Here are the program notes I (Thomas Gladysz) wrote in 2013 for Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port when it was screened at the University of Wisconsin Cinematheque. The film will be screened on August 1 at
the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. More information about that forthcoming event can
be found HERE.
# # #
Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port is a well-crafted and
entertaining "buddy film" widely considered the director's best silent.
It's also a film with a special legacy.
A Girl in Every Port features a romantic triangle – a
reoccurring motif in many of Hawks' later works. It tells the story of
two sailors (Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong) and their adventures
in various ports of call around the world. Louise Brooks plays Marie
(Mam'selle Godiva), a high diver and sideshow siren and the love
interest of both sailors. Other girls in other ports of call include
Myrna Loy, Sally Rand, Leila Hyams, and Maria Casajuana (the future
Maria Alba).
Released by Fox in February of 1928, A Girl in Every Port debuted
at the 6,000 seat Roxy Theater in New York City. For days on end, the
film played to a packed house. Ads placed by the studio in trade
publications claimed it set a "New House Record – and a World Record –
with Daily Receipts on February 22 of $29,463." Considering ticket
prices of the time, that's a lot of money.
Popular as well as critically acclaimed, the film received good reviews in New York's daily newspapers. The New York Times described it "A rollicking comedy," while the New York Telegram called it "a hit picture." The Morning Telegraph pronounced it a "winner."
The Daily News noted, "Director Howard Hawks has injected several
devilish touches in the piece, which surprisingly enough, got by the
censors. His treatment of the snappy scenario is smooth and at all times
interesting. Victor's great, Armstrong's certainly appreciable, and
Louise Brooks is at her loveliest."
Reviewing the premiere, TIME magazine stated, "There are two rollicking sailors in this fractious and excellent comedy. . . . 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."
A number of critics singled out Brooks. The New York American stated,
“Then comes THE woman. She is Louise Brooks, pert, fascinating young
creature, who does high and fancy diving for a living. . . . Miss Brooks
'takes' our hero in somewhat the manner that Grant took Richmond. . . .
Louise Brooks has a way of making a junior vamp and infantile scarlet
lady seem most attractive."
A reviewer for the English Kinematograph Weekly echoed
American reviews of the film, and picked up on the film's somewhat
different bromance. "Louise Brooks made a charmingly heartless vamp. . .
. It has the novelty of a love interest that does not materialize,
which is replaced by the friendship between two men."
The film made a bigger splash in France. Writing in 1930 in his "Paris Cinema Chatter" column in the New York Times,
Morris Gilbert noted ". . . there are a number of others – mostly
American – which have their place as 'classics' in the opinion of the
French. . . . They love A Girl in Every Port, which has the
added distinction of being practically the only American film which
keeps its own English title here." The film enjoyed an extended run in
the French capitol, and lingered for decades in the French
consciousness.
Writing in Cahiers du Cinéma in 1963, French film archivist Henri Langlois stated, "It seems that A Girl in Every Port
was the revelation of the Hawks season at the Museum of Modern Art in
New York. For New York audiences of 1962, Louise Brooks suddenly
acquired that 'Face of the Century' aura she had had, many years ago,
for spectators at the Cinema des Ursulines. . . . That is why Blaise
Cendrars confided a few years ago that he thought A Girl in Every Port definitely marked the first appearance of contemporary cinema. To the Paris of 1928, which was rejecting expressionism, A Girl in Every Port was a film conceived in the present, achieving an identity of its own by repudiating the past."
Brooks, under contract to Paramount, was loaned to Fox for her role in A Girl in Every Port.
Anticipating the female types cast by Hawks in later works, the
bobbed-hair actress stands as what might well be the first "Hawksian
woman." Years later, the director stated, "I wanted a different type of
girl. I hired Louise because she's very sure of herself, she's very
analytical, she's very feminine, but she's damn good and sure she's
going to do what she wants to do."
Film histories note that A Girl in Every Port ranks as the
most significant of Hawks' silent films; additionally, historians claim,
it seemingly persuaded G.W. Pabst to cast Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box. Such a claim was likely first made by James Card of the George Eastman House in his 1956 article, "Out of Pandora's Box: Louise Brooks on G. W. Pabst." It was repeated by others, including Brooks herself, in filmed interviews in the 1970's.
In Germany, Pabst came to cast Brooks as Lulu only after a well publicized nationwide search which concluded months after A Girl in Every Port
premiered in New York City. Not quite content with a German actress
(including, legend has it, Marlene Dietrich), Pabst wrote to Paramount
asking after Brooks, then an American starlet. The German director was
also in search of a "different type."
Chronologically, the assumption that Pabst saw his Lulu in Hawks'
Marie makes sense – Brooks plays a temptress in both films. Records
show, however, that Blaue jungens, blonde Madchen (the German title for Hawk's film) was not shown in Germany until December, after production on Pandora's Box was finished.
Could Pabst have seen A Girl in Every Port well prior to its release in Germany? Or, might Pabst have noticed Brooks in one of her earlier American films, like Die Braut am Scheidewege (Just Another Blonde) or Ein Frack Ein Claque Ein Madel (Evening Clothes)? Each were shown in Berlin while Pabst was looking for Lulu, and each received press which highlighted Brooks.
Whatever the answer to this small mystery, A Girl in Every Port
remains an entertaining film worthy of greater recognition – not only
because it stars Louise Brooks, and not only because it may or may not
have led Pabst to cast the actress as Lulu in Pandora's Box.
It's deserving because it is an early work by great director which
introduces the themes and characters Hawks would continue to explore
throughout his long and distinguished career.
# # #
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).
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.
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