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.

 

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 content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Louise Brooks first screen appearance - A new find, a near miss

I haven't done much blogging or writing lately as I have been spending a lot of my time pouring through five archives (one of them new to me), acquiring hundreds of pages of valuable new material related to Louise Brooks' life and career. It is a laborious, sometimes slow-moving, time consuming, though rewarding process. I had shared a few intriguing snippets from recent finds in August - see this post / this post / and this post, and plan on posting more in September and October, so stay tuned. 

Some of this material, or notations gained from it, has already made its way onto the Louise Brooks Society website -- notably the Day by Day Chronology. Other of it will be published in forthcoming books. Here is another, an intriguing "near miss" or what might have been ....

While researching Brooks pre-Denishawn dance work, I came across this Wichita newspaper advertisement for the Wichita theatre. It dates from September, 1921.

 
At the bottom of the ad for a three-day showing of the Mary Pickford film, Through the Back Door, is notice of the few other shorts on the program, including a Snub Pollard film, The Jail Bird, and two "Wichita Pictorials," one of a local Children's Home, and another of Alice Campbell's dancing class. (Pictorials were, generally speaking, short non-fiction works -- sometimes called "actualities" -- that recorded real people, places, or events. They were usually local in nature.)

I came across the ad because, in the course of my research, I had been tracking down information on Alice Campbell, one of Louise Brooks' dance teachers in the years before she joined Denishawn. Other of Brooks' teachers included Alice Mills ("The Chaperone"), Edna L. Shaw, and May Argue Buckpitt. Campbell is a lesser known figure in the course of Brooks' life, but a still interesting figure on a couple of accounts.

Campbell was an instructor at the Wichita College of Music and Dramatic Art. She started at the College in the Spring of 1916, and was advertised as a "post graduate of one of the best known schools of expression in America, expert in fancy dancing, with five years' college teaching experience." (The "best known school" was the Morse School of Oratory and Expression, an early 20th-century institution dedicated to elocution, oratory, dramatic art, and physical culture based in St. Louis, Missouri.) She was also a leading figure in Wichita cultural affairs, and had a hand in teaching dance to the teenage Louise Brooks. Campbell, for instance, supervised or choreographed Brooks' public performance on at least two or three occasions, including, significantly, her role in the "Dance of Wheat" (alongside featured soloist Domina Marini) at the International Wheat Show in Wichita in October, 1920. The "Dance of Wheat"  was performed twice a day and ran for 13 days!

Campbell also had something in common with Ruth St. Denis. Three years before St. Denis dismissed Brooks from Denishawn, Campbell dismissed Brooks from her own dancing class. Why? We don't know for sure, but it likely had to do with the same sort of reason St. Denis dismissed Brooks. Campbell's dismissal of Brooks occurred in early February, 1921.

When I first came across the Mary Pickford advertisement, I thought "could this short film include Louise Brooks?" I was intrigued to find out. 

According to the Louise Brooks Society Day by Day Chronology, Brooks was dismissed from Alice Campbell's class in February of 1921 ... while the "Wichita Pictorial" in question was shown locally in theaters in August and September of 1921. So the question arises, when was this particular pictorial shot? The answer is likely July of 1921 -- as that was when the first Wichita pictorials were shot -- which would in-all-likelihood preclude Brooks from appearing in the Alice Campbell dance class film.

The above Wichita Eagle article tells us the "Wichita Pictorial" shorts were shot by M. B. Faidley, a prominent Wichita cameraman, beginning in July 1921. As the local Wichita theatre sponsored these films, I assume they were shown locally in that theatre as an added attraction. I also came across an August article in the Wichita Beacon which notes that the Alice Campbell dancing class short was the third installment in the pictorial series and that it was shot on "one of the beautiful Circle Drive lawns" as well as other unrelated activities.

I found another newspaper bit which suggests a "Wichita Pictorial" was also shot in October 1921 at the International Wheat Showa, but its description does not reference the "Dance of Wheat," the Alice Campbell directed performance which included Brooks. I wonder whatever became of these various pictorials? Even though they seemingly don't include Brooks, I would still like to see them, as they depict the immediate locale and times in which Brooks lived. The above article notes that  they would be donated to posterity as a record of life in the mid-western metropolis. 

To close, here is another newspaper ad for the Mary Pickford film, a variant ad which includes notice of the "Wichita Pictorial." It too is a variant on what might have been....

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Louise Brooks Retrospective at La cinémathèque française

La cinémathèque française in Paris is mounting a major retrospective of the films of Louise Brooks which is set to take place later this month, from September 17 through September 24. The 10 program series will feature 9 of the actress's feature films, along with a 10th program featuring the surviving fragments from three of Brooks' other films. There is, as well, a 60 minute discussion about Brooks with Professor Marion Polirsztok, moderated by Marién Gómez of the Cinémathèque française. More about this event, including times, venues, and ticket availability, can be found HERE.

Notably, this is the first retrospective of Brooks' films since the recent preservation of four of the actress' surviving / fragmentary films, each of which was included on the 2026 release Focus on Louise Brooks, from Flicker Alley. AND, for at least a couple three of these films, it will mark their first showing in Paris in 99 or 100 years!

The brief introductory statement says, in translation, "One of the legendary figures of 1920s cinema, celebrated as much for her modern acting style as for her scandalous aura—the ultimate embodiment of the freedom and avant-garde spirit of the Roaring Twenties. Once a Hollywood queen and a shooting star of European cinema (*Diary of a Lost Girl*, *Pandora's Box*), she reinvented herself as a writer before fading into obscurity on the eve of World War II—until Henri Langlois resurrected the fallen star in 1955, opening his tribute at the Cinémathèque Française with the definitive declaration: 'There is no Garbo, there is no Dietrich: there is only Louise Brooks!'"

Appropriately, the retrospective's overture screening is the restored sound version of Prix de beauté. (Too bad they are not showing the silent version as well, as a coda.) The retrospective concludes with a three film program of the aforementioned three film fragments from Focus on Louise Brooks. Otherwise, here is the schedule of films: the descriptive text comes from the La cinémathèque française website, and is given in English translation.

September 17

Prix de beauté
Augusto Genina 
France / 1930 / 99 min / DCP / Restored version 
With Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Henri Bandini. A young typist wins a beauty contest that sparks jealousy and desire. Originally written by René Clair and directed by Augusto Genina, *Prix de beauté* bears the fascinating traces of the transition from silent to sound film, blending silence, voices, and a sense of melancholic modernity.
 

"She represents the intelligence of screen acting; she is the perfect embodiment of photogenie; she alone encapsulates everything the cinema of the late silent era sought: extreme naturalness and extreme simplicity. Her art is so pure that it becomes invisible." (Henri Langlois)

September 18

It's the Old Army Game
A. Edward Sutherland
USA / 1926 / 70 min / 35mm unique print / French intertitles
Based on the play *The Comic Supplement* by J. P. McEvoy and W. C. Fields.

With W. C. Fields, Louise Brooks, Blanche Ring. 
Musical accompaniment by Arno Dedeycker.

 

A pharmacist sees his daily life descend into chaos as he deals with a parade of intrusive customers and passing con artists. Drawing on W. C. Fields’s vaudeville routines, the film offers a mischievous tale filled with gags and absurd situations, all illuminated by the singular presence of Louise Brooks. A slapstick whirlwind that is as chaotic as it is delightful.

 

The Street of Forgotten Men

Herbert Brenon

USA / 1925 / 75 min / DCP / French intertitles

With Percy Marmont, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton.

 

In the Bowery, a con man lives by his wits and pretenses—until a young woman he has protected finds herself in danger. Herbert Brenon grounds his story in an urban setting rich in colorful detail and, amidst the deceptions, sketches a path toward possible redemption. It also marks the debut of Louise Brooks as a spirited companion.

 

September 19

A Girl in Every Port
Howard Hawks
USA / 1928 / 77 min / 35mm / French intertitles
With Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong, Louise Brooks.
Musical accompaniment by Medhi Telhaoui

Working from a screenplay he wrote himself, Howard Hawks directs Robert Armstrong and Victor McLaglen in a comedy about male friendship strained by the opposite sex. Underlying the story is the ambiguous relationship between two men—a theme Hawks would revisit repeatedly throughout his career. Opposite them—and calling the shots for a time—is Louise Brooks, on loan from Paramount for the occasion. Hawks chose this "pretty, rebellious girl" for her looks and determination. She brings an avant-garde edge to the film, and her role as a "bad girl" caught the eye of Pabst, who saw in her his future *Lulu*. *A Girl in Every Port* is "conceived in the present yet identifies with the past," notes Henri Langlois. It is a melodrama tinged with humor—resolutely modern and, for Hawks, seminal. Also known by the title *Poings de fer, cœur d'or* (Iron Fists, Heart of Gold). 

Discussion with Marion Polirsztok
Moderated by Marién Gómez 60 min
It is generally understood that Louise Brooks’s life and career were profoundly shaped by the two German films she made with Pabst. "In Berlin," she wrote, "I became an actress." But what was she in Hollywood? An "anti-star," as the 1977 book dedicated to her suggests? Revisiting *A Girl in Every Port* offers a chance to rediscover Louise *before* Lulu—to see the image, the roles, and the femininity she embodied within the American film industry of the late 1920s. —  Marion Polirsztok Marion Polirsztok is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at Rennes 2 University. Marién Gómez is a Cultural Activities Coordinator at the Cinémathèque française.

Beggars of Life
William A. Wellman
USA / 1928 / 82 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Based on the novel *Apache Rising* by Julian Johnson. *Beggars of Life* by Jim Tully.
Starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen, Louise Brooks.
Screening presented by Marion Polirsztok. Musical accompaniment by Kolia Chabanier

After killing her attacker, an orphan girl hits the road across the Midwest with a charming drifter. They become entangled with a band of stowaways led by the fearsome Oklahoma Red. Adapted from the novel by Jim Tully—a literary classic chronicling the hobos who secretly rode freight trains—this is a raw, realistic slice-of-life portrait of the vagrants of the 1890s recession. Beyond Wellman’s masterful direction, the film—released a year before the 1929 crash—derives its power from its cast (featuring real-life drifters) and a deeply moving Louise Brooks in one of her finest roles.

Loulou / Die Büchse der Pandora
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Germany / 1929 / 134 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Based on the plays *Pandora's Box* (*Die Büchse der Pandora*) and *Earth Spirit* (*Erdgeist*) by Frank Wedekind.
With Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Carl Goetz.

Refusing to bow to the social conventions that seek to confine her, Lulu moves through various social circles and desires, living for passion and pleasure. Drawing on Frank Wedekind’s plays, Pabst crafts a lucid tragedy—a dance of love and death—that exposes the hypocrisies of a society obsessed with controlling the body. A blend of innocence and sensuality, Louise Brooks’s modern performance—with her bobbed hair and intense gaze—elevates a masterpiece of latent eroticism, where fascination and destruction go hand in hand, cementing the birth of an enduring cinematic icon.

"No one captured the feverish atmosphere backstage on the opening night of a grand revue quite like Pabst: the dizzying haste, the seemingly aimless coming and going, the press of bodies as sets are shifted about, the stage seeming to tilt askew during the acts, the entrances and exits, the performers’ eagerness to take their bows amidst the applause, the rivalry, the camaraderie, and the humor—that bewildering mix of prop men and electricians at work, artistic aspiration, colorful spectacle, and easy sensuality. A dazzling display, a heated atmosphere, and sensuality awash in waves of light—shimmering on lamé curtains, gleaming on helmets and armor, and casting a pearly glow over the bodies of near-naked women." "Everything wavers in the hazy background where Loulou appears as a kind of pagan idol—alluring, glittering with sequins, feathers, frills, and furbelows." (Lotte Eisner)

September 20

Le Journal d'une fille perdue / Tagebuch einer Verlorenen
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Germany / 1929 / 95 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Based on the novel *Tagebuch einer Verlorenen* by Margarete Böhme.
With Louise Brooks, Sybille Schmitz, Edith Meinhard.
Screening introduced by Florence Tissot

Cast out by her family, seduced and then rejected, a young woman endures the brutality of institutions, moving from a boarding school to a brothel. Louise Brooks’s elusive gaze haunts this indictment of the moral order, elevated by Pabst’s poetic realism. A hymn to forgiveness and generosity.

"Louise Brooks represents the intelligence of screen acting; she is the perfect embodiment of photogenie. She alone encapsulates everything the cinema of the late silent era sought: extreme naturalness and extreme simplicity. Without her, Pabst could never have achieved universality; he could never have attained that direct, stripped-down, objective style; he could never have gone so far, handling such risqué subjects with such elegance—that way of saying everything, analyzing everything, without seeming to touch it." (Henri Langlois)

The Canary Murder Case
Malcolm St. Clair, Frank Tuttle
USA / 1929 / 82 min / 35mm (unique print) / Original version with French subtitles
Based on the novel *The Canary Murder Case* by S. S. Van Dine.
Starring William Powell, James Hall, Louise Brooks.

A cabaret singer—a past master at the art of blackmail—is found dead. Surrounding her is a gallery of compromised men, all suspects and all manipulated. A product of the Pre-Code era, *The Canary Murder Case* plunges into a world of mercenary seduction and deceptive appearances, where scandal is the common currency. A poisonous mystery and a scathing portrait of the nightlife scene.

September 24

The Show Off 
Malcolm St. Clair
USA / 1926 / 75 min / 35mm unique print / French intertitles
With Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson, Louise Brooks.

An inveterate braggart insinuates himself into a respectable family, making promises he cannot possibly keep. Ford Sterling delivers a performance of unbridled bluster, mirroring a social veneer cracked by constant lying and chatter. It is a biting comedy that turns absurdity into a driving force and the loudmouth into a true agent of chaos.

The American Venus
Frank Tuttle
USA / 1925 / 8 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
With Esther Ralston, Lawrence Gray, Louise Brooks.

Beauty pageants, advertising, and dreams of stardom provide the backdrop for a comedy set in the heart of 1920s America. Through the already captivating figure of Louise Brooks in her first major role, Tuttle captures the emergence of a form of femininity that is exposed and mediated—featuring actual footage from the Miss America pageant—and held captive by a spectacle that shapes bodies and images. 

Now We're in the Air
Frank R. Strayer
USA / 1927 / 23 min / DCP / French intertitles / Restored version
Starring Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery, and Raymond Hatton.

Amidst espionage and cases of mistaken identity, two bumbling aviators find themselves swept up in the war. Driven by the comic duo of Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton, this third installment in a series of military comedies favors slapstick and adventure. Louise Brooks plays mischievous twins, bringing charm and levity to a fast-paced, whimsical film punctuated by spectacular aerial sequences borrowed from William Wellman’s *Wings*.

Just Another Blonde
Alfred Santell
USA / 1926 / 32 min / French intertitles / Restored version
Starring Dorothy Mackaill, Jack Mulhall, Louise Brooks.

A New York player must woo the woman he loves on behalf of his best friend. At Coney Island, charm is a weapon, promises are traded like chips, and hearts fall faster than illusions. Shot on location, *Just Another Blonde* turns the pursuit of success into a lively, cheeky game of deception where everyone tries their luck—even if it means cheating a little. 

Be sure and check out the adjunct pages linked to from the main retrospective page, including the letter from Louise Brooks to Henri Langlois, and Élodie Tamayo's essay, "The Art of Punctuation," which begins with the brilliant opening line, "What if Louise Brooks were a punctuation mark?"

Find out more about four of the films in this historic retrospective by checking out one or more of these publications from Thomas Gladysz and the Louise Brooks Society, all of which are available from amazon France.

Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, by Thomas Gladysz (with a foreword by William Wellman Jr.) 

Now We're in the Air: A Companion to the Once "Lost" Film, by Thomas Gladysz (with a foreword by Robert Byrne)

The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond, by Thomas Gladysz (with forewords by Robert Byrne & Kevin Brownlow)

Louise Brooks, the Persistent Star, by Thomas Gladysz

The Diary of a Lost Girl (Louise Brooks edition), by Margarete Bohme (edited & with an introduction by Thomas Gladysz)

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

A rare advertisement for Pandora's Box from 1929 Ukraine

This is a follow-up post to the August 22 blog, "A newly uncovered article about Louise Brooks - from war-torn Eastern Europe," I teased this post in that blog, and here it is, as promised, a glorious advertisement for the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Pandora's Box, as published in an Ukrainian newspaper.

In that earlier post, I mentioned that I subscribe to a handful of online newspaper and magazine archives, and also pay to acquire scans of documents & images from other academic and institutional archives. One of those archives to which I subscribe is Arcanum, Eastern Europe's "largest continuously expanding digital periodical database". The Ukrainian newspaper advertisement shown below was found in that archive. 

Before I go further, let me mention that the earlier post had an unexpected though pleasing affect. Two individuals, appreciative of my research, made a donation to the Louise Brooks Society through its BUY ME A COFFEE app. 

Those two individuals are Bill LeFurgy and frantzen@mailbox.org. Each thanked me for my ongoing efforts... and that means a lot to me. I would not be able to subscribe to archives and find new material without their help and the help of others who have supported the Louise Brooks Society, including those who have bought me cup of coffee or two or five. This post is dedicated to Bill LeFurgy and frantzen. (And a thank you as well to the individual who thanked me for sharing this article. Apparently, it made their day.)

This March 31, 1929 newspaper advertisement was published in Vorwärts, a now defunct German-language socialist newspaper published in present-day Chernivtsi, Ukraine. (There were a number of German-language newspapers scattered across Eastern Europe, in cities and towns where there were pockets of German speakers. With the region's shifting borders, Chernivtsi was once located in Austria-Hungrary, and then Romania, before being absorbed into the Ukraine - which in 1929 was part of the old U.S.S.R.) I have come across images of this newspaper page in different databases, and have blogged about it in the past. This version, however, is the best. 

 

Here is a Google assisted translation of the block of text beneath the film title: 

"Pandora was the wondrous woman of Greek legend to whom the gods entrusted a vessel containing all the evils and sins of the world. Rashly, she opened the box, unleashing all manner of calamity upon the earth... Lulu, too—that ravishingly beautiful woman—brings ruin to the men who cross her path and are consumed by their sin, like moths drawn to a flame. She senses her boundless power over men and rises to splendor and wealth like a meteor in the night sky. One by one, they meet their downfall at her hands. The dynamic, domineering Dr. Schön is hopelessly ensnared in Lulu’s web. His son, the idealistic Alwa, is destroyed by her. The muscular athlete Rodrigo Quast is driven to his death by her. Thus she spreads misfortune, until the triumphant huntress—in a sudden twist of fate—becomes the hunted prey. She encounters a male beast who is a kindred spirit: Jack the Ripper. Beneath the knife of this tragic monster, the life of that young woman—ravishingly beautiful to the very end, yet destined, like the legendary Pandora, to bring only calamity to the world—comes to its close."

The text beneath the cast listing reads:

"This film of global significance will premiere at the "Altes Stadttheater" cinema starting March 31st as part of the Easter program. Not suitable for young people."

The former Altes Stadttheater (Old City Theatre) in Chernivtsi is now known as the Olga Kobylianska Chernivtsi Drama Theatre, and is named after Olga Kobylianska. (A statue of Kobylianska, an Ukrainian national poet, now sits outside of the building.) The theater was built between 1904 - 1905 by the Viennese architectural firm Fellner & Helmer, which designed dozens of European theaters. Over the years, Altes Stadttheater has hosted legendary performers like Enrico Caruso and Feodor Chaliapin - as well as screening legendary films like Pandora's Box.

This TripAdvisor page has numerous images of the buildings exterior and interior. 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

The Street of Forgotten Men, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1925

The Street of Forgotten Men, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1925. The film underworld romance set among fake beggars and their “cripple factory” in the slums of the Bowery in New York City. The film is based on an O. Henryesque short story by George Kibbe Turner which appeared in Liberty magazine on February 14, 1925, just two months before the film went into production. The film is notable as the first in which Louise Brooks had a role, that of a moll (companion to a gangster). More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

[Though officially released on this day in 1925, the film debuted a month earlier, on July 19th at the Rivoli theater in New York City. See this earlier Louise Brooks Society blog post for a recap of that event.]

The Street of Forgotten Men was well regarded upon release, with star Percy Marmount singled out time and again for a fine dramatic performance often compared to the efforts of Lon Chaney. Director Herbert Brenon was also praised for his realistic depiction of Bowery life. Brenon, who the year before had directed Peter Pan (1924), went on to helm such classics as Beau Geste (1926), The Great Gatsby (1926), and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928). His Sorrell and Son (1927) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director at the 1st Academy Awards.

The New York Daily News praised the film, noting “The Street of Forgotten Men dips into the dark pools of life. It shows you the beggars of life — apologies to Jim Tully — and in showing them it shows them up.”

Dorothy Evans of the Sacramento Union summed-up the feelings of many critics when she noted that the film’s “theme goes deeper than the average motion picture”. Roberta Nangle of the Chicago Tribune echoed her, “It is a startling tale of Bowery life, of the soiled, tawdry ladies and broken men of the underworld”. An exclamation point was added by A. F. Gillaspey of the San Francisco Bulletin, “For fine dramatic detail, for unusualness, for giving us a glimpse into a world we never see and into the other sides of characters we simply pass in pity on the streets, The Street of Forgotten Men is a photoplay revelation.”

Exhibitor’s Trade Review stated the film was tied for fifth among the year’s biggest “profit takers,” as reported by exhibitors. Commercial success was matched by critical acclaim. The National Board of Review named The Street of Forgotten Men one of the 40 best pictures of 1925; it was also picked one of the best films of the year by the Houston Chronicle, Pittsburgh Gazette Times, San Francisco Call & Post, Tacoma Times, and Topeka Daily Capital.

Though her role was small and she was not listed in the credits, Brooks received her very first notice for work in a film. In August, an anonymous critic for the Los Angeles Times wrote, “And there was a little rowdy, obviously attached to the ‘blind’ man, who did some vital work during her few short scenes. She was not listed.” At the time, this reference to Brooks was the extant of any attention she would receive for being in the film. Brooks, however, is depicted in at least two publicity stills issued by Paramount. Both show moments from the bar fight, a turning point in the film. Seemingly, neither of the stills were published in the United States, though both were published abroad, one in Brazil, and another in France.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— According to one newspaper article, some of the names or ‘monackers’ scrawled on the beggars’ lockers include Bridgeport White Eye and Easy Money Charlie, as well as London Tip, Ed the Flop, Chicago Stick, Handsome Harry’ and Diamond Dick.

— The role of Portland Fancy was played by Juliet Brenon, the niece of the director.

— In one scene, Mary Brian is shown playing the piano. The sheet music is from Peter Pan, which Brian had starred in the year before under the direction of Brenon.

— The dog in the film was played by Lassie, who also appeared in Tol’able David and other silent films. According to the New York Times, Lassie was a star, earning $15,000 a year as a canine actor. The article noted “It is said that the death of Lassie in The Street of Forgotten Men was so impressive that persons were convinced that she must have been cruelly beaten.”

— A 1926 article in the New York Times reported that the film may have inspired a group of beggars to feign handicaps. “The police are investigating the speakeasy. It was recalled that several months ago a motion picture, The Street of Forgotten Men . . . showed just such an establishment for equipping ‘cripples’ as that described by Williams, and the police thought the movie idea might have been put to practical use.”

 — The first ever book on the film, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond, was published by the Louise Brooks Society in 2023. The book is authored by LBS Director Thomas Gladysz, and features forewords by film preservationist Robert Byrne and Oscar Honoree Kevin Brownlow. (Purchase on amazon.)

“It’s very much a ‘start to finish’ look at the film’s history…. The book is not only a deep dive into the history of this particular film, but it also serves as an excellent example of precisely how silent Hollywood created and marketed some of its finest products back in its heyday. It’ll be both interesting and helpful for film history scholars, and perhaps be a springboard for similar book projects in the future.” — Lea Stans, Silent-ology 

More about the film can be found on The Street of Forgotten Men (filmography page) on the 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 content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.