Sunday, October 13, 2024

A new book and a new Louise Brooks cover

A new book featuring Louise Brooks on the cover has just recently been published in The Netherlands. This 2024 book by Dorian D'Oliveira is titled In de schaduwen van de toekomst, or In the Shadows of the Future. The book is published by Uitgeverij Aspekt Aspek, and is available on amazon around the world, including amazon.com in the United States.

In translation, the Dutch description reads: "This collection of essays discusses various expressionist films. The visually enchanting Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari is used as a starting point. The dark M by Fritz Lang serves as the conclusion of In the Shadows of the Future.  

Between the lines, the reader sees Louise Brooks dancing seductively. The Polish actress Pola Negri suddenly appears as a ferocious mountain cat. Moreover, Hertha Thiele's tears keep streaming down the words as soon as Mädchen in Uniform is mentioned.  

The battle between Berlin and Hollywood was settled in the 1920s in favor of the latter dream factory. Directors such as Ernst Lubitsch, Paul Leni and Friedrich Murnau were bought away. European actresses such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich only became stars in the United States. As true goddesses from Hollywood, they then made cash registers ring worldwide.  

For a long time, expressionist films were mainly understood in relation to the two great wars that ravaged the European continent. In the new millennium, these films form the backdrop to a frenzied culture war. Woke scholars resolutely criticize Western civilization in their film interpretations. In a sense, these princely paid academics are at the front every day. All of this is described in detail in this paperback."

Dorian d'Oliveira is a cultural philosopher. In 2018, he published his first film essay in the magazine Bühne. He made his literary debut with Nachtengeltjes en driedriekjes (Aspekt 2018). After that, it was time for Lulu in Leiden: A women's history (Aspekt 2020). Films play a major role in both novellas. His essay on the American actress Barbara Stanwyck was included in the collection Markante vrouwen (Aspekt 2023).

# # # 

And here is the book's description in its original Dutch: "In deze bundeling essays worden verschillende expressionistische films besproken. Het visueel betoverende Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari wordt benut als beginpunt. Het duistere M van Fritz Lang dient als sluitstuk van In de schaduwen van de toekomst.

Tussen de regels door ziet de lezer Louise Brooks verleidelijk dansen. De Poolse actrice Pola Negri verschijnt plots als woeste bergkat. Bovendien biggelen de tranen van Hertha Thiele langs de woorden aldoor naar beneden zodra Mädchen in Uniform ter sprake komt.

De strijd tussen Berlijn en Hollywood werd in de jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw beslecht in het voordeel van laatstgenoemde droomfabriek. Regisseurs als Ernst Lubitsch, Paul Leni en Friedrich Murnau werden weggekocht. Europese actrices zoals Greta Garbo en Marlene Dietrich groeiden in de Verenigde Staten pas uit tot sterren. Als echte godinnen uit Hollywood lieten ze vervolgens wereldwijd de kassa's rinkelen.

Geruime tijd werden expressionistische films vooral begrepen in relatie tot de twee grote oorlogen die het Europese continent teisterden. In het nieuwe millennium vormen deze rolprenten het decor van een bezeten cultuurstrijd. Woke geleerden hekelen in hun filmduidingen gedecideerd de westerse beschaving. In zekere zin staan deze vorstelijk betaalde academici dagelijks aan het front. Dit alles wordt in deze paperback uitgebreid beschreven.

Dorian d'Oliveira is cultuurfilosoof. In 2018 publiceerde hij zijn eerste filmessay in tijdschrift Bühne. Zijn literaire debuut maakte hij met Nachtengeltjes en driehoekjes (Aspekt 2018). Daarna was het tijd voor Lulu in Leiden. Een vrouwengeschiedenis (Aspekt 2020). In beide novelles spelen films een grote rol. Zijn essay over de Amerikaanse actrice Barbara Stanwyck werd opgenomen in de bundel Markante vrouwen (Aspekt 2023).

# # #  

Very soon, I will add this title to the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society 250+ page website, in particular the page titled, "Louise Brooks - Contemporary Books Covers II (nonfiction)", a companion page to "Louise Brooks - Contemporary Books Covers I (fiction)".

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, to screen in Bath, England

Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at Green Park Station in Bath, England on October 20 as part of the FilmBath Festival 2024. This screening will feature a live musical accompaniment. More information about this event, including ticket availability, can be found HERE.


The promoter of the event is FilmBath. Here is what they say about the film: "Silent film & live music: Sonic Silents is a trio of masters of Bluegrass & American old-time country string-music, playing live, original, specially-composed scores to bring new life to legendary Hollywood silent movies of a long-gone era.

Presented by renowned musicians Kate Lissauer (Buffalo Gals band lead), Jason Titley and Leon Hunt, these three remarkable talents have joined together to reveal a thrilling, fresh, moving and often humorous approach to the legendary black and white Hollywood movie 'Beggars of Life', starring iconic actress Louise Brooks.

In an absorbing, poignant glimpse of a bygone time, this trio’s evocative playing and inventive percussive highlights reawaken the 1928 work of revered filmmaker William Wellman as they delight in joining the FilmBath Festival 2024

Bath Pizza Company and Bath Music Workshop Cafe will be open during the evening selling food and drinks. 

This event is part of BFI's Art of Action Season."

The first ever book on the film, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, was published by the Louise Brooks Society in 2017. The book is authored by LBS Director Thomas Gladysz, and features a foreword by author and actor William Wellman Jr. -- the son of the film's Academy Award winning Director.  (Purchase on amazon.)


More about Beggars of Life can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Beggars of Life (filmography page).

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Monday, September 30, 2024

Alpha Video Releases 3 Film Louise Brooks Collection on DVD

JUST AN FYI: Alpha Video, a budget label, has just released the Louise Brooks Collection, a three film - three disc set comprised of the Eddie Sutherland directed It's the Old Army Game (1926), the Frank Tuttle directed Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (1926), and the Howard Hawks directed A Girl in Every Port (1928). Over the previous few years, each of the three films had been released by Alpha Video on individual discs. The Louise Brooks Collection runs 219 minutes, and is available through Amazon

The Alpha Video release notes, "Louise Brooks, the most iconic actress of 1920s cinema known for her piercing eyes, athletic dancer's figure, and black helmet of bobbed hair stars in 3 films she made in America before leaving for Germany to make the groundbreaking Pandora's Box.


 

It is worth mentioning that It's the Old Army Game (starring W.C. Fields) has also been released on DVD by Kino Lorber. In my opinion, that is the preferred version. As of now, the other two films in this new release are also available elsewhere. Both Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (starring Evelyn Brent) and A Girl in Every Port (starring Victor McLaglen) are available through Grapevine Video: each of the Grapevine releases also includes a bonus short.

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Reminder, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens in Rochester, NY

This year, the now annual Silent Movie Day takes place on September 29, and to celebrate, the 95 year old Little Theater in Rochester, New York will screen Pandora's Box, which stars longtime Rochester resident Louise Brooks.

The Little Theater (240 East Ave. in Rochester) will screen Pandora's Box (1929) twice on September 29th, at 10:30 in the morning and 7:00 in the evening. More information, as well as ticket availability, can be found HERE. Thanks to Rochester resident Tim Moore for allowing me the use of this snapshot of the Little marquee.


According to the Little Theater website: "One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst had an innate talent for discovering actresses (including Greta Garbo). And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst’s lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora’s Box.

Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone she comes in contact with. Daring and stylish, Pandora’s Box is one of silent cinema’s great masterworks and a testament to Brooks’s dazzling individuality.

Restored from the best surviving 35mm elements at Haghefilm Conservation under the supervision of the Deutsche Kinemathek with the cooperation of George Eastman Museum, the Cinémathèque Française, Cineteca di Bologna, Národní filmový archiv, and Gosfilmofond."

This showing of Pandora's Box is certainly a special occasion. A local website, RochesterFirst.com, ran a story on the screening titled "The Little Theater celebrates it's 95th anniversary." It includes a WROC-TV interview with Little theater communications director Scott Pukos.

The Little Theater opened in 1929, the same year Pandora's Box was released. Over the years, it has become the area's leading venue for classic films. Notably, in the 1960s and 1970s, while Louise Brooks was living in Rochester, the then former actress would sometimes go to the Little Theater to watch movies. 

UPDATE 9/29/2024: the NPR affiliate in Rochester, WHAM, ran a story titled "Rochester's Little Theatre celebrates Silent Movie Day with 'Pandora's Box'". And what's more, the story mentions me, Louise Brooks Society director Thomas Gladysz.

More about Pandora's Box can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Pandora's Box (filmography page)

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens in Cambridge, Mass

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will screen at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Friday, September 27 and Sunday, September 29, 2024 -- as part of a venerable theater's weekend long silent film series celebrating national silent movie day. More information about the event, as well as ticket availability, can be found HERE.


The venue's brief information page states: 

New 4K Restoration!

Director: G.W. Pabst Run Time: 141 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 1929

Starring: Carl Goetz, Francis Lederer, Fritz Kortner, Krafft-Raschig, Louise Brooks

Sensationally modern, PANDORA’S BOX follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu (the legendary Louise Brooks), whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone she comes in contact with. Daring and stylish, PANDORA’S BOX is one of silent cinema’s great masterworks. – Janus Films


An article appeared in Cambridge Day, a local publication, highlighting the other silent films being shown over the weekend. The other films include Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. (1924) and The Navigator (1924), as well as Charlie Chaplin's The Circus (1928).
 
For more about the film see the newly revamped Pandora's Box filmography page on the new revamped Louise Brooks Society website.

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens in Ambler, PA

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will screen in Ambler, Pennsylvania (outside Philadelphia) on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 as part of the national silent movie day celebration. And what's more, the film will be shown with live musical accompaniment by the wonderful Ben Model. More information about the event, as well as ticket availability, can be found HERE.


According to the Ambler Theater website: "We’re celebrating Silent Movie Day with esteemed Accompanist and Film Historian Ben Model, who will join us to provide a live original score to a new restoration of one of silent cinema’s great masterworks, G.W. Pabst’s PANDORA’S BOX (1929).

German filmmaker G.W. Pabst had an innate eye for talent, which led him to cast one-time Ziegfeld girl and icon of flapper culture Louise Brooks, whose bob haircut was widely emulated. Brooks' legendary persona was suited for this modern tale of an amoral yet naive showgirl named Lulu, whose sexual vivacity leads to a downward spiral of violence. Upon release, PANDORA’S BOX was deemed lurid and controversial due to its subject matter, but the film now stands as a work of daring and stylish filmmaking. Featuring a truly enduring performance from the inimitable Brooks. In German w/ English intertitles. Presented in a new restoration. 

Restored from the best surviving 35mm elements at Haghefilm Conservation under the supervision of the Deutsche Kinemathek, with the cooperation of George Eastman Museum, and the collaboration of the Cinémathèque Française, Cineteca di Bologna, Czech Film Archive, and Gosfilmofond."


For more about the film see the newly revamped Pandora's Box filmography page on the new revamped Louise Brooks Society website.

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1928

Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1928. Directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win an Academy Award), Beggars of Life is a terse drama about a girl (Louise Brooks) dressed as a boy who flees the law after killing her abusive stepfather. With the help of a young hobo, she rides the rails through a male dominated underworld in which danger is close at hand. Picture Play magazine described the film as “Sordid, grim and unpleasant,” adding, “it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie.”

More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.


Beggars of Life is based on the 1924 novelistic memoir of the same name by Jim Tully, a celebrated “hobo author” highly regarded by H.L. Mencken and other literati of the time. Though shot as a silent and released in that format, Beggars of Life has the distinction of being Paramount’s first sound film: a synchronized musical score, sound effects, a few lines of dialogue and a song were added to some prints at the time of the film’s release. Advertisements for the film boasted “Come hear Wallace Beery sing!” The gravel-voiced character actor and future Oscar winner plays Oklahoma Red, a tough hobo with a soft heart. Richard Arlen, who the year before had starred in Wings, plays a vagabond and Brooks’ romantic interest.

In 1928, Beggars of Life was named one of the six best films for October by the Chicago Tribune; it also made the honor roll for best films of the year in an annual poll conducted by Film Daily. Musical Courier called Beggars of Life ” . . . one of the most entertaining films of the littered season.” And Photoplay thought it “good entertainment.” Nevertheless, it is not especially well known today, and its grim story set among the desperate and the downtrodden drew mixed reviews upon release. One Baltimore newspaper said it would have limited appeal, quipping, “Tully tale not a flapper fetcher for the daytime trade.”

Louella Parsons, writing in the Los Angeles Examiner, echoed the sentiment when she stated, “I was a little disappointed in Louise Brooks. She is so much more the modern flapper type, the Ziegfeld Follies girl, who wears clothes and is always gay and flippant. This girl is somber, worried to distraction and in no comedy mood. Miss Brooks is infinitely better when she has her lighter moments.” Her cross-town colleague, Harrison Carroll, added to the drumbeat of disdain when he wrote in the Los Angeles Evening Herald, “Considered from a moral standpoint, Beggars of Life is questionable, for it throws the glamour of adventure over tramp life and is occupied with building sympathy for an escaping murderess. As entertainment, however, it has tenseness and rugged earthy humor.”

Critics in New York were also divided on the merits of Beggars of Life, and many of them instead focused on Brooks’ unconventional, cross-dressing appearance. In the New York Times, Mordaunt Hall noted, “Louise Brooks figures as Nancy. She is seen for the greater part of this subject in male attire, having decided to wear these clothes to avoid being apprehended. Miss Brooks really acts well, better than she has in most of her other pictures.” The New York Morning Telegraph stated, “Louise Brooks, in a complete departure from the pert flapper that it has been her wont to portray, here definitely places herself on the map as a fine actress. Her characterizations, drawn with the utmost simplicity, is genuinely affecting.” While Quinn Martin of the New York World wrote, “Here we have Louise Brooks, that handsome brunette, playing the part of a fugitive from justice, and playing as if she meant it, and with a certain impressive authority and manner. This is the best acting this remarkable young woman has done.”

Also getting attention for their role in Beggars of Life was Edgar “Blue” Washington. The Afro-American newspaper wrote, “In Beggars of Life, Edgar Blue Washington, race star, was signed by Paramount for what is regarded as the most important Negro screen role of the year, that of Big Mose. The part is that of a sympathetic character, hardly less important to the epic of tramp life than those of Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen, who head the cast.”

Girls dressed as boys, pastoral life gone wrong, the mingling of races, desperation depicted among the glitz and glamour of the twenties — there is a lot happening in Beggars of Life. It is, arguably, Brooks’ best American silent.

Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada, China, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), France, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Scotland). In the United States, the film was presented under the title Mendigos de la Vida (Spanish-language press) and Il Mendicante di Vita (Italian language press).

Elsewhere, Beggars of Life was shown under the title Les mendiants de la vie (Algeria); Bettler des Lebens (Austria); Meias indiscretag and Mendigos da vida (Brazil); Mendigos de la Vida (Chile); Mendigos de la Vida (Costa Rica); Mendigos de la Vida (Cuba); Žebráci života and Žebráky živote (Czechoslovakia); De Lovløses Tog (Denmark); Menschen Zijn Nooit Tevreden (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Elu wõõraslapsed and Eluvõõrad hinged (Estonia); Les mendiants de la vie (France); Az élet koldusai and Az orszagutak angyala (Hungary); I mendicanti della vita (Italy); Bettler des Lebens and Dzives ubagi (Latvia); Bettlers des Lebens (Les Mendiants de la Vie) (Luxembourg); Mendigos de vida (Mexico); Menschen Zijn Nooit Tevreden and Zwervers (The Netherlands); Ludzie bezdomni (Poland); Mendigos da Vida (Portugal); Strada cersetorilor (Romania); Mendigos de vida and Los mendigos de la vida (Spain) and Captaires de vida (Spain, Catalonian language); and Les mendiants de la vie (Switzerland).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

Beggars of Life was under consideration by Paramount as early as September of 1925. 

— With an added musical score, sound effects, and a song sung by Wallace Berry (either “Hark the Bells” or “Don’t You Hear Them Bells?” or “I Wonder Where She Sits Tonight”), Beggars of Life is considered Paramount’s first sound film. In Baltimore, Beggars of Life was the first “talking sequence picture” to play in the Century Theater.

— “Beggars of Life” by J. Keirn Brennan and Karl Hajos was recorded by The Troubadours, Scrappy Lambert and other artists and released as a 78 rpm recording. The label of these recordings describe it as “Theme Song of the Motion Picture production.”

— Edgar Washington (1898 – 1970) was a prizefighter and noted semi-pro baseball player (in the Negro Leagues) before entering films in the late Teens. He was a pioneer among African-American actors, and was given the nickname “Blue” by friend Frank Capra. Also in the film in a bit part was Michael Donlin, an outfielder whose Major League career spanned from 1899 to 1914.

— In 1965, director William Wellman wanted to bring Louise Brooks to San Francisco and screen Beggars of Life as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, but it never came to be. Instead, he screened Wings for a packed house at the local Masonic auditorium.

— The first ever book on the film, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, was published by the Louise Brooks Society in 2017. The book is authored by LBS Director Thomas Gladysz, and features a foreword by author and actor William Wellman Jr.  (Purchase on amazon.)


More about Beggars of Life can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Beggars of Life (filmography page).

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Friday, September 20, 2024

Overland Stage Raiders, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1938

Overland Stage Raiders, starring John Wayne, was released on this day in 1938. It was Louise Brooks' last film. In Overland Stage Raiders, the “Three Mesquiteers” (led by Wayne) fight bad guys in the modern-day west. The “stages” being raided are buses bearing gold shipments to the east. Airborne hijackers steal the gold, but the Mesquiteers defeat the crooks and then parachute to safety. The film stars John Wayne, who was then on the brink of stardom. Brooks plays his love interest.

More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

For Brooks, Overland Stage Raiders was little more than a $300.00 paycheck. For columnists and critics, Brooks’ supporting role in this lowly B-western was yet another attempt at a comeback for a once famous star. Louella Parsons wrote “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.”

In the Fox West Coast Bulletin, the East Coast Preview Committee noted “The production is well acted and directed and presents several novel touches, as well as excellent photography.” Film Daily thought the “Fast-moving cowboy and bandit story will entertain the western fans. . . . George Sherman directed the picture, and gets a maximum of action and speed from the story.”

Variety went further, “This series improves with each new adventure. Starting out as typical cow country stories, Republic has seemingly upped the budget as successive chapters caught on. Raiders is as modern as today, yet contains plenty of cross-country hoss chases and six-shooter activity. . . . Louise Brooks is the femme appeal with nothing much to do except look glamorous in a shoulder-length straight-banged coiffure. . . . Should please juveniles and elders alike.”

Despite Brooks’ new hairstyle, and despite her appearance in this lesser film, there is little to redeem it. Brooks adored Wayne, but could not stand the humiliation of this sort of film. Overland Stage Raiders would be Louise Brooks’ last movie. She soon left Hollywood, and slid into decades-long obscurity.

As the years passed, John Wayne became of superstar, and in the 1950s his early films were re-released both in the United States and in Europe. And once gain, Overland Stage Raiders was shown in movie theaters, and in the 1960s and 1970s, on television. (Brooks was sometimes mentioned in the TV listings.) The posters and lobby cards for the later reissue emphasized Wayne’s name, while Brooks’ was deleted.


Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in the late 1930s and early 1940s in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Netherlands Antilles, Palestine (Israel), Sweden, and the United Kingdom (including England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, and Scotland); in the last-decades of the 20th Century, the film has also been shown, either in theaters or on television, in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, and elsewhere. In a few instances in the United States, the film was also promoted under the title 3 Mesquiteers.

Elsewhere, Overland Stage Raiders was shown under the title Bandidos Encobertos (Brazil); Pozemní stádioví lupiči (Czechoslovakia); Guet-apens dans les airs (France); Gold in den Wolken (Germany); Cavalca e spara (Italy); Ringo Cavalca e spara (Italy – later retitle); Gouddorst (The Netherlands); Gold in den Wolken (Poland); Guet-apens dans les airs (Switzerland); Грабители дилижансов (U.S.S.R.); Cavalca e spara (Vatican City); Ringo cavalca e spara (Vatican City – later retitle); Cabalga y dispara (Venezuela). In Italy, Overland Stage Raiders was re-released along with another John Wayne film, Red River Range, under the joint title Cavalca e spara.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— There were three movies based on William Colt MacDonald’s Three Mesquiteers books, all made before Republic took their turn with the series. Hoot Gibson played Stony Brooke in RKO’s Powdersmoke Range (1935), with Harry Carey as Tucson Smith and Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams as Lullaby Joslin. The movie was billed as ‘The Barnum and Bailey of Westerns!’ — its cast of cowboy stars, included Bob Steele and Tom Tyler (both would later become Mesquiteers in the series), along with William Farnum, William Desmond, Buzz Barton, Wally Wales, Art Mix, Buffalo Bill Jr., Buddy Roosevelt, and Franklyn Farnum.

— In the course of the 51 Republic movies, there were twelve actors who played the Mesquiteers in nine different teams. Robert Livingston was the first to play the part of Stoney Brooke in the Republic series. Wayne played the lead in eight of the 51 films in the Three Mesquiteers series released between 1936 and 1943.

Overland Stage Raiders was one of two Westerns John Wayne filmed at Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California — a well known location for genre films. The other, made a few months after Overland Stage Raiders, was John Ford’s legendary Stagecoach (1939).

— On August 3, 1938 Joseph I. Breen, a film censor with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, wrote to  M. J. Siegel of the Republic Pictures Corporation recommending that the number of killings in the film be reduced and pointing out actions cut by censor boards, such as firing into the camera.

— Yakima Canutt and Tommy Coats performed stunts in Overland Stage Raiders.


More about  Overland Stage Raiders can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Overland Stage Raiders (filmography page).

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 © 2024. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

 

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