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.   

Away with Words - a NEW silent film featuring Louise Brooks

To contemporary audiences, the silent films of the past may well require a kind of suspension of disbelief in order to come to terms with them as both as works of art as well as the gone world from which they sprang. That's true for Away with Words, a new silent production "starring" Louise Brooks. It is a joyful must watch for any fan of the actress, or of silent film.

Made from original and archival footage, Away with Words tells the story of Abel Lively, a lonely dreamer obsessed with Brooks who must come to terms with the too-safe bubble of his imagination. Set in London around 1931, Abel Lively is broke, alone, and terrified of going outside his one-man film studio -- and he couldn't be happier in not doing so. When his life is upended by a chance encounter with Penelope Peabody -- an unemployed painter with a taste for lock picking (played by the charming Jessica Still), Abel will have to choose between two worlds, the one in his head, and the one in which he has a chance at real love. 

Away with Words (Reshoot Productions, 2026) is the work of Sam Pothier, a U.K. filmmaker who wrote, edited, co-directed, co-produced and stars (as Abel Lively) in this quite clever romantic comedy-drama which also happens to be a silent movie. As anyone who has watched silent films will realize, Away with Words is indebted to the poetic logic of the silent era. It also leans into the dream-logic premise of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. Wallace Beery (as Oklahoma Red) and Edward G. Robinson (as Caesar) feature in "supporting" roles.

However, it is Louise Brooks (as Lulu) who is the focus of Away with Words. Most all the footage of Brooks comes from Beggars of Life (by far the most-used archival source at a little over eight minutes worth), as well as her two German movies from 1929, Pandora’s Box (just under five minutes) and Diary of a Lost Girl (just under two minutes). There is also a bit of It's the Old Army Game, and plenty of Brooks’ imagery in the form of photos and posters.

As Pothier stated, there are Easter eggs for silent movie enthusiasts, including a scene that merges footage from a Charlie Chaplin film and a Harold Lloyd film, along with three Buster Keaton cameos. All together, there is footage from some 30 silent and early sound films as well as six public domain Betty Boop shorts. All are credited at the film's end. 

It is also worth noting that nothing in this 99 minute film is A.I.-generated. Pothier and co-director / co-producer Husam Taha (who also served as the cinematographer) used lots and lots and lots of effects, but they're all of the "traditional kind" and all done by the two filmmakers. And what's more, these many effects are practically seamless to those in the right frame of mind, or in other words, those who suspend their disbelief. The inter-titles are likewise well presented. And a shout-out to Andrew Cowie, who has composed an exceptional and appropriate piano score. Away with Words is greatly enhanced by his accompaniment. Bravo future maestro!

Away with Words is available to stream on Amazon Prime in the United States and other parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, Australia and some countries in Europe. It can also be viewed on Google Play and YouTube. Screenings in England are in the works. More about the film can be found at its website and its IMDb page.

If pastiche can be art, even high art -- then Away with Words is a near masterpiece. 

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.  

Writings of Louise Brooks page updated

The "Writings of Louise Brooks" page on the Louise Brooks Society website has been significantly updated. This page includes Brooks' essays and letters, as well as statements and other miscellaneous literary efforts. If you have read Lulu in Hollywood and think you know Brooks' writings (either published or unpublished), this page will likely prove a revelation. 

quoted in Billboard in September, 1925

 
Included among the latest entries on this updated page are these:

"Louise Brooks, in a letter to Pauline Kael, dated 26 May 1962--." Psychological Masterpieces : G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box, UCLA Committee on Fine Art Productions, 1962. 
--- one page statement, which according to the series' prospectus, "Miss Brooks has sent us her impressions of the role of Lulu, for use as program notes for this presentation." 

"The Influence of Movie Stars on the Freedom of Women." April 12, 1963.
--- feminist-themed speech delivered to the Catholic Women's Clubs of Rochester; presumed lost 

"Malcolm St. Clair," unpublished manuscript, January - February 1966. 
--- approximately 25 page typescript manuscript additionally annotated by hand - marked "First draft"

"The Mystery of Mal St. Clair." unpublished manuscript, February 1968.
--- approximately 25 page typescript manuscript additionally annotated by hand; this piece is distinct from the above mentioned work

"A Corrected View of Howard Hawks" undated 
-- a very brief fragment survives, which suggests Brooks started or envisioned a longer essay 

Do you have a second draft copy of Brooks' long lost novel, Naked on My Goat, sitting in your desk drawer? If so, send me a copy!

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.