The American Venus, featuring Louise Brooks, opened on this day in 1926.** The film is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of a
beauty pageant, namely the actual 1925 Miss America contest in Atlantic
City. In The American Venus,
Brooks plays Miss Bayport, a beauty contestant and "mannequin" (then a
term for a fashion model). The film is the second in which Louise Brooks appeared, but the
first for which she received screen credit. Brooks made something of a splash, and it was this film and her next, A Social Celebrity, which proved to be her “break-out” roles.
Notably, The American Venus was among the earlier films to feature Technicolor. Based on what can be gleamed from surviving records and reportage of the time, there are three scenes in the film which utilize the process. One is of the boardwalk parade of beauty contestants at the Atlantic City beauty pageant, the second is of an artistic tableaux, and the last is a fashion revue.
More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website's filmography page. Surviving material from the now mostly lost film can be found on Focus on Louise Brooks, a Blu-ray release from Flicker Alley. It's essential viewing for any fan of the actress.
The American Venus proved popular upon release.
Rose Pelswick, writing in the
New York Evening Journal,
stated “Famous Players-Lasky tied up with the recent beauty contest,
and the result is a bewildering succession of events that range from
artistic tableaux to a Keystone comedy chase.” Though largely eye-candy, many fans and at least a few critics responded favorably to its scantily clad bathing beauties, elaborate tableaux and fashion show, as well as the film’s pioneering use of Technicolor. The critic for the
Boston Herald wrote, “The scenes made at Atlantic City and during the prologue are artistically done in Technicolor. Comedy relief in abundance is furnished by a wild automobile chase replete with giggles and thrills. The picture on the whole is entertaining.”
All-in-all, The American Venus proved to be a popular if not a critical success, and it was widely reviewed. However, not all were pleased with this otherwise frothy comedy. Quinn Martin,
writing in the New York World, called the film “A glittering
piece of dramatic trash, as cheap a thing and still as expensive looking
as anything I have seen from the Paramount studio…. It presents a raw
and effortful desire to photograph scantily attired women without any
sensible or appreciable tendency to tell a reasonably alive or plausible
story. Any nervous high school boy might have done the plot and there
isn’t a director in captivity who could not have told the cameraman when
and where and how to shoot.”
Harrison’s Reports, an industry trade journal, echoed the comments found in other publications: “The only striking feature about it is the technicolor scenes; they are extremely beautiful. But some of them will, no doubt, prove offensive to church going people, particularly in the small communities, because of the fact that women’s legs, backs, sides and abdomens as low as below the navel, are shown aplenty. Women in tights have been shown in his pictures by Mack Sennett, but he has never been so ‘raw’; at least he had the girls wear brassieres, whereas Jesse Lasky has his girls wear nothing under the bathing suits, with the result that the women’s outlines of their breasts are clearly seen. In places there isn’t even the thin cloth of the bathing suit to cover the flesh.” Likewise, the Washington Herald noted, “Many of the tinted scenes of the fashion review were very daring in their exposure of the Atlantic City bathing girls. Once scene especially drew forth gasps from the audience; whether from shock or admiration, we cannot say.” The New York Daily News put it succinctly, titling its review, “American Venus Has Small Plot — But Also Few Clothes.”
The American Venus even drew the notice of the future Pulitzer prize winning poet, Carl Sandburg, who was then reviewing films for the Chicago Daily News. Soon-to-be famous poet liked the film, calling it "a
smart takeoff on our national custom," meaning beauty contests. Sandburg added, “The tricks of the magician, who produces an amazing array of gowns worn by picked mannequins, employs the motion picture technique at what it can do most skillfully. Esther Ralston and Fay Lanphier are the feminine talent, also Edna Oliver and Louise Brooks.”
The film also found tongue-in-cheek favor with renown playwright Robert E. Sherwood. Writing in Life magazine, Sherwood call the film “The primmest bit of box-office bait ever cast into the sea of commercialism…. The American Venus
is to cinematographic art what the tabloid newspaper is to journalism.
It is designed to appeal to those charming people who fill out the
coupons and enclose their dollars for ‘Twelve Beautiful Photographic
Studies of Parisian Models in Nature’s Garb’. Not that it is the least
bit immoral. On the contrary, it is flamingly virtuous and teeming with
the highest principles of 100 per cent American go-gettery.”
The stars of the film, which was even called a “shape show” by some
publications, were Esther Ralston, a renown beauty, and Fay Lanphier,
the reigning Miss America. Ford Sterling, one of the original Keystone
Kops, and
Lawrence Gray, were in support. Louise Brooks, who had a
smaller role and was billed fifth, was noticed and made something of a
splash. Brooks was featured in the film's promotion, on a lobby card and
film poster, as well as in advertisements. She was also mentioned in
reviews and singled out by a handful of critics. The female critic for
the
New York Evening Journal noted Brooks’ “distinct screen personality,” while the male critic for the
New York World stated Brooks was “better looking than any of the other brunettes now acting in films.”
Despite criticisms,
The American Venus proved popular, and continued to play in the United States for more than two and a half years — often as part of a double-bill or in second run houses — well into the spring and summer of 1928.
SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:
– Fay Lanphier enjoyed considerable fame after winning the 1925 Miss America contest; she wrote articles and made personal appearances around the country – many in conjunction with the screening of The American Venus. Her movie career, however, never developed. Lanphier appeared in only one other film, a Laurel and Hardy short titled Flying Elephants (1928). Later, the honey-blond beauty worked as a stenographer in Hollywood.
– Miss Bayport, the role played by
Louise Brooks, was originally assigned to Olive Ann Alcorn, a stage and
film actress who had bit parts in Sunnyside (1919) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
– Townsend Martin, whose story served as the basis for the film, was a college friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald. According to the New Yorker and other publications, famed humorist Robert Benchley wrote the film’s titles.
– Joe Mielziner, who designed the film’s artistic tableaux, was the brother of actor Kenneth MacKenna, who played Horace Niles in The American Venus
– According to the 1999 book, Russian Writings on Hollywood, author Ayn Rand reported seeing The American Venus in Chicago, Illinois not long after she left the Soviet Union.
More about
The American Venus can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its
The American Venus (filmography page).
** See the next Louise Brooks Society blog post on this film's tangled release history.
THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com).
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