A Girl in Every Port, the 1928 Howard Hawks silent film starring starring Louise Brooks and Victor McLaglen, is set to screen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on August 1. This special screening, which is part of MoMA's Silent Movie Week 2024, will feature piano accompaniment by Ben Model. More information about this event can be found HERE.
The NY MoMa page doesn't say much about the film, except to offer these minimal credits: "A Girl in Every Port. 1928. USA. Directed by Howard Hawks. Screenplay by Hawks, James Kevin McGuiness, Seton I. Miller, Sidney Lanfield, Reggie Morris, Malcolm Stuart Boyland. With Victor McLaglen, Louise Brooks, Robert Armstrong, Maria Casajuana (later Maria Alba), Leila Hyams, Eileen Sedgwick, Natalie Kingston, Myrna Loy. 35mm print courtesy of the George Eastman Museum. 78 min." [The film also features Sally Rand as the "Girl in Bombay," and William Demarest in an uncreditted bit part.]
A Girl in Every Port is a "buddy film," the comedic story of two sailors and their adventures with various women in various ports of call. Sailor Spike Madden (played by Victor McLaglen), a happy-go-lucky Lothario, finds that another sailor is a rival for his girl friends in various ports of call. He finally overtakes Salami (Robert Armstrong), the other sailor, and they become fast friends. Spike believes he has fallen in love with Marie (Louise Brooks), an especially attractive gold digger in France, but his friend dissuades him and they continue their merry way.
The
film was shot in November and December, 1927 at Fox's studios in
Hollywood. Location shooting was done on a boating trip to Santa Cruz
Island, located along the California coast. Under contract with
Paramount, Louise Brooks was loaned to Fox for the film.
The film received glowing reviews. TIME magazine stated, "A Girl in Every Port is really What Price Glory? translated from arid and terrestrial irony to marine gaiety of the most salty and miscellaneous nature. Nobody could be more charming than Louise Brooks, that clinging and tender little barnacle from the docks of Marseilles. Director Howard Hawks and his entire cast, especially Robert Armstrong, deserve bouquets and kudos.” Weekly Film Review noted that the audience "Cheered it - and loved it!"
More about A Girl in Every Port can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its A Girl in Every Port (filmography page). AND, for those interested, here is a link to a program essay, "A Girl in Every Port: The Birth of Lulu," which I wrote for the University of Wisconsin Cinematheque back in 2013.
THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas
Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com).
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