A newly uncovered article about Louise Brooks - from war-torn Eastern Europe

I recently came across a rather remarkable article about Louise Brooks. It's remarkable in that it is a virtual "love letter" to the actress from a time when she was pretty much forgotten... 1943. (That's four years after Brooks' last film was released.) What's also remarkable about this article is that it appeared in a Romanian newspaper in the midst of the second World War. At the time, Romania was allied with Nazi Germany, whose cultural ministry had previously banned the film at the center of this article, Pandora's Box. 

But first some context as to how this article was found: I subscribe to a handful of online newspaper and magazine archives, and pay to acquire scans of documents & images from other academic and institutional archives. As I am always researching various aspects of Louise Brooks career and films, it is what I do. And sometimes I find rare and unusual things....

Among the newspaper archives to which I subscribe is Arcanum, Eastern Europe's "largest continuously expanding digital periodical database" which contains millions of pages of scientific and specialized journals, encyclopaedias, weekly and daily newspapers, etc.... Its holdings are especially strong in publications from Romania and Hungary. There are also a smattering of titles from the Ukraine, Slovenia, Czechia, Slovakia, and elsewhere. Stay tuned to this blog for another remarkable advertisement from the Ukraine. (BTW: Romania and Hungary are two countries whose newspaper and magazine archives -- especially their film magazine archives -- had long proven difficult to access. Now, if someone would archive publications from Bulgaria and the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, I would be so pleased.... Does anyone know a good source or point of entry?) 

"O Piesa Uitata" appeared in Rampa, a once prominent Romanian cultural newspaper based in Bucharest, the capital of the eastern European nation. Though anonymous, the article has a strong, even personal voice. I can imagine the individual who penned it -- besieged by the war raging in Europe -- longing for the time when his or her favorite movie stars flickered across the peacetime screens of their homeland. (I assume the author is a movie-going male who might have seen Pandora's Box in a Romanian movie house some 13 or 14 years earlier.... but then a younger male who saw the film as a teen or twenty something might well be fighting in the war, and not writing articles for newspapers. Who knows? Perhaps the author of this piece was a woman, or an old man who loved movies, or....) 

Here is the article. I wonder what ever happened to its author? 

What follows is a Google assisted translation, to which I made a few tweaks. (If anyone can help with this translations, please let me know.)

A FORGOTTEN PLAY...
of PANDORA
The stars that have gone out. — Louise Brooks and the play by Frank Wedekind. — Asta Nielsen and Mrs. Gerhard Hauptmann in "Lulu"

Time passes, people forget, stars age...

Where have Marcela Albáni, Héléne Makowska, Fern Andra, Vivian Gibson disappeared? Where are Priscilla Dean, Louise Brooks, Maria Iacobini, Aud Egede Niessan, Nathalia Kowanko?...

Of all the artists mentioned above, some were truly very gifted. Only one left the memory of a unique appearance. However, today she is no longer talked about. Forgotten? I don't think so. Louise Brooks cannot be forgotten. Others have just taken her place...

The actress played "Lulu" with surprising skill, the femme fatale mistress from the famous play "Die Buechse der Pandora", by Frank Wedekind. The great German playwright caused an incredible stir at the premiere of his play on the stage of an avant-garde theater! Full of subtle psychological traps, with a bold subject and erotic scenes, the expressionist thesis was harshly criticized just like his other play "Spring Awakening". 

Wedekind was accused of immorality, destructive spirit and incitement to murder! Banned, the play was later revived and, following debate, it was a definite success.

Today all these controversies cause some bewilderment, but let us not forget that the story took place long before the First World War! The main role was played at that time by a very daring actress, the current wife of Gerhard Hauptmann. Pale, thin with restless eyes, she gave a very well-studied "Lulu". Short-cut with bangs, (she still has the same hairstyle today, only her hair is now white...) in defiance against the severe fashion of that time, the actress created and established the physical outline of her heroine.

Asta Nielsen, the great Danish tragedian, played “Lulu” on stage and in film. Dramatizing the complex character of this “Pandora,” the unconscious bringer (or not?) of all misfortunes. The famous artist remained faithful to tradition: thin, almost skeletal, with a livid face and burning eyes, she also appeared with short, disheveled hair, symbolizing the revolt of feminism against the conventional.

Many years passed and "Pandora's Box" seemed forgotten, just like "Nora" or "Hedda Gabler." But one day someone remembered this scandalous play. Who will be worthy of a new "Lulu"? Who will shyly utter the name of Louise Brooks, and in a while, this unknown name will be known everywhere...

Thus Louise Brooks knew glory. Without much experience, but by instinct, she brought a new rhythm to the performance. She made "Lulu" a cheerful woman, full of life and fire. A woman child, an angel demon who is spoiled without knowing it and evil without understanding it. Unaware to the point of stupidity, but generous and kind, when she wants to!

Driving all the men around her crazy, she seems to be wondering, why so much turmoil, why these passionate outbursts, which she nevertheless provokes on purpose. Or maybe not? Lulu is difficult to analyze, she escapes with a wink, with a tinkling of laughter. She brings no one happiness. But she is loved also for the suffering she causes.

Her end, however, is terrible and unexpected. Wedekind, loving the sensational, introduces into his often troubled play a monstrous character, a man who seems fictional and yet lived: 

This man is "Jack the Ripper"! The uproar his bloody crimes caused in the past is well known. London lived in a terrible fear. The police searched in vain for traces of this monster, who killed with precision and in cold blood under the sinister shield of the city. His victims were mostly street women, whose bellies he cut open with sadistic pleasure. It was said that he was a maniac, a doctor in his time, who sought revenge for a disease he contracted by contagion....

The murderer meets Lulu. Seeking escape in England, accused of murder and falling ever lower, she finally ends up on the Thames embankments. Here she "catches" a weak and sad man, who follows her almost in amazement. Her youth moves him. Her charm is strong, but the urge to murder is even stronger...

"Jack the Ripper" kills "Lulu". He kills her deliberately, but... with regret....

And so ends the drama and Louise's career. (She later appeared in a light comedy.) For those who haven't seen her, I'll say that she was brunette with black eyes. Her short hair with bangs covered her forehead to her eyebrows, hers very short and thick (they had never felt the plucking pliers). She had full lips, small breasts and long hands. 

An interesting woman, this Louise Brooks... 

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.  

Prix de beauté, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1930

Prix de beauté, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1930. In her last starring role and last European film, Louise Brooks plays a typist stuck in a dull job who wins a beauty contest. Like Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, Prix de beauté is a tragedy in which misfortune befalls the character played by Brooks. In a sense, the film can be seen as the third in a European trilogy starring the actress. The film is notable for being the first sound film to feature Brooks, although her dialogue and singing were dubbed, as well as one of the earliest French sound films. 

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

Production of Prix de beauté was problematic. Intended as silent film and based on a story by G.W. Pabst and Rene Clair (with the French Clair as the intended director), funding for the project fell apart, and its production delayed. This was at the time when the European cinema was transitioning to sound. Eventually, Prix de beauté was released as a “talkie” under the direction of Augusto Genina, an Italian, with the Polish-born Rudolph Maté acting as cinematographer.

In June, 1930 Morris Gilbert wrote an article on the changing French film industry for the New York Times. He noted that a handful of American stars were appearing in French productions, including “Louise Brooks, a product of young Hollywood, is starring in the French Prix de beauté.” Gilbert’s mention was one of the first the film received in the United States.

That same month, writing in the British journal Close-Up, Charles E. Stenhouse gave the film one its first English-language reviews. Stenhouse wrote, “Louise Brooks [was] looking very photogenic as Miss France but not acting as well as when directed by Pabst. Never has one of Pabst’s discoveries achieved more than when under his inspiring influence. Greta Garbo! Brigitte Helm! And now Louise Brooks! The big trick in Prix de beauté is its remarkable ending, which redeems the previous passages whose very mediocrity emphasizes the ending’s splendour. An exceptional one and for once not a happy one. . . . A trick – but really one of beauty and irony, and at last a morsel of true sound-film technique.”

Variety reviewed the film on September 3, 1930. Writing about the Berlin screening, Magnus gave Prix de beauté a mixed notice. “In itself this talker is neither better nor worse than most others. . . . It shows the right conception for facts, a natural way of looking at things and reality. . . . This talker is very interesting, if only for the scene when the little girl has sunk back dead in her chair and her tune-picture continues singing from the screen. . . . Owing to bad synchronization this talker is a failure. . . . The acting is very good. Louise Brooks looks charming and she knows how to move.”

Miss Europa, as it was titled in Germany, did poor business, and reportedly only played for five days in August 1930. The film played across Europe — from Iceland to Poland, as well as in now former French colonies, like Algeria and Haiti. The film was not shown in the United States until decades later.

 

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— For the European market, Prix de beauté was released in four languages – French, English, German and Italian. Brooks’ voice was dubbed by Hélène Regelly (in French) and Donatella Neri (in Italian).

— On June 15, 1930 Morris Gilbert wrote an article on the changing French film industry for the New York Times. He noted “Louise Brooks, a product of young Hollywood, is starring in the French Prix de beauté.” This marked the first mention of the film in an American publication. Prix de beauté, however, was not shown in the United States until decades later.

— In 1932, Editions Jules Tallandier published an illustrated novelization of the film as part of its Cinema-Bibliotheque series. Boisyvon, who would go on to establish himself as a film historian and critic, wrote the story.

More about Prix de beauté can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its Prix de beauté (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. 

The Show Off, with Louise Brooks, was released 100 years ago today

The Show Off, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926. The film a satiric comedy about an insufferable braggart who disrupts the life of a middle-class family. While remembered today as a Louise Brooks film, The Show-Off is really a vehicle for Ford Sterling, a comedian best remembered for his starring work as a member of the Keystone Kops. As a broad comedian, he is the perfect choice for the role of the titular blowhard Aubrey Piper. Brooks plays a supporting role as the love interest of the boy who lives next door. 

The Show Off is in my opinion one of Brooks' best early comedies. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

Based on a popular stage play by an acclaimed playwright, The Show-Off was considered a prestige project — and thus drew a significant amount of critical attention along with inevitable comparison to its Broadway namesake. Motion Picture News proclaimed, “The picture is funnier than the play.” However, Billboard magazine disapproved, stating the film “has emerged considerably worse for the wear in its trip from the legit to the silver screen.” The critic for the San Jose Evening News countered, adding “The Show-Off is undoubtedly one of the biggest comedy hits of the year.”

John S. Cohen Jr. of the New York Sun wrote, “Directed by Malcolm St. Clair, the film boasts of exceptional naturalistic acting on the part of Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson, Claire McDowell, C. W. Goodrich, Gregory Kelly and – in one sequence – Louise Brooks . . . . Miss Brooks is best in the scene where she burlesques the pantomime employed by Mr. Sterling to describe his automobile experience.”

Famed author Robert E. Sherwood, named it a “recommended” film in McCall’s magazine. Writing in Life, he said the director “has taken a simple play of average American life and made a genuinely tender, touching, sympathetic picture of it”. Sherwood went on to call the film “a worthy reproduction of a great comedy.” Later, in Mirrors of the Year, an annual published in 1927, The Show-Off was deemed “a remarkable artistic achievement” and one of the best films of 1926.

Along with comparison to the play, criticism of The Show-Off also focused on Brooks. The critic for the Ann Arbor Times News thought Brooks almost “ran away with the picture.” While Peggy Patton of the Wisconsin News said Brooks “adds a dash of color to the offering with her daring personality.”

Other critics, however, disagreed — and a number found fault with her appearance. Dorothy Herzog of the New York Daily Mirror wrote “Louise Brooks spitfires, prisses, oogles and calls it a day of heavy emoting. Miss Brooks is a distinct type, but she seems to suffer from inefficient direction and miscasting. She also appears a trifle rounded, for and aft, in this opera, but this may be due to her skin-tight dresses.”

Norbert Lusk of Picture-Play echoed Herzog’s comments, stating “Lois Wilson tossed aside opportunities for shrewd characterization by wearing Paris frocks as a daughter of the Philadelphia poor. Louise Brooks, another little sister of poverty, likewise offended.” Frank Aston of the Cincinnati Post added an exclamation mark with a bit of snark when he noted, “And henceforth and forever when we think of The Show-Off we shall picture Louise Brooks and her display of hosiery.”

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

— The Show-Off (1924) was authored by Philadelphia-born George Kelly (1887–1974), an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. Besides being the uncle of the Oscar winning actress Grace Kelly (the future Princess Grace of Monaco), George Kelly was considered by some (Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and others) as one of the finest  dramatists of the 1920s — alongside the likes of Sherwood Anderson and Elmer Rice. Besides The Show-Off, Kelly was best known for Craig’s Wife (1925), which won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a motion picture on three occasions. His first play, The Torch Bearers, was also highly regarded.

— The Show-Off is one of two films that co-starred the popular Broadway actor Gregory Kelly (no relation), who died shortly after The Show-Off finished production. Gregory Kelly was the first husband of actress Ruth Gordon.

More about The Show-Off can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its The Show-Off (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.  

Don't forget . . . . Submit Louise Brooks' films for the 2026 National Film Registry

Don't forget . . . . Submit Louise Brooks' films for the 2026 National Film Registry. The Louise Brooks Society suggests these American films.

Beggars of Life (1928) -- Americana a la hobo mode & William Wellman's favorite of his silent films

The Show-Off (1926) -- based on the classic George Kelly play, remade multiple times as a film 

Love Em and Leave Em (1926) -- a 'swonderful flapper rom-com set during the Roaring 20s

The Street of Forgotten Men (1925) --  one of the first "gangs of New York"

The deadline is August 15th

Begin the simple submission form HERE (at https://www.research.net/r/national-fim-registry-nomination-form)

 

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.   

Remembering Louise Brooks, who passed away on August 8, 1985

The Louise Brooks Society remembers Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985), dancer, actress, writer, and inspiration to many. She is a 20th century icon, and a 21st century muse. Yes, she is gone, but she is not forgotten. Here is a link to her "Find a Grave" page. Why not visit the page and leave some virtual flowers.

 

The Louise Brooks Society, which this year marks 31 years online, was founded in part to celebrate Brooks' legacy. Please visit the Louise Brooks Society website at www.pandorasbox.com and share in that celebration.  

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 and a role in The Odyssey, what might have been

A speculation about what might have been . . . . It's well known that G. W. Pabst wanted to work with Louise Brooks once more after having starred her in two films released in 1929, Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Today, both are considered silent masterpieces.

According to Brooks, Pabst hoped to cast the actress in A Modern Hero (1934), a Warner Bros. release about an ambitious circus worker with an Oedipus complex (played by Richard Barthelmess) who climbs to the top by exploiting his friends, business partners and most significantly, the women in his life. Brooks' role in the film never came about, despite Pabst seemingly pitching the then out of work actress to studio executives by providing them with a copy of Pandora's Box. (see previous post)

[BTW: A Modern Hero is available on DVD from the Warner Bros. Archive Collection. As far as films from the 1930s are concerned, it is a good film, and well worth watching. Get a copy and complete of your Pabst collection. And try and guess which role Brooks would have been cast in.... I think I know.]

One year later, in 1935, Pabst hoped to make a version of Faust which would star Greta Garbo as Gretchen and Brooks as Helen of Troy! Unfortunately, the German director was unable to raise funds  for the project. Just imagine!

In 1950, Pabst returned to the United States with another film project in mind - a film based on the Odyssey of Homer. According to an article by Herman Weinberg published in the New York Times

"No list of the ten directors who most shaped the language of the film and contributed importantly to it would be complete without the name of G. W. Pabst. . . . [The first of his two current projects] is the much-heralded Odyssey of Homer, to be filmed in Italy with, if possible, Garbo as both Penelope and Circe. He would like to get Clark Gable or Orson Welles as Ulysses. . . ."

That project never came about either.... 

But then, in 1954, work began on a film that would be realized and released -- Ulysses, a fantasy adventure film based on Homer's epic poem. It was an international co-production between Italy, France, and the United States produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti. The film, when released, starred Kirk Douglas in the title role, Silvana Mangano in a dual role as Penelope and Circe, and Anthony Quinn as Antinous. 

This version was originally planned to be shot in 3D, and the original choice for director was none other than G.W. Pabst ----- but he quit the project at the last minute. I don't know that Pabst would have cast Brooks in a supporting role had he stayed with the project; perhaps Pabst would have cast Brooks as a siren or witch. Would Brooks have accepted ? Who knows? Would she have been capable of acting in a film at that time in her life? Possibly....

[Interestingly, there is a bit of overlap with the 1954 Ulysses and Brooks' earlier career. The film's cinematographer was none other then multi-Academy Award winner Harold Rosson, whose credits include two Brooks' films, The Street of Forgotten Men (1925) and Evening Clothes (1927).]

Had Pabst directed the 1954 version of Ulysses, and had Brooks had a role in it, the world as we know it would have been a different place. But such is the will of the gods....

 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.   

Whatever Happened to .... a missing print of Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks

Of late, I have been going through a few different archives and uncovering some rather remarkable material. There are things I didn't know (which ain't saying much), things not mentioned in the Barry Paris biography (which is saying a lot), and things I don't think anyone knows about (wowza). Here is one example, a handwritten note by Louise Brooks likely dating from the 1960s or 1970s. It reads 

"1934 - When Pabst was under contract to Warners - he got them a print of Lulu, hoping to get me for A Modern Hero -

1943 - this was the print Iris Barry at MOMA saw and decided not to buy Lulu because 'it was not of lasting interest'."

 

Brooks' note suggests in no uncertain terms Warner Bros obtained a copy of Pandora's Box back in 1934, and still had it nine years later, in 1943.

 

How Brooks knew Pabst supplied a print to Warners I can't say, but I know that she was in touch with Pabst in 1934 around the time of A Modern Hero (which Pabst made in Hollywood), and may have been told then. 

I wonder what ever happened to that vintage print. I wondered if it still exists, shelved and forgotten in the Warner's vault? Who would think to look for that film where it shouldn't be?

 

I emailed a couple of individuals to try and find out. I wrote to Martin Koerber, who has long been involved in the restoration of Pandora's Box. He said, "I am not aware of an original print of LULU in any archive in the US, even though I looked everywhere in 1996/7 when we made the search for the Berlinale retrospective and a restoration campaign for those films that needed it".

 

Regarding another early Pabst film, Koerber stated, "Warner Bros definitely had original prints of THE THREEPENNY OPERA back in 1997 when we searched for material everywhere. Could be that they were at, or later went to UCLA, because Warner probably didn’t want nitrate on the lot. I thought at the time that this had to do with the fact that they co-produced this film with NERO."

 

I also emailed George Feltenstein at Warners, who wrote "we have no record of any print of that film ever being at the studio. That said, documentation for such an unusual set of circumstances may not have survived in the intervening decades. All of our nitrate holdings, including prints have been on deposit at UCLA since 1979. There is no record of a print of that film being part of that deposit. It’s theoretically possible that the studio might have repatriated the print in the years after the end of WWII, but this is just a hypothesis."

 

The mystery continues.... Whatever happened to that vintage print of Pandora's Box? Where might it be hiding?

 

 

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.     

Submit Louise Brooks' films for the 2026 National Film Registry

Submit Louise Brooks' films (and others) for the 2026 National Film Registry. The Louise Brooks Society suggests these American films.

Beggars of Life (1928) -- Americana a la hobo mode & William Wellman's favorite of his silent films

The Show-Off (1926) -- based on the classic George Kelly play, remade multiple times as a film 

Love Em and Leave Em (1926) -- a 'swonderful flapper rom-com set during the Roaring 20s

The Street of Forgotten Men (1925) --  one of the first "gangs of New York"

The deadline is August 15th

Begin the simple submission form HERE (at https://www.research.net/r/national-fim-registry-nomination-form)

 

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.