributions from family members, collectors, and fans. Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & a Riotous Vamp is a remarkable book because it tells such a remarkable story.

Besides his book, Alpern compiled a compact disc of Fletcher’s rare recordings from the 1930s, including "Nympho-Dipso-Ego Maniac" and "She's My Most Intimate Friend" and "The Hellish Mrs. Haskell." One of the more risqué recordings is "My Doctor". Each take double entendre to the limit. Fletcher's signature song, "Drunk with Love," was daringly adopted by Frances Faye and became a standard in gay bars for decades to follow. (One of Fletcher's recording was noted by Robert Benchley, while another One of Bruz Fletcher’s records is included in Ernest Hemingway’s collection at his residence museum in Cuba.)

Originally issued by the independent Liberty Music Shop label, Fletcher’s recordings – the same ones Brooks heard, can be found on the recently issued Drunk with Love. It is available through CD Baby and amazon.com, and is well worth checking out. Because of their Brooks' connection, a few tracks can also be heard on RadioLulu.

For more info: The genesis of Tyler Alpern’s book about Bruz Fletcher is his excellent website about the entertainer at www.tyleralpern.com/bruz.html. Check it out. Tyler Alpern’s Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped & a Riotous Vamp is available through Blurb.com.

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