Louise Brooks Society: May 2024

Thursday, May 30, 2024

The Canary Murder Case, starring Louise Brooks, available on newly released Blu-ray

The Canary Murder Case, starring William Powell, Jean Arthur and Louise Brooks (as the canary) is now available on Blu-Ray (only). Kino Lorber released the film on May 21 as part of its three film Philo Vance Collection. Want to purchase a copy? Follow this link HERE.

Here is the description from the Kino website: "Based on S.S. Van Dine’s bestselling novels, these classic Pre-Code murder-mysteries showcase the case-cracking prowess of the debonair detective Philo Vance, as portrayed by cinema’s icon of gentlemanly sleuthing, William Powell (The Thin Man, Take One False Step). THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929) – Who silenced The Canary? A scheming showgirl known as The Canary turns up dead, and so does the lone witness to the killing. Only Philo Vance stands a chance at cracking this case. Directed by Malcolm St. Clair (A Woman of the World); co-starring screen great Jean Arthur (Easy Living) and the legendary Louise Brooks (Beggars of Life) as the conniving Canary. THE GREENE MURDER CASE (1929) – Members of the wealthy but loathsome Greene family gather at a spooky old castle to establish the terms of a will, only to be mysteriously murdered one-by-one. Philo Vance scrutinizes the clues and suspects. Directed by Frank Tuttle (This Gun for Hire); co-starring the dazzling Jean Arthur (A Foreign Affair) and Florence Eldridge (An Act of Murder). THE BENSON MURDER CASE (1930) – When a ruthless, crooked stockbroker croaks at his luxurious country estate, Philo Vance just so happens to be there to investigate. Directed by Frank Tuttle (Lucky Jordan); co-starring acting ace Paul Lukas (By Candlelight) with William “Stage” Boyd (The Locked Door) and one of Powell’s Thin Man suspects, Natalie Moorhead (Private Detective 62)."

Product Extras :

Brand New 4K Restorations of THE CANARY MURDER CASE and THE GREENE MURDER CASE
2K Restoration of THE BENSON MURDER CASE
NEW Audio Commentaries for THE CANARY MURDER CASE and THE GREENE MURDER CASE by Novelist/Critic Kim Newman and Writer/Journalist Barry Forshaw
NEW Audio Commentary for THE BENSON MURDER CASE by Professor and Film Scholar Jason A. Ney
Optional English Subtitles

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The Philo Vance character appeared in a series of films, each based on a story or book by S.S. van Dine. Vance was played by other actors. Those interested in viewing some of these other films would do well to check out the 2013 DVD release, The Philo Vance Murder Case Collection, from Warner Archive. "The dilettante detective stylishly sleuths his way through some of his most famous cases in this 2-Disc, 6-Film Collection. And a veritable rogue's gallery of golden age "gentlemen actors" all take a crack at Philo, including William Powell, Warren William and Basil Rathbone. Classic cinephiles should keep their eyes on the credits for contributions by luminaries the likes of Michael Curtiz, Mary Astor, Rosalind Russell and more! Includes: The Bishop Murder Case (1930), The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The Dragon Murder Case (1934), The Casino Murder Case (1935), The Garden Murder Case (1936), and Calling Philo Vance (1940)." Copies of this earlier release may be purchased HERE.

The books on which these films were based are readily available. Some, I believe, have fallen into the public domain. Late last year, the Library of Congress released The "Canary" Murder Case as part of its Library of Congress Crime Classics series. This new edition is graced by an introduction by Leslie S. Klinger, the well known Sherlock Holmes / crime fiction scholar. And yes, the introduction mentions Louise Brooks. Copies of this paperback release may be purchased HERE.

Here is the descriptive copy for the book: "At the height if his popularity, S.S. Vane Dine pens a locked-room mystery with a lethal dose of sex and sin where infamous actress, "The Canary," is murdered in her cage after a passionate night with her lover.

Margaret Odell, the famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her ransacked apartment, her jewelry stolen. It appears to be a robbery gone wrong, but the police can find no physical evidence to pinpoint a culprit. No one witnessed anyone entering or leaving, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside.

Who could have killed the Canary in her locked cage? Margaret was seeing a number of men, ranging from high society gentleman to ruthless gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she died."

Held in the Louise Brooks Society archive is microfilm of the S. S. van Dine scrapbooks. One reel is devoted to the book, and another to the movie. Among the remarkable images contained on one of the reels is a department store window display devoted to The Canary Murder Case which pictures you know who....

For more on The Canary Murder Case film, be sure and visit the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page, located HERE.

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, May 25, 2024

Its the Old Army Game, with Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926

Its the Old Army Game, with Louise Brooks and W.C. Fields, was released on this day in 1926. The film is a comedy about a small town druggist (played by W.C. Fields) who gets involved with a real estate scam. Louise Brooks plays the druggist's assistant. The film was Brooks' fourth, and it reunited her with the Fields, the film's star. The two had worked together in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

In its review, the Newark Star-Eagle stated, “This picture not only affords a good deal of typical Fields comedy in a suitable story frame, but also reveals the possibilities of Louise Brooks, Follies girl who is making decidedly good in the cinema. . . . All told, Fields need not regret his first Paramount production. Louise Brooks, with a touch of piquancy, a good range of registration, and the conception of restraint, is pleasing as the heroine.”

It's the Old Army Game was originally announced as starring Fields and future "It girl" Clara Bow, but she was shooting Mantrap (1926), so the female lead fell to Brooks. Exhibitor’s Herald stated, “Louise Brooks is the other important person in the picture and, as insinuated rather bluntly on the occasion of her first appearance -- in The American Venus -- she’s important. Miss Brooks isn’t like anybody else. Nor has she a distinguishing characteristic which may be singled out for purposes of identification. She’s just a very definite personality. She doesn’t do much, perhaps because there isn’t much to do but probably because she hits hardest when doing nothing, but nobody looks away when she’s on screen. If Miss Glyn should say that Miss Brooks has ‘it,’ more people would know what Miss Glyn is raving about. But in that case she would not be raving.”

The Portland Oregonian noted “Louise Brooks, the pert young woman who will be remembered for her work in The American Venus and A Social Celebrity, the latter with Adolphe Menjou, has the lead role opposite Fields. She poses a bit. An excuse was found to get her into a bathing suit too, which wasn’t a bad move, on the whole.”

It's the Old Army Game received mostly positive reviews, though some critics noted its rather thin plot. Algonquin Round Table playwright Robert E. Sherwood (who would go on to win four Pulitzer Prizes and an Academy Award) was then writing reviews for Life magazine. His pithy critique read, “Mr. Fields has to carry the entire production on his shoulders, with some slight assistance from the sparkling Louise Brooks.” Ella H. McCormick of the Detroit Free Press countered with "Fields scored a splendid triumph in this picture. A great part of the success of the offering, however, is due to Louise Brooks, who takes the lead feminine part."

Today, It's the Old Army Game is largely remembered as a starring vehicle for Fields -- a comedic great, It is also remembered for the fact that not long after the film wrapped, Brooks married the film's director, Eddie Sutherland.

Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Panama, and the United Kingdom (England, Isle of Wight, Northern Ireland, and Scotland). In Czechoslovakia, the film was promoted under the title The Old Army Game. In Japan, it was once promoted as It’s the Old Army.

Elsewhere, It’s the Old Army Game was shown under the title El boticario rural (Argentina); Ein moderner Glücksritter (Austria); Een Apothekersstreek (Belgium); Risos e tristezas (Brazil); El Boticario Rural (Cuba); To je starí hra armády (Czechoslovakia); Miehen ihanne (Findland); Un Conte D’Apothicaire (France); チョビ髯大将 (Japan); Laimes spekuliantai (Lithuania); Un Conte d’hapoticaire! (Luxembourg); El Boticario Rural (Mexico); Pierewaaier — Pilledraaier (The Netherlands); Ungkar og spillemann (Norway); El boticario rural (Spain); Mannen som gör vad som faller honom in (Sweden *); and El boticario rural (Uruguay).

* The film was censored in Sweden, though when released in 1930, it was deemed suitable for all audiences.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

-- Clarence Badger was originally assigned to direct, but the film was soon turned over to Edward Sutherland, a onetime actor and Keystone Cop who began his directing career just a few years before with the help of Charlie Chaplin. The film was announced, at first, as starring W.C. Fields and future “It girl” Clara Bow, but as she was needed on the West Coast to shoot Mantrap (1926), the female lead fell to Brooks. It's the Old Army Game was the first of five Fields' films directed by Sutherland.

-- Outdoor scenes in Palm Beach, Florida were shot at El Mirasol, the estate of multi-millionaire investment banker Edward T. Stotesbury. In 1912, after having been a widower for thirty-some years, Stotesbury remarried and became the stepfather of three children including Henrietta Louise Cromwell Brooks (known simply as Louise Brooks), an American socialite and the first wife of General Douglas MacArthur. In her heyday, she was "considered one of Washington's most beautiful and attractive young women". Because of their names, the two women were sometimes confused in the press.

-- Silent film historian John Bengston has written a series of posts on his Silent Locations website looking at various scenes from the film. Each are well worth checking out. They include "W.C. Fields in Palm Beach – It’s the Old Army Game" -- "It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks Bring Magazines to Life" -- "It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks in Ocala Florida – Part One".

-- It’s the Old Army Game was officially released May 25, 1926. The film opened in select cities on May 22, 1926, with the earliest showings taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, Hartford, Connecticut, and Indianapolis, Indiana. The film was advertised to open a few days earlier in Palm Beach, Florida (on May 18) and elsewhere, but was delayed.

Friday, May 24, 2024

Last Hurrahs: Louise Brooks final film - Overland Stage Raiders (1938)

This year, as it has in the past, the Louise Brooks Society blog is taking part in the Spring 2024 CMBA (Classic Movie Blog Association) blogathon. This year’s theme is Screen Debuts & Last Hurrahs -- a look at beginnings and endings of film careers. The Spring 2024 CMBA blogathon runs May 20-24. More information on the Spring 2024 CMBA blogathon, including a list of other participants and topics, may be found HERE. I encourage everyone to check it out.

Today's post looks at Louise Brooks' last film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938). The May 20th blog post looked at Louise Brooks first film, The Street of Forgotten Men (1925).

In Overland Stage Raiders, the "Three Mesquiteers" 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, on the brink of stardom. Louise Brooks, whose career was fading, plays his love interest.

Work on the film began on August 4, 1938. 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).

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.”

Motion Picture Herald noted “This is another outdoor entertaining picture of the west featuring the Three Mesquiteers. The Mesquiteers are usually fortunate in the selection of their stories. They generally have a workable plot. For the patron, too, they are three stars for divertissement. John Wayne makes his second appearance as ‘Stoney Brooke.’ . . . Louise Brooks is the girl in the case. ”

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.”

Besides the few trade reviews, the film was seldom written up in newspapers. (Most serial b-westerns weren't.) 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 she felt in 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. The posters and lobby cards for the later reissue emphasized Wayne's name, while Brooks' was deleted.

The Louise Brooks Society is a proud, longtime member of the CMBA (Classic Movie Blog Association). Back in 2018, the CMBA profiled the LBS. Check it out HERE.

Monday, May 20, 2024

Screen Debuts: Louise Brooks first film - The Street of Forgotten Men (1925)

Today's post looks at Louise Brooks first film, The Street of Forgotten Men (1925). On May 24, the blog will look at Louise Brooks' last film, Overland Stage Raiders (1938).

Besides marking Louise Brooks first screen appearance, The Street of Forgotten Men was also the subject of my 2023 book, The Street of Forgotten: From Story to Screen and Beyond. The book is a a deep dive into the history of a single film - its literary source, its making, exhibition history, critical reception, and, most surprising of all, its little known legacy. Few film titles become a catchphrase, let alone a catchphrase which remained in use for half-a-century and resonated throughout American culture. The Street of Forgotten Men (1925) is one such film. (Order your copy HERE.)

This provocative stab at realism was described as "strange" and "startling" at the time of its release. The Street of Forgotten Men was directed by Herbert Brenon, who is best known for Peter Pan, The Great Gatsby, Beau Geste, Laugh, Clown, Laugh and other early classics. The film was shot by Harold Rosson, one of the great cinematographers whose credits include Gone with the Wind and Singin' in the Rain. And, it features a stellar cast (Percy Marmont, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton) which includes a future screen legend at the very beginning of her career (Louise Brooks).

The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond tells the story of the film in rich, historical detail. As this book shows, this forgotten gem is exemplary of film making & film culture in the mid-1920s. Along with vintage clippings and unusual images - including rare production stills and location shots, this new book features all manner of historical documents including the short story on which the film was based, the scenario, a rare French fictionalization, newspaper advertisements, lobby cards, posters, and more. Among the book's many revelations:

-- Multiple accounts of the making of the film - suggesting what it was like on the set of a silent film.

-- A survey of the film's many reviews, including one by the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Carl Sandburg, another by a contributor to Weird Tales, and another by Catholic icon Dorothy Day, a candidate for sainthood.

-- Newly revealed identities of some of the film's bit players - a noted journalist, a future screenwriter, a soon to be famous actress, and a world champion boxer - which include accounts of their working on the film. There is also the story of Lassie's role in the film (no, not that Lassie, the first screen Lassie).

-- A look at the music associated with this silent film: the music played on set, the music depicted in the film, the music heard before the film was shown, and the music played to accompany the film itself (including the rare Paramount cue sheet and an alternative score).

-- And more... from the film's censorship records to its mention on the floor of Congress to its showing in multiple churches to its purchase by the United States Navy to a notice for the film's last documented public screening - at, of all places, a Y.M.C.A. in Shanghai, China in 1931 - six years after its release!

The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond includes dozens of illustrations and images and features two forewords; one is by noted film preservationist Robert Byrne, whose restoration of the film saved it from undeserving obscurity. The other, by acclaimed film historian Kevin Brownlow, is an appreciation of Herbert Brenon which reveals little known details about the movie drawn, in part, from his correspondence with Louise Brooks.

As this blog is meant to look at Brooks' first screen appearance, I thought I would run a few brief excerpts from the book which tells the story of how Brooks first entered films.

*****

"By mid-April, most of the cast had been chosen, as bits in newspapers and magazines reported the signing of various actors and actresses. Some were actors or crew with which Brenon had worked in the past. In early May, with filming well under way, Billboard magazine gave a near complete summary of where things stood. “Working under the direction of Herbert Brenon, who is making The Street of Forgotten Men at the Paramount Long Island Studios, are: Percy Marmont, Mary Brian, Neil Hamilton, Riley Hatch, Josephine Deffry, Dorothy Walters, John Harrington and Juliet Brenon, daughter of the late Algernon Brenon, music critic of The Telegraph and niece of Director Brenon. The cast also includes Lassie, canine movie star.” (5-9-1925) Not mentioned by Billboard was one of film’s uncredited players, Louise Brooks, who had only recently been given a screen test and assigned a small role. Beating Billboard to the punch, the screen notes column in the New York Herald Tribune gave the aspiring actress a shout-out, writing a week earlier, “Louise Brooks, one of the Ziegfeld beauties from Louis the 14th, will have a part in Herbert Brenon’s production of The Street of Forgotten Men.” (5-2-1925)"

*****

"In early 1925, Brooks was a featured dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies. The Broadway revue was widely celebrated, and all manner of notables turned out to see shows. Some made a bee-line to the performer’s dressing rooms. Among those who visited Brooks was producer Walter Wanger, then a Paramount talent scout. According to various sources, Wanger had heard Edmund Goulding (the British-born screenwriter and director) rave about her, and so Wanger and Townsend Martin (a Paramount screenwriter and another dressing room visitor) arranged to test Brooks for a role in The Street of Forgotten Men, which was already filming at the Astoria Studios on Long Island. Brooks’ screen test was overseen by Allan Dwan. It went well, with the result being the Ziegfeld dancer was assigned a bit part in The Street of Forgotten Men, which was already in production.

In his celebrated profile of Brooks in The New Yorker, Kenneth Tynan quoted Brooks on her time at the Astoria studio. “The stages were freezing in the winter, steaming hot in the summer. The dressing rooms were windowless cubicles. We rode on the freight elevator, crushed by lights and electricians. But none of that mattered, because the writers, directors, and cast were free from all supervision. Jesse Lasky, Adolph Zukor, and Walter Wanger never left the Paramount office on Fifth Avenue, and the head of production never came on the set. There were writers and directors from Princeton and Yale. Motion pictures did not consume us. When work was finished, we dressed in evening clothes, dined at The Colony or ‘21’ and went to the theater.”

Brooks, a dancer by training, was a newcomer to film acting when she appeared in The Street of Forgotten Men; during her short time on screen, she plays her bit part large, vamping over Bridgeport White-Eye (John Harrington) and then dashing across the screen once a fight breaks out between White-Eye and Easy Money Charlie. Brooks wrote in her diary, “I ran around like Carol Dempster, being very frightened and graceful and having a lovely time.”

In 1928, after she became an established star, film magazines carried a piece about her debut and her reaction to praise sent by a fan. “Louise Brooks must have been very satisfied when she received her first fan letter from a girl in Brooklyn who said she saw her in The Street of Forgotten Men, because after reading it, she immediately took a photograph of herself that she had hanging in her dressing room and sent it to the girl in thanks.”

*****

"Because of his attention to detail and involvement in most every aspect of a film, Brenon gained a reputation as a demanding director, someone who ruled over his sets and pushed his actors and crew. In a 1925 profile, Film Daily described Brenon as a studio “Svengali,” suggesting he was somehow able to manipulate others. While on-set reports from The Street of Forgotten Men intimate as much, they never go so far as to state Brenon was harsh, or that those working under the director resented his behavior.

However, all may not have been as depicted in the press at the time. In 1979, film historians Richard and Diane Kozarski interviewed Louise Brooks regarding her work at the Astoria studio. The Kozarskis noted that Brenon’s handling of actors favorably impressed the 18-year-old, then a newcomer to film. However, when Brooks saw a sandbag crash to the stage a few feet from where the director was standing, she suspected relations with the crew might not have been entirely positive.

In late April, 1925 Variety reported that Brooks, “one of the most popular members of Louie the 14th” (a Ziegfeld production) had “mysteriously disappeared from the cast of this musical comedy several days ago and her absence has been traced to the scouting agents of a moving picture company with studios on Long Island.” (4-25-1925) It was around then that Brooks was given a screen test. By the first week of May, various publications including the New York Herald Tribune and New York Evening Post reported Brooks had been cast in The Street of Forgotten Men.

Brooks’ screen test, held on a set at the Astoria studio, was overseen by director Allan Dwan. It went well, with the result being Brooks was assigned a bit part as a moll, a companion to Bridgeport White-Eye (John Harrington). John Russell’s notes describe her character as a “trull” or “doxie” with whom Whitey “plays the scene over the newspaper. Let her appear actually heavy: a hard-boney, sneering little rip of a woman, with a face like flint – frankly predatory, so that we hate her at sight.”

Sometime following her screen test, and with the film already in production, Brooks was introduced to Brenon. On May 16, she and the director attended the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky. A few days later, on May 20 according to some sources, Brooks’ brief scene was shot. The newcomer appears in only one scene near the end of the film in which there is a brawl in the saloon. Brooks is on screen for a couple of minutes, and though she vamps and acts somewhat melodramatically and dashes across screen like a dancer – she makes an impression.

Throughout her career, Brooks reportedly didn’t bother to see herself act on screen. The one exception may have been her brief appearance in The Street of Forgotten Men. In a 1928 interview with Pour Vous regarding Die Büchse der Pandora, Brooks told the French magazine that she had not seen the German film, as it was a principle for her “not to go see herself on the screen. ‘I did,’ she said confidently, ‘during my first film. I won’t do it again, though I can’t say why. Seeing myself gives me an uncomfortable feeling’.” (12-6-1928) Later in life, Brooks said little about her debut, except to acknowledge her role in the film. In Lulu in Hollywood, she dryly commented, “In May, at Famous Players-Lasky’s studio, in New York, under Herbert Brenon’s direction, I had played with no enthusiasm a bit part in Street of Forgotten Men.”

*****

"Such “drab” realism led the anonymous [Los Angeles] Times critic to also find fault with the acting of Mary Brian and Neil Hamilton, which the critic suggested was dull. However, favor was shown to others in the cast. “[T]he character work, in addition to the artistry of Marmont – who is a great enough actor to give conviction even to the maudlin ending, where the man who has sacrificed for love makes some time worn remarks on the eternal scheme of things – is excellent. As the ‘blind’ beggar, John Harrington is appallingly real, while Dorothy Walters, as the faithful old housekeeper is the final word in comfortable motherliness. Juliet Brenon and Josephine Deffry, ladies of the demi-monde, also merit commendation.”

The anonymous Times critic ended their review by highlighting the work of an uncredited, bit player in the film. It was the only publication to do so. “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.” (8-31-1925) That uncredited bit player was Louise Brooks, who received her one and only notice for her role in The Street of Forgotten Men. As such, it was her first film review."

If you are interested in reading more about Brooks' first film, be sure and check out my 2023 book, The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond. It is a detailed, heavily illustrated, 380+ page immersive look at the film and the silent film era. (Order your copy HERE.)

The Louise Brooks Society is a proud, longtime member of the CMBA (Classic Movie Blog Association). Back in 2018, the CMBA profiled the LBS. Check it out HERE.

Monday, May 6, 2024

Louise Brooks & Her Films as Seen in the Brazilian Magazines & Newspapers

The Louise Brooks Society blog is participating in the 2024 Luso World Cinema Blogathon. This blogathon celebrates the contributions of Portuguese-speaking peoples and their descendants to world cinema. This post is the third of three related posts. More information on the Luso World Cinema Blogathon, including a list of other participants and topics, may be found HERE. I would encourage everyone to check it out!

Before I post something about the bits and pieces I've found searching the internet, I want to mention that I recently came across a six part podcast all about today's topic - Louise Brooks and Brazil. This podcast, by Pedro Dantas, is titled "Louise Brooks, Garota Perdida" and dates to November 2021. Here is the series description in Portuguese: "Programa em homenagem ao legado artístico e cinematográfico de Louise Brooks (1906-1985), estrela do cinema mudo, ícone dos anos 1920 e mulher à frente de seu tempo (e do nosso tempo). Em 2021 se completam 115 anos de seu nascimento." And here it is in English translation: "Program in honor of the artistic and cinematographic legacy of Louise Brooks (1906-1985), silent film star, icon of the 1920s and woman ahead of her time (and our time). 2021 marks 115 years since her birth."

"Louise Brooks, Garota Perdida"

I don't speak Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese, so I cannot listen and understand. But if anyone does give it a listen, I would appreciate knowing your thoughts. BTW, the above mentioned series isn't the only Brazilian podcast I've come across about Brooks. Another, from ClickCiência, dates to january 2021 and is titled "Recepção da obra de Louise Brooks no Brasil é tema de pesquisa na UFSCar." In it, Tamara Carla dos Santos, a student in the Postgraduate Program in Image and Sound at the Federal University of São Carlos, talks about her research on the reception of the films of Louise Brooks in Brazil. Again, if anyone gives it a listen, I would appreciate knowing your thoughts.

I am fortunate to have been able to dig into a few different Brazilian database archives and have acquired dozens and dozens of newspaper and magazine clippings and advertisements about Louise Brooks and her films. My greatest find, a couplemof pieces about Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box in a 1930 Chaplin Club newsletter, were covered in my previous post.

I have too many to post here, so instead I will post some highlights. Before I begin, I would like to point readers of this blog to a page on the Louise Brooks Society website devoted to the actress' South American Magazine Covers. The actress appeared on at least four covers from Brazil, three from Cinearte, and once on A Scena Muda.Reader's can seen them there in beautiful color.

A Scena Muda was one of Brazil's most popular film magazines. They often ran two page spreads on news films, including most all of Brooks' paramount productions. Here is a typical two page spread on Beggars of Life, which in Brazil was titled Os Mendigos na Vida.

Cinearte was another popular fan magazine. Like A Scena Muda, it too ran one and two page spreads on newly released films. Here is the feature they ran on The Canary Murder Case, which in Brazil was titled O Drama De Uma Noite.

When we think of Brooks' three European films, we usually think of them in a European context. We don't necessarily think that they played in Latin American -- at least not around the time of their release. However, at least two of them did. Pandora's Box played in Brazil in 1929 (months before it played in the United States), and Prix de beaute played in Brazil in 1930 (decades before it played in the United States). The earliest screening of Diary of a Lost Girl in Brazil which I have been able to document dates to August 1954. The film was shown three times at the Filmoteca do Museu de Arte Moderna. That puts it on par with the Louise Brooks' revival just beginning to percolate in France and Italy! And, that predates its first shown in the United States by more than two decades.

Here is a single page piece on Pandora's Box from a magazine called Frou-Frou. in Brazil, the film was called Caixa de Pandora.

Of the three, I might guess that Prix de beaute made the biggest splash. I have come across magazine features about the French production, was well as a good deal of newspaper coverage. In fact, one newspaper, Diario Carioca, from Rio De Janeiro, ran significant articles about the film six days in a row! Here is one example of those pieces, shown within the context of the entire newspaper page.

In my previous post, I displayed a newspaper advertisement for Prix de beaute. I'll close this blog post with another. Uniquely so, it notes that Louise Brooks would be wearing, or modeling, clothes designed by Patou. I don't think I have ever come across an ad for this film -- even French ads -- which mentioned Patou.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Louise Brooks and Brazil - when Pandora's Box was featured in a 1930 Chaplin Club newsletter

The Louise Brooks Society blog is participating in the 2024 Luso World Cinema Blogathon. This blogathon celebrates the contributions of Portuguese-speaking peoples and their descendants to world cinema. This post is the second of three related posts. More information on the Luso World Cinema Blogathon, including a list of other participants and topics, may be found HERE. I would encourage everyone to check it out!

I have been researching Louise Brooks for a long time, ever since I launched the Louise Brooks Society website back in 1995. Over those 29 years, I have come across all kinds of interesting, unusual, and even surprising material. This particular find, however, left me gobsmacked.

I found two articles focusing on Pandora's Box, the 1929 German-made, G.W. Pabst directed film starring Louise Brooks. It wasn't so much that I found two articles that were unknown to me - but where I found them. They appeared in the June 1930 issue of O Fan - the official newsletter of the Chaplin-Club. (More on this remarkable group below.) What astonished me was that something like a local film club printed a newsletter back then, and that copies survived to this day. And what's more, this group was based not in the United States or Europe, but in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Here is the table of contents for the June 1930 issue, with Pandora's Box referred to under its Portuguese title, A Caixa de Pandora.

As can be seen above, one article on the film is by Octávio de Faria, and the other is by Annibal Nogueira Jr. Each were noted Brazilian writers. (Octavio de Faria was also the editor of O Fan.) The first article runs seven and a half-pages. It is subtitled -- "ensaaio para um estudo sobre G. W. Pabst" -- or "essay for a study on G. W. Pabst." Instead of posting images of each page of this piece, I will instead LINK TO THE ARTICLE so that those who wish to read it may do so.

The second article runs seven pages. Again, instead of posting images of this second article, I will instead LINK TO THE ARTICLE so those who wish to read it may do so.

The last entry on the table of contents pictured above is "Sessões do Chaplin-Club," a record of the group's sessions or meetings at which they viewed and likely discussed films. Did the Chaplin-Club have their own access to prints of the films they wrote about, or did they rely on theatrical screenings? It is hard to say. But, in announcing the publication of the two articles shown above, the prior issue of O Fan referred to a "special presentation" they had of A Caixa de Pandora.

If that is the case, WOW. If not, then the only public showing of A Caixa de Pandora in Rio de Janeiro prior to June 1930 that I haveso far come across took place in December, 1929 at Rio's Primor theatre, which is pictured below in an earlier image from the 1920s.

This old theater may still stand. James N. Green's 2001 book, Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil (University of Chicago Press), refers to the Primor as "a large old movie theatre in downtown Rio... [and] a popular place for anonymous sexual liaisons."

As well as the two articles, the sessões record in the June 1930 issue of O Fan contains a brief evaluation of A Caixa de Pandora by an author credited only as "A.C." (That author may be Almir Castro.)

My rough, computer assisted translation from the Portuguese reads:

"A major film by Pabst. It is a drama begun in dark tones, charged, morbid. Typically Pabst, it's deeply imbued with his directorial temperament. They are five or six different and equally tragic scenes, which evolve around a young woman, leading to a progressive and almost unconscious fall.

Scenario is well built, few inter-titles, drawing from the artist everything he can give. Symbolism. Great staging, great ambience, great characters, great detail, great sensuality - obsessive sensuality. All of it is compressed, dense, compact ...

Pandora's Box ... and Louise Brooks."

Notably, this issue also contains a still from the film, which I have improved because the original scan was poor.

What was Chaplin-Club? Founded in 1928 by Octavio de Faria and three others, the Chaplin-Club was the first cine-club in Brazil; it's main objective was to study cinema as art rather than as a popular form of entertainment. It should be noted that though they revered Charlie Chaplin and took their name from the actor, the club's interests went beyond the comedian and his films. And, it should also be noted, the club's perspective looked beyond Hollywood and instead looked to ideas about film then percolating in Europe, especially in France, and to a lesser degree, the Soviet Union.

Since the group's founding, it issued O Fan as a means to spread its ideas. The group's newsletter, which ran between 1928 and 1930, marked the beginning of "serious" Brazilian film criticism. All together, I believe, there were nine issues. The first seven issues, which resemble a professional newsletter of today, ran between four and eight pages, while the last two, which looked like a less professional 'zine of today, ran approximately 100 pages. Check out the first issue (pictured below) as well as later issues of the publication starting HERE.

Unlike Cinearte, Brazil's leading film-fan magazine (which will be discussed in the next post), O Fan had no advertisements, printed few photographs, and seemingly had little interest in Hollywood and its stars. It newsletter was instead filled with serious, sometimes technical considerations of European and American silent films. It printed articles on directors such as Abel Gance, Erich von Stroheim, King Vidor, Buster Keaton, E. A. Dupont, D. W. Griffith, F. W. Murnau and G. W. Pabst. Below is a typical first page, featuring articles on Charlie Chaplin and Ernst Lubitsch. Other issues critiqued films like City Lights, Fazil, Sunrise, The Patriot, Moulin Rouge, and Broadway Melody. There were also short write-ups of Erotikon, Variety, Piccadilly and other films.

Even with the emergence of sound films, the Chaplin-Club considered silent film the pinnacle of cinematic achievement. According to Maite Conde's 2018 book Foundational Films: Early Cinema and Modernity in Brazil (University of California Press), the Brazilian group, "decried the talkies as attacking the purity of film's visual discourse, and, worse still, as taking the medium back to its popular origins in the theater.... O Fan knew that it was read by almost no one and that it had no influence in the future of film, but it was not troubled by this."

What film could achieve was an idea whose time had come. Just a couple of months after the two articles about Pandora's Box appeared in O Fan, another of Brooks' European films, the French made Prix de beaute (aka Miss Europa) opened in Rio at the Alhambra, where it proved to be a big hit. That film was one of Brooks' first sound films, but more than that, it is a film very much concerned with the visual depiction of sound.

Despite their belief that their group had little influence, the ideas put forth by the Chaplin-Club seeped into Brazil's film culture. The Chaplin-Club dissolved in 1930, and its members went on to be film critics, writers, and teachers whose followers and students would in turn go on to form their own film clubs, societies, and groups. When Orson Welles visited Brazil in the early 1940s, he met with members of the disbanded Chaplin-Club and even debated the use of sound and image in film. In the mid-1950s, important national institutions like the Brazilian Cinemateca, and later the Cinemateca of the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, were founded. Both, in part, can trace their origins to the intellectual cinephilia seeded by the Chaplin-Club.

Interestingly,as well, in 1959, Enrique Scheiby, assistant curator of the Brazilian Cinemateca, visited the United States under the State Department's international educational exchange service. He visited for five months, to "study the American film industry." According to an August, 1959 article in a Brazilian newspaper, Correio do Parana, among the various places he visited was the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York -- and among the prominent stars he came into contact with were George Cukor, Otto Preminger, Marlene Dietrich, Gloria Swanson and .... Louise Brooks. (My research confirms that Scheiby dined with Brooks and James Card on May 14, 1959.) According to Carlos Roberto de Souza's A Cinemateca Brasileira e a preservação de filmes no Brasil, Scheiby was intent on meeting Brooks, "muse of silent cinema, who signed photographs for the select members of an informal club of Louise Brooks admirers, whose headquarters was the Cinematheque." For a time, one of those autographed photographs would hang in the meeting room of the Cinematheque.

Three years later, French film archivist Henri Langlois also visited Rochester, and was interviewed by Henry Clune of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. He confirmed Brazil's continuing affection for Brooks.

Some of the above material will be included in my forthcoming two volume work, Around the World with Louise Brooks, a transnational look at the career and films of the actress. It is due out later sometime in 2025, or so. For more interesting, unusual, and even surprising material, stay tuned to this blog. And consider subscribing.

And be sure and tune-in tomorrow for another Louise Brooks Society installment in the 2024 Luso World Cinema Blogathon. Tomorrow's post returns to Brazil to look how Louise Brooks & her films were seen in Brazilian magazines and newspapers.

Saturday, May 4, 2024

Louise Brooks & Her Films as Seen in the Portuguese-American Press

The Louise Brooks Society blog is participating in the 2024 Luso World Cinema Blogathon. This blogathon celebrates the contributions of Portuguese-speaking peoples and their descendants to world cinema. This post is the first of three related posts. More information on the Luso World Cinema Blogathon, including a list of other participants and topics, may be found HERE. I would encourage everyone to check it out!

In the United States, stories about the movies and film stars weren’t limited to the country’s mainstream, English language press. In fact, in the 1920s and 1930s, there were as many as a thousand non-English language publications in America. Most were newspapers, and most focused on the interests of their respective communities; however, a few of these ethnic and / or émigré publications acted akin to the mainstream press in reporting the general news of the day – albeit in German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Yiddish, or some other language -- including Portuguese.

Notably, this broader coverage occasionally included entertainment news along with bits about whichever movies were playing locally. And occasionally, this broader coverage put a spotlight on Louise Brooks. This entry in the 2024 Luso World Cinema Blogathon looks at Louise Brooks & Her Films as Seen in the one Portuguese-language newspaper, Diario de Noticias.

New Bedford is a historic port city in Massachusetts. During the first half of the 19th century, it was one of the world's most important whaling ports. (The city even served as a setting in Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick.) Later in that same century, immigrants from Portugal and its colonial possessions in the Atlantic — namely Cape Verde, the Azores, and Madeira — began settling in New Bedford and the surrounding area, attracted by jobs in the still active whaling industry.

Diario de Noticias (or Portuguese Daily News) was a Portuguese-language newspaper in New Bedford which served the area's Portuguese-language readers. During the silent film era, it covered the movies and ran advertisements for local screenings just like other local English-language papers. But interestingly in a different language.... and sometimes with a cultural twist.

In New Bedford, the Empire theater ran most every new Paramount film. The clipping and two newspaper advertisements above promote local screenings of Brooks' first two films. Notably, the titles of Brooks' films were translated, with The Street of Forgotten Men becoming A Rua dos Homens Esquecidos, and The American Venus becoming A Venus Americana.

Translating the title of a film in order to make it more relatable to non English-language readers was something many ethnic newspapers practiced, but not always consistently.

More clippings from Diaro de Noticias. Onthe left, Brooks is featured in a studio-supplied piece promoting A Social Celebrity, which here retains its English-language title in an article which has been translated from English. On the right are three film advertisements in which the Paramount films retain their original English-language titles: A Social Celebrity is advertised as an “interesting film.” It’s the Old Army Game features “the beautiful actress Louise Brooks.” While The Show Off is described as a “magnificent film”.

Diario de Noticias returned to translating the titles of American films into Portuguese. Ama-O E Dexia-O is the Portuguese title of Love Em and Leave Em, the film showing at the Empire theatre on New Year’s Eve, 1926. Twinkletoes, starring Colleen Moore, followed on New Year’s Day. Just Another Blonde is titled in this Portuguese ad without an “e” -- and they even left off Brooks’ name!

Louise Brooks is pictured far left in the publicity still shown above; here, Diario de Noticias identifies the actress' 1927 film The City Gone Wild as A Cidade que Enlouqueceu, which literally translates as the slightly different “The City That Went Crazy.” Unlike her other Paramount films, this screening was not held at the Empire, but instead was shown at the local Olympia theatre. Perhaps, distribution agreements had changed in New Bedford.

The City Gone Wild likely proved popular, because the film came back to New Bedford as The City Gone Wild six months later for a encore showing at the Orpheum at the same time that the then newly released 1928 Brooks' film, A Girl in Every Port, was showing at The State theater.

In the 1930's, Brooks film career went into decline. She was cast in lesser roles in lesser films which more often then not were poorly distributed. One of the last of Brooks' films to screen in New Bedford was God's Gift to Women (1931), a Warner Bros. production.

This Portuguese-language newspaper ad notes God’s Gift to Women is playing at the State (as O Presente de Deus Para as Mulheres) along with The Public Enemy (as O Inimigo Publico), another Warner Bros. film in which Brooks was cast but did not appear.

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Compared to the the mainstream big city or even small town newspapers, accessing ethnic or émigré publications can be challenging. Many don't seem to be well archived or made available, and of those that are, many of them kept focused on the immediate concerns of their readers and left mainstream cultural coverage to others.

I did manage to access one other Portuguese-American newspaper, A Colonia Portuguesa, from Oakland, California. In August of 1931, this community newspaper ran this cluster of advertisements. It notes that on Wednesday and Thursday the local Premier theater would be showing another of Brooks lesser 1930's films, It Pays to Advertise (1931), along with Utah Kid, a 1930 Western which starred Boris Karloff.

And be sure and tune-in tomorrow for another Louise Brooks Society installment in the 2024 Luso World Cinema Blogathon. Tomorrow's post ventures to Brazil to look at the time when Pandora’s Box was featured in a 1930 Chaplin Club newsletter from Rio!

Friday, May 3, 2024

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931

Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1931. The film is a short comedy which centers on Windy Riley, a cocky blow-hard who attempts to revamp the publicity department of a Hollywood studio. The film was Louise Brooks’ first after returning from Europe, the first to feature her actual voice (Brooks’ earlier sound films, The Canary Murder Case and Prix de Beauté, had been dubbed), and her first and only short. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page.

The film was directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was working under the name William B. Goodrich; a blacklist on the comedian's employment in Hollywood was still in effect. Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was promoted as a behind the scenes look at the movie capital. The film’s press sheet overstated its case when it proclaimed “One of the first pictures ever showing the interior of a sound stage and the actual operation of talking pictures. . . . The actual cameras, microphones, etc., used in picture production will be shown in some of the big scenes.”

At times, story details surrounding character Betty Grey (played by Brooks) curiously parallel Brooks’ own career. Near the beginning of the film, Grey is set to star in The Box Car Mystery, a title of which calls to mind Brooks’ role in Beggars of Life. Later, while at lunch at the Montmarte (a famous Los Angles café once frequented by Brooks and others in Hollywood), Riley boasts he was responsible for the successful advertising campaign mounted by Klux Soap. In real life, Brooks was among a handful of actress who regularly appeared in print ads for Lux Soap. And, at the end of the film, it is announced that Grey will wed the director The Box Car Mystery. A few years earlier, Brooks married Eddie Sutherland, who directed her in It’s the Old Army Game.

The film's few reviews were largely negative, and the film suffered from a lack of exhibitor interest. Consequently, few likely saw Windy Riley Goes Hollywood at the time of its release. Except for a three-month period in mid-1931 when it played in Toronto, there are few records of this short film having been shown in any large cities. What exhibition records have been found suggest the film was shown as program filler in mostly smaller markets.

In the United States and Canada, the film was on a few occasions promoted under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood, and once reviewed as Windy Riley Goes into Hollywood. Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Canada, The Philippines, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland).

Elsewhere, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was shown under the title The Gas Bag (United Kingdom, including England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) and as Windy Rileyová jde Hollywood (Czechoslovakia).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

-- Windy Riley Goes Hollywood, based on an original story by Ken Kling, was adapted from Kling’s comic strip Windy Riley. The New York cartoonist started the strip about a wisecracking braggart in 1928. At the time of the film's release, the strip ran in some 170 newspapers across the country.

-- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, depressed and still working under a pseudonym because he was under an industry blacklist, directed the film. Years later, Brooks told Kevin Brownlow, "He made no attempt to direct this picture. He sat in his chair like a man dead."

-- Dell Henderson started as an actor in 1908, and was a frequent associate of director D.W. Griffith, and less so, with producer Mack Sennett. Henderson also directed nearly 200 silent films between 1911 and 1928. In the late 1920s, he returned to acting and played important supporting roles in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928) and Show People (1928). The advent of sound stalled his career, and he was thereafter cast in small parts. In the 1930s, Henderson appeared as a comic foil for W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, and The Three Stooges.

-- The group of dancers seen in Windy Riley Goes Hollywood were recruited from the chorus of George Olsen’s Culver City nightclub. Olsen was a popular bandleader and recording artist married to Ethel Shutta. Her brother Jack Shutta, a stage performer making his screen debut in the title role of Windy Riley, managed Olsen's nightclub. Along with Ethel Shutta and Louise Brooks, Olsen and his orchestra performed at the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925.

-- In 1935, the Bell and Howell Company of Chicago offered Windy Riley as a Filmosound rental subject.

-- Windy Riley Goes Hollywood was the first Louise Brooks film shown on television. The film was shown under the title Windy Riley Goes to Hollywood on November 18, 1948 on WJZ (Channel 7) in Asbury Park, New Jersey. (LINK)