Beggars of Life: a review of reviews

Beggars of Life will be screened on February 20th as part of Film Forum's Wellman Festival taking place in New York City. It is a great opportunity to see a rarely screened film not readily available on DVD. Back in 1928 and 1929, the film was screened widely and just as widely reviewed. Here are extracts from some of those reviews.

“Wallace Beery plays the lead, with Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks. All of these stars outdo themselves in this picture. Wallace Beery talks in this picture, sings a hobo song and ends with an observation about jungle rats in general.” -- Kelcey Allen, Women’s Wear Daily

“Of these three pictures it is the only one weakened by a conventional plot, a plot for which I see no reason except that it gives Louise Brooks a chance to wear boy’s clothes and to jump a freight, both of which she always does, however, with an imperturbable maidenliness, generally to the synchronized accompaniment of sentimental music.” -- J. C. M., New Yorker

“Miss Brooks looks attractive, even in men’s clothes, and scores in the two or three scenes where she is placed on defensive against male attackers.” -- Mori, Variety

“Louise Brooks, in a complete departure from the pert flapper that it has been her wont to portray, here definitely places herself on the map as a fine actress. Her characterizations, drawn with the utmost simplicity, is genuinely affecting.” -- P. G., New York Morning Telegraph

“Louise Brooks figures as Nancy. She is seen for the greater part of this subject in male attire, having decided to wear these clothes to avoid being apprehended. Miss Brooks really acts well, better than she has in most of her other pictures.” -- Mordaunt Hall, New York Times

“A great deal of the charm which is contained in Mr. Tully’s realistic tales of hobo life has been brought to the screen in Paramount’s picture made from Beggars of Life. . . . Here we have Louise Brooks, that handsome brunette, playing the part of a fugitive from justice, and playing as if she meant it, and with a certain impressive authority and manner. This is the best acting this remarkable young woman has done.”  -- Quinn Martin, New York World

“Richard Arlen’s juvenile vagrant, so delightfully played on the stage by James Cagney, is an excellent piece of work, while Louise Brooks’s delineation of the girl fugitive is so good as to indicate that Miss Brooks is a real actress, as well as an alluring personality.” -- Richard Watts Jr., New York Herald Tribune

“Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks also capture honors for their sincerity and a poignant, moving quality they infuse into their roles without seeming to act at all. Miss Brooks, who has hitherto qualified as a particularly provocative figure, now establishes herself as a real actress.” -- Norbert Lusk, Los Angeles Times

“I was a little disappointed in Louise Brooks. She is so much more the modern flapper type, the Ziegfeld Follies girl, who wears clothes and is always gay and flippant. This girl is somber, worried to distraction and in no comedy mood. Miss Brook is infinitely better when she has her lighter moments.” -- Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner

“Considered from a moral standpoint, Beggars of Life is questionable, for it throws the glamour of adventure over tramp life and is occupied with building sympathy for an escaping murderess. As entertainment, however, it has tenseness and rugged earthy humor. . . . It is a departure from the wishy-washy romance and the fervid triangle drama.” -- Harrison Carroll, Los Angeles Evening Herald

“Louise Brooks does her best trouping: she is absolutely convincing.” -- Weekly Film Review

“Beery with his coarse humor and Miss Brooks with her simplicity are exceedingly good. The direction is admirable. Vitaphonic sounds lend some extra force. Beery is heard singing.” -- Frank Aston, Cincinnati Post

“The picture is a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life. . . . Both Arlen and Miss Brooks appear as effectively as I have ever seen either of them. They are a couple of babes in the ‘jungles’ and they understand their characters. Miss Brooks, considering her record, does surprisingly well.” -- W. Ward Marsh, Cleveland Plain Dealer

“The American tramp receives his glorification on the Michigan screen this week. . . . Louise Brooks, who always looks gorgeous in beautiful clothes, suffers a bit from the man’s garments called for by the role, but she does well.” -- Harold Heffernan, Detroit News

“Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen (also playing in Wings) and Louise Brooks play the featured roles. All do praiseworthy work. By the way it is a sound picture and Wallace Beery speaks a few lines and sings a song. His speaking voice is splendid.” -- Peggy Patton, Wisconsin News

“Another good bit was a scene where Louise Brooks describes a murder. It is much the same way in which Victor Seastrom showed thoughts in Masks of the Devil. Miss Brooks’ face was superimposed upon the action which took place during the murder, and thus the audience got her reaction to everything. It was very interesting.” -- Donald Beaton, Film Spectator

“Beggars of Life was recognized as one of Paramount’s major productions of the year, even aside from the sound feature. With sound feature, it is overwhelming in its power.” -- Hollywood Filmograph

“The story which has been something of a screen sensation is said to be based upon the life and adventures of its author who before he took ‘his pen in hand’ saw most of America from ‘side door Pullmans’. . . . the cast includes Louise Brooks as Nancy and Richard Arlen as Jim.” -- Manly Wade Wellman, Wichita Beacon

“Louise Brooks is interesting, with a cold, half-insolent beauty of face and figure masking a hidden fire. It is a new Louise Brooks.” -- W. J. Bahmer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Louise Brooks essays the difficult role of a girl tramp escaping from police who seek her for murder. She is a star of no little amount of personality - the sort she would have to have to enable her to carry the type of role she has in this picture through successfully and that she does. If her career in pictures is further enhanced through her work in Beggars of Life, it will not be underserved.” -- J. O. C., Memphis Commercial Appeal

“Louise Brooks, as the girl who murdered her guardian to save herself, and turns hobo to escape the vengeance of the law, is an actress who will bear watching. She has a vivid personality. Her attempts to walk like her ‘adopted’ pal, Jim, so her masculine disguise will not be discovered: her emotional reactions finely restrained as she lies beneath the stars with a haystack as a roof, and knows ‘that all she wants is peace and a home,’ give her opportunity to disclose some very effective acting in a subtle manner.” --   Ada Hanifin, San Francisco Examiner

“The Great Unshaven appear in numbers, and at the same time there is a well-sustained romantic theme most admirably interpreted by Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen. Accompanied by a synchronized musical score of more than average excellence, the picture provides an hour and a half of film entertainment radically out of line with the general run of cinema drama. It is pungent, powerful, appealing, masterfully directed and superbly acted.” -- San Diego Union

“In Beggars of Life, Edgar Blue Washington, race star, was signed by Paramount for what is regarded as the most important Negro screen role of the year, that of Big Mose. The part is that of a sympathetic character, hardly less important to the epic of tramp life than those of Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen, who head the cast.” -- The Afro-American

“Sordid, grim and unpleasant, it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie. Its salient features are excellent acting on the part of Mr. Berry, Richard Arlen, and Louise Brooks, distinguished direction and photography and undeniable sincerity of intention. . . . Sound effects add to, rather than detract for once, and Wallace Beery sings a rollicking ditty somewhat self-consciously.” -- Picture Play

“Louise Brooks is cute in her little trousers, and not so cute in the final feminine sun bonnet. . . . This is rough, romantic, tender, dramatic and very good indeed.” -- Motion Picture

“ . . . one of the most entertaining films of the littered season.” -- Musical Courier

Pandora's Box screens twice in Cardiff

Pandora's Box- the once controversial and heavily censored 1929 German film which introduced the screen's "first unequivocal lesbian," is set to screen twice in Cardiff, England.  

The two screenings, sponsored by Chapter Cinema, are set to take place on February 19 and 21 at Cinema 1. Additionally, each showing of the classic silent film will include a post-screening discussion by Lavender Screen, Cardiff’s lesbian and bisexual movie club.

Pandora’s Box tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant show-girl whose flirtations lead to devastating encounters. Lulu is played by Louise Brooks, an American actress who was recruited for the iconic German role.

Close Up, an English film journal of the time with a keen interest in adventuresome German film, noted "The long search at last is ended. Lulu has been found. . . . Having literally searched the whole of Europe for a suitable type for Lulu in The Box of Pandora (adapted from the book by Wedekind), having interviewed hundreds and tested scores, in Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, G. W. Pabst has at last found, in America, the type for which he had been seeking in vain. Lulu will be no other than Louise Brooks, the well-known junior Paramount star. The search for Lulu has been almost the principal topic of interest in Germany for a couple of months. Everywhere one went one heard ‘What about Lulu?’ ‘Is Lulu found yet’ . . . Lulu is found. And now, after long delay, Pandora will be filmed by Nero Film."

In another piece, Close Up observed, "Louise Brooks is not chosen because she is Louise Brooks but because, for whatever reason, she looks likely to find it easier than anyone else might, to sink into and become a visual expression of Lulu in Pandora’s Box."

The film was based on two turn-of-the-last-century plays by Frank Wedekind, a German writer not without troubles brought about by his writings. Wedekind's other major work is Spring Awakening, which recently has been transformed into a rock musical which has also drawn its own share of raised eyebrows.

Lulu has been described, variously, as a vamp or femme fatale, but in fact she is a kind of innocent. As one writer put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful men around her.” And not just men, as the Cardiff group points out. Lulu’s sexual magnetism knows few bounds, and this once controversial and heavily censored German film features what is described as cinema's first lesbian character. The Countess Anna Geschwitz, a lesser character covertly in love with Lulu, is played by Alice Roberts, a Belgian actress.

The film made its world premiere February 9, 1929 at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin. German reviews of the time were mixed. The same held true when the film played in various European capitals. A large part of the critical disregard for the film stemmed from the fact that it was censored - due to its provocative subject matter. The poet Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), writing in Close Up, stated the film “ . . . passed by the German censors after a stormy discussion of several hour duration.”

When Pandora’s Box opened at a small art house in New York City in December of 1929, American newspaper and magazine critics were also ambivalent. Photoplay, one of the leading American film magazines, noted “When the censors got through with this German-made picture featuring Louise Brooks, there was little left but a faint, musty odor. It is the story, both spicy and sordid, of a little dancing girl who spread evil everywhere without being too naughty herself. Interesting to American fans because it shows Louise, formerly an American ingénue in silent films, doing grand work as the evil-spreader.”

Another English film journal of the time, The Bioscope, echoed those sentiments. "The picture starts well. Then comes the scene when Lulu refuses to go on the first night of the revue. This is unconvincing. . . . Louise Brooks does all that is possible in the role of Lulu. Her performance, combined with the masterful characterization of the wealthy man by Fritz Kortner, makes the early scenes definitely dramatic and effective."

After more than a few decades of obscurity, Pandora's Box is now regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the silent era. Ticket availability and further information about the Cardiff screening of Pandora's Box can be found at http://www.chapter.org/25868.html

Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life screens in New York City

Beggars of Life is a film whose reputation is picking up steam.

Directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win an Academy Award), Beggars of Life (1928) is a gripping drama about a girl (Louise Brooks) dressed as a boy who flees the law after killing her abusive stepfather. On the run, she rides the rails through a male dominated hobo underworld in which danger is always close at hand. Picture Play magazine described the film as "Sordid, grim and unpleasant," though added "it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie."

Beggars of Life will be screened on February 20th as part of Film Forum's Wellman Festival. It is a great opportunity to see a rarely screened film not readily available on DVD.

Beggars of Life is based on the 1925 novelistic memoir of the same name by Jim Tully, a once celebrated "hobo author" whose own reputation is also on the rise. Kent State University Press in Kent, Ohio (Tully's one-time hometown) has launched an ambitious program of reissuing the author's books, including Beggars of Life -- his best remembered work. They have also recently published an excellent biography of the author called Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler. The book includes a forward by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who calls it "hugely important." 

Coincidentally, Tully biographers Paul J. Bauer and Mark Dawidziak are speaking about the author at New York University's Ireland House on February 23 at 7 pm. More info here.

Though shot as a silent, Beggars of Life has the distinction of being considered Paramount's first sound film: a synchronized musical score, sound effects, and a song were added at the time of its release. Early advertisements for the 1928 film even boasted "Come hear Wallace Beery sing!" The gravel-voiced character actor and future Oscar winner plays Oklahoma Red, a tough hobo with a soft heart. Richard Arlen, who the year before had starred in Wings, plays Brooks' romantic interest. 

Beggars of Life is a film about the desperate and the downtrodden. And in some ways, it anticipates films made during the Depression, which was just a few years off. Among them is Wellman's own Wild Boys of the Road, from 1933. It too is included in the Wellman Festival.

Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life.

In 1928, Beggars of Life was named one of the six best films for October by the Chicago Tribune, and, it made the honor roll for best films of the year in an annual poll conducted by The Film Daily. Nevertheless, it is little known today and its grim story set among disheveled tramps drew mixed reviews upon release. One Baltimore newspaper said it would have limited appeal, quipping, "Tully tale not a flapper fetcher for the daytime trade."

Louella Parsons, writing in the Los Angeles Examiner, echoed the sentiment when she stated, "I was a little disappointed in Louise Brooks. She is so much more the modern flapper type, the Ziegfeld Follies girl, who wears clothes and is always gay and flippant. This girl is somber, worried to distraction and in no comedy mood. Miss Brooks is infinitely better when she has her lighter moments." Her cross-town colleague, Harrison Carroll, added to the drumbeat of disdain when he wrote in the Los Angeles Evening Herald, "Considered from a moral standpoint, Beggars of Life is questionable, for it throws the glamour of adventure over tramp life and is occupied with building sympathy for an escaping murderess. As entertainment, however, it has tenseness and rugged earthy humor." 

Critics in New York were also divided on the merits of Beggars of Life, so many of them instead focused on Brooks' unconventional, cross-dressing role. Brooks, it should be noted, was something of a local celebrity in the 1920s. The actress had lived in New York in the mid-twenties while appearing with the George White Scandals and Ziegfeld Follies. And, more often than not related to some outrageous behavior or a scandal, she also managed to get her name or picture in the paper on more than a few occasions. 

Mordaunt Hall, in the New York Times, noted, "Louise Brooks figures as Nancy. She is seen for the greater part of this subject in male attire, having decided to wear these clothes to avoid being apprehended. Miss Brooks really acts well, better than she has in most of her other pictures."

The New York Morning Telegraph penned, "Louise Brooks, in a complete departure from the pert flapper that it has been her wont to portray, here definitely places herself on the map as a fine actress. Her characterizations, drawn with the utmost simplicity, is genuinely affecting." While Quinn Martin of the New York World wrote, "Here we have Louise Brooks, that handsome brunette, playing the part of a fugitive from justice, and playing as if she meant it, and with a certain impressive authority and manner. This is the best acting this remarkable young woman has done."

Indeed, it was Brooks' best acting and her best silent film prior to her heading off to Germany to star in Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl (both 1929). It is on those two films, each directed by G.W. Pabst, that Brooks' reputation rests.

Girls dressed as boys, pastoral life gone wrong, the mingling of the races, desperation depicted among the glitz and glamour of the twenties -- there is a lot of friction and a lot going on in Beggars of Life. It's a more than worthwhile film and one well worth watching. And, until a few years ago when the George Eastman House blew-up its sole surviving 16mm print to 35mm, Beggars of Life had been little seen. 

Wellman was one of the great directors -- and he made a lot of great movies; among them are Wings (1927), The Public Enemy (1931), A Star is Born (1937), Beau Geste (1939), Roxie Hart (1942), The Ox Bow Incident (1943), and Battleground (1949). Actor and author William Wellman Jr., who has recently completed a biography of his father and is introducing some of the movies at the Wellman Festival, stated via email, "Beggars of Life was one of my Father's favorite silent films. He loved it. He talked about it a great deal with appreciation and GUSTO." 

Beggars of Life will be screened on February 20th as part of Film Forum's William Wellman Festival. Start time is 8:35 pm. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Steve Sterner. Film Forum is located at 209 West Houston St., west of 6th Ave.

And the Oscar for best hair goes to Louise Brooks

According to the New York Times, and according to Ted Gibson - who has been campaigning for a "Best Hair" award, none other than Louise Brooks should have won the first Oscar for "Best Hair." In "Hairstyles Worthy of an Oscar Nod,"  Catherine Saint Louis stated

“The Show Off” (1926), starring Louise Brooks (it actually predates the first Oscars in 1929). “Women then weren’t wearing haircuts — they wore sets, waved hair,” he said, but her straight haircut with bangs to her cheekbones “changed the course of how women wear their hair, it introduced women to a new way of thinking.”

Louise Brooks is also pictured in the article. Check it out here.

100,000 and counting

I just took a look at the stats for the Louise Brooks Society blog and see that nearly 100,000 people have visited this blog over the last couple, three years. Wow! That is gratifying. To date, there have been nearly 400 entries here on Blogger.  Thank you for your interest.

This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, the founding Director of the Louise Brooks Society. It is a continuation of the old blog at LiveJournal. Please send comments or questions to silentfilmbuff {AT} gmail DOT com.

Those without a time machine need not despair

Had you been alive and living in Charleston, West Virginia in mid-November of 1928, you could have gone to a local movie theater and taken in not only Abel Gance's Napoleon but also William Wellman's Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks. Regrettably, the Gance film was being shown in a severely truncated version - cut down from six hours to 80 minutes by MGM, its American distributor. Which version of Beggars of Life was being shown is not certain. Perhaps it was the silent version or perhaps it was the version with added sound effects and a musical score including Wallace Beery croaking out a version of the once popular theme song. Beggars of Life has the distinction of being Paramount's first sound film.

The newspaper page shown below includes Albert Dieudonne as Napoleon depicted in the upper right. Beery, Richard Arlen and Brooks are depicted in a scene from Beggars of Life in the middle left. The Brooks film is also noted as a future attraction in the lower right.

Those without a time machine need not despair! Beggars of Life will be screened in New York City on Monday, February 20, 2012 as part of the Film Forum's ongoing William Wellman tribute. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Steve Sterner. More info on this event can be found on this webpage.

And, on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is presenting Kevin Brownlow's epic restoration of Abel Gance's epic masterpiece Napoleon (1927) in a as-complete-as-it-will-ever-be five and one-half hour version with its original three screen finale and live musical accompaniment by Carl Davis leading the Oakland East Bay Symphony. More info on this extraordinary event can be found on this webpage.

Oh, and in case you are curious, here is a copy of the newspaper advertisement for Napoleon which ran on November 14, 1928 - which also happened to be Louise Brooks' 22nd birthday. At the time, the actress was in Berlin filming Pandora's Box.

"Berlin," a song about Louise Brooks by Gosta Berling

I received an email today from Damon Anderson, a rock musician and fan of Louise Brooks who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He wrote to tell me about a song his band, Gosta Berling, has recorded which is about the actress.

Damon wrote, "I am a card carrying member of the LBS and a member of the local band, "Gosta Berling". We have a song about Louise Brooks and I just thought you might appreciate it. We are not well-known but we are a working band and play gigs in the Bay Area every month or so. We are nerds about the silent film era and old movies in general so it was natural to start writing about that stuff when we started playing music. I love that there is a Louise Brooks Society and that it's here."

I like the song, and think Gosta Berling has a great sound. I encourage everyone to check out their accompanying video as well.

The description on the song's YouTube page reads, "The song "Berlin" by Gosta Berling was inspired by the life of Louise Brooks. It focuses specifically on the period when she left Hollywood in 1928, burning many bridges, to travel to Germany for her greatest starring role, as Lulu in Pandora's Box. Her story and iconic image have inspired many tributes - songs, books, plays and movies. The fascinating and frustrating saga of her life is captured in the biography "Louise Brooks" by Barry Parris - which I devoured while writing the words to this song. The images for this video were all scanned from the book "Lulu Forever" by Peter Cowie. This song is on our first EP, Everybody's Sweetheart (2007)."

I hope to catch their live act sometime soon. In the meantime, you can check them out at their website at http://www.gostaberling.com/ and on their Facebook page.

All roads lead

The Film Noir Festival currently underway at the Castro Theater in San Francisco concludes Sunday with a tribute to Dashiell Hammett. The author of The Maltese Falcon and other classic works of detective and crime fiction will be celebrated with the screening of six films based on his work. It is a not-to-be-missed all-day affair - and one with more than one connection to Louise Brooks.
The Film Noir Festival tribute is fitting.

Arguably, the noir aesthetic sprang from Hammett's work. His hardboiled characters and grim plots - which served as a counterpoint to the work of S.S. van Dine (another leading mystery writer of the time) - set the tone for a good deal of the noir fiction and film which followed. And secondly, Hammett lived in San Francisco in the 1920s. It is here that he wrote the novels and stories for which he is still read today.

Before beginning his life as a writer, Hammett worked for the Pinkerton detective agency. And it was as a private detective that he came to San Francisco. One of his assignments involved gathering evidence for the defense of Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle at the time the famous comedian was tried for murder.

Hammett wrote most of his now classic work during the eight years he lived in San Francisco. From apartments on Eddy, Hyde, Monroe, Post and Leavenworth streets he pounded out story after story, drawing inspiration from almost everything around him. Notably, more than half of Hammett's stories take place in the city, as do his novels The Big Knockover, The Dain Curse, and, of course, The Maltese Falcon. Also set in San Francisco is his longest series -- three novels and 28 stories -- concerning an unnamed operative for the Continental Detective Agency.

In the single best source for information on the writer's time in San Francisco, The Dashiell Hammett Tour: A Guidebook (City Lights, 1991 / expanded and revised edition 2010, Vince Emery Productions), Hammett expert Don Herron wrote, "Hammett's San Francisco stands as one of the great literary treatments of a city - it has been compared with Joyce's Dublin and Dickens' London for its evocation of place and time. . . . In the Continental Op tales, the nameless detective goes to every neighborhood in the city and encounters every level of society, from bankers with wandering daughters in Pacific Height's mansions to cheap gunmen living in furnished rooms in Tenderloin hotels who do their drinking in North Beach speakeasies."

All told, some 32 films or television episodes have been based on a Hammett story or novel. On Sunday, the San Francisco Film Noir Festival will screen six of them.

Roadhouse Nights(1930, Paramount, 68 min.)
At 12:00 noon: This rarely shown film - the first based on a Hammett book - is loosely based on the author's classic gang-war novel Red Harvest, a story which proved too brutal and cynical for pre-Code Hollywood. In this Hobert Henley-directedadaption, Hammett’s story becomes an action-comedy starring sultry torch singer Helen Morgan, Charles Ruggles, Fred Kohler (who played in the early gangster film, The City Gone Wild), and newcomer Jimmy Durante. Not on DVD.

The Maltese Falcon (1931, Warner Bros. 80 min.)
At 1:20 pm: This first of three adaptions was made the year after Hammett's landmark novel of the same name was published. This pre-Code version, directed by Roy Del Ruth and sometimes titled Dangerous Female, flaunts a sexier tone than John Huston's more famous 1941 remake. Here, Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels star as Sam Spade and Ruth Wonderly (the Brigid O'Shaughnessy character), with other parts played by Una Merkal and the doomed Thelma Todd. And don’t miss an “appearance” by Louise Brooks, whose photograph hangs in Spade’s apartment as a curious piece of set dressing.

City Streets (1932, Paramount, 83 min.)
At 3:00 pm: In City Streets, Gary Cooper plays a carny sharpshooter who goes crooked in order to free his love (played by Sylvia Sidney) from prison. Paul Lukas, Willam Boyd and lovable Guy Kibee round out the cast. This film was made from the only story Hammett wrote specifically for the screen, and it's brilliantly realized by director Rouben Mamoulian and cameraman Lee Garmes. Restored print courtesy the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Not on DVD.

Mr. Dynamite (1935, Universal, 67 min.)
At 4:45 pm: Originally conceived as a second Sam Spade novel, Mr. Dynamite is the most rarely seen of all films based on Hammett's work. Edmund Lowe stars as a disreputable private dick hired by a gambler to solve a murder within the casino. The cast includes Jean Dixon, Victor Varconi and lovely Esther Ralston (who starred in The American Venus). Directed by Alan Crosland. Archival print courtesy of Universal Pictures. Not on DVD.

The Glass Key (1942, Paramount, 85 min.)
At 7:00 pm: Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake add lots of sex appeal to this second adaption of The Glass Key, Hammett's gritty behind-the-scenes novel of the dirty work that goes on in big-city politics. Director Stuart Heisler is at his rapid-fire best, eliciting terrific support from dashing Brian Donlevy and thuggish William Bendix. Not on DVD.

The Maltese Falcon (1941, Warner Bros. 100 min.)
At 9:00 pm: Noir City's 10th Anniversary celebration closes with an encore screening of the film version of the most influential work of crime fiction ever written. This classic film features legendary performances from Humphrey Bogart (whom Brooks knew and wrote about), Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and San Francisco's own Elisha Cook Jr. Written and directed by John Huston.

One other event Hammett fans won't want to miss takes place next month at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco. On Tuesday, February 21st, Myrna Loy biographer Emily Leider will speak about "Nick and Nora's San Francisco." Leider's event will be presented by the San Francisco Historical Society and Museum.

According to the San Francisco biographer, whose Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood was published late last year by the University of California Press, her talk will focus on three figures: Hammett, who wrote The Thin Man and created its sleuthing characters Nick and Nora Charles; actor William Powell (who starred as Philo Vance in The Canary Murder Case), who played Nick in the 1934 MGM movie of the book which spawned five sequels; and Loy (who played in A Girl in Every Port), the actress who portrayed Nora in all six films.

Utilizing film clips and photographs, Leider will discuss Hammett’s relationship with Nick, Nora and San Francisco, and the experiences of Powell and Loy in The City while filming After The Thin Man (1936) and Shadow of The Thin Man (1941) - two movies in the series shot in part in San Francisco. Leider will also touch on San Francisco’s reputation as a “wet” city during Prohibition, and on the impact of Prohibition’s repeal in 1933 on the audience for The Thin Man.

Dashiell Hammett character Nick Charles confronts S.S. van Dine character Philo Vance (both played by William Powell) in the trailer for The Thin Man. Curiously, both Hammett and van Dine did not care for one another or their writings, and they sparred in print.

Louise Brooks film screens in Berkeley, California

As part of its 25 film, four month Howard Hawks retrospective, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California will screen A Girl in Every Port. The 1928 Louise Brooks film, by consensus the best of Hawks' silent efforts, is set to play on Tuesday, January 24 at 7 pm.

A Girl in Every Port is a buddy film which tells the story of two sailors (Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong) and their encounters with various women in various ports of call. Brooks, under contract to Paramount at the time, was loaned to Fox for the film. She plays the girl from Marseille, France. Myrna Loy, Sally Rand, Leila Hyams, Natalie Kingston and Maria Casajuana (the soon to be Maria Alba) are among the other girls in other ports of call.

Brooks is cast as a vamp, a circus artiste / high-diver known as Marie (Mam’selle Godiva). McLaglen and Armstrong, each suitors, offer a towel and more. 'Mlle Godiva' handles each with Lulu-like aplomb.

When A Girl in Every Port premiered in February of 1928 at the massive Roxy Theater in New York City, it played to a packed house. At the time, advertisements placed by Fox claimed the film set a “New House Record – and a World Record – with Daily Receipts on February 22nd of $29,463.” Considering admission was likely less than a dollar, that’s a lot of movie-goers in a single day – then or now.

Popular as well as critically applauded, the film received good reviews in New York’s many daily newspapers. Mordaunt Hall, writing in the New York Times, described it as "A rollicking comedy,” while the New York Telegram called it “a hit picture” and the Morning Telegraph pronounced it a “winner.”

Irene Thirer, writing in 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. The rest of the gals from other ports are good to look at, too. Roxy’s got a winner this time.”

Similar sentiments would be echoed in other New York City papers including the German-language New Yorker Volkszeitung, the trade journal Women's Wear Daily, and even the socialist Daily Worker.

Reviewing the Roxy premiere, the anonymous critic for TIME magazine wrote, “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.”

Critics singled out Brooks, and some described her as “pert.” Regina Cannon, writing in 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.”

As well received as the film was in the United States, it was even more highly regarded in France, where it has been regularly revived.

Writing in Cahiers du Cinéma in January 1963, the 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.”

A Girl in Every Port is considered by many scholars to be the most important of Hawks' early works because it was his first to introduce the themes and character types he would continue to explore throughout his long and distinguished career. And, notably, Louise Brooks is the first to portray what became known as the "Hawksian woman."

More info: A Girl in Every Port screens on Tuesday, January 24 at 7 pm as part of "Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man," a retrospective  at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. The film will be introduced by UC Berkeley professor Marilyn Fabe; Judith Rosenberg will accompany on piano. Details at http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN19308