The Dodge Brothers

Nobody does Beggars of Life like The Dodge Brothers. The UK-based group plays an exuberant hybrid of old-time American music - country blues, jug band, rock-a-billy and swing. And they do so accompanying silent films, notably the 1928 Louise Brooks vehicle, Beggars of Life.

The Dodge Brothers play what might be termed "roots music." Described as "wonderful stuff" on British radio, the band has gained a large reputation across the UK for putting on a show.

Twice within the coming week, The Dodge Brothers will accompany Beggars of Life. On Saturday, April 21, the band performed at a free outdoor screening of the film at the 18th Bradford International Film Festival in Bradford, England. And on April 29, Beggars of Life (1928) will screen at Barbican as part of its silent film & live music series. This screening will feature live musical accompaniment by The Dodge Brothers, with guest musician Neil Brand on the piano.

To date, The Dodge Brothers have released two albums. The group is made up of  Mike Hammond (lead guitar, lead vocals), Mark Kermode (bass, harmonica, vocals) - who also works as a film critic and broadcaster, Aly Hirji (rhythm guitar, mandolin, vocals), and Alex Hammond (washboard, snare drum, percussion). Brand, well known in the UK as a silent film accompanist, has sat in with the group on a number of occasions.

Mike Hammond - the group's singer (and silent film expert) answered a few questions a while back about their music, Louise Brooks, and silent film. 

Thomas Gladysz:   The Dodge Brothers will accompanied the Louise Brooks' film, Beggars of Life, twice in the coming weeks. For those not familiar with the Dodge Brothers, what can you tell us about the group? 

Dodge Brothers: Well here is the short version. The Dodge Brothers are a four-piece band modeled on the skiffle and jug bands of the 20s and 30s. Each of us plays more than one instrument, Aly plays acoustic guitar and mandolin, Alex plays washboard, snare and wine bottle, I play guitar, banjo, piano and tap dance while Mark plays double bass, harmonicas, accordion and is soon to unveil his prowess on the bag pipes. 

We started from a love of the music that leads up to Elvis, which ranges widely from railroad songs, murder ballads to ragged street blues. We got going learning ten songs (‘Frankie and Johnny’ and ‘Stagger Lee’ among others) and over the years we have amassed about 150 songs. A couple of years ago we started to write our own songs that resulted in our album Louisa and the Devil. Mark started this by bringing in Church House Blues and saying it was by an old jug band. We still do that; if it fools the rest of us into believing its authentic then we play it. (Did I say short version?)

Thomas Gladysz: With that said, what can one expect  - musically speaking, when you accompany Beggars of Life?

Dodge Brothers:  The score for the film will draw from those old songs from the period. I am a silent film scholar and I know that Paramount had the most film theatres in the rural areas so it was not uncommon for them to release different versions of films, one for the big cities and one for the rural towns. I have kept this in mind when thinking about the score. 

The lovely Troubadors version of Beggars of Life was meant as a theme for the film and we will be incorporating a version of that but combining it with motifs which call up railroad songs that were popular during the period, particularly those by Jimmie Rogers. Lots of those songs are really about hobos riding the rails and they have a wonderful wistfulness about them, a mixture of loneliness and humor that both fits the film and the way we play.

Thomas Gladysz:   Beggars of Life is unlike any of Brooks' earlier American films. Had you seen it before? And what were your impressions?

Dodge Brothers:  You’re so right about it being an exceptional Brooks film. Most people associate her with the Jazz Age flapper-type but in this film she plays a girl on the run, dressed as a boy! None of us had seen the film before and it was our fifth member, the fabulous pianist and silent film composer Neil Brand, who drew it to our attention. Brooks really ‘pops’ out of the screen and holds her own with Wallace Beery, which is no mean feat. The tension that is generated by her masquerade as a boy amongst a lot of rough hobos is tight as a drum. There is a real sense of menace and danger from the beginning where ‘The Girl’ (Louise) takes matters into her own hands with a firearm. She reminds me of Louisa in our song The Ballad of Frank Harris. Maybe that’s what I really like about this film, she is self-sufficient and an equal partner with Arlen. And she can shoot a gun! 

Thomas Gladysz: Are you a fan of Louise Brooks?

Dodge Brothers: Oh yes and not only because of the fact that she is the most compelling of screen stars. She is intuitive as an actress and gives the sense that she is being rather than acting. I do think Pabst understood that best. However, I am as big a fan of her writing. She is incisive and brutal in her analysis of Hollywood and, perhaps most touching, of herself. 

Thomas Gladysz:  When did you first come across the actress?

Dodge Brothers: I can’t speak for the rest of the guys. I first saw her in an undergraduate film class in the 80s. It was Pandora’s Box. I remember thinking; of course these guys are giving away everything for her, who wouldn’t?

Thomas Gladysz:   Louise Brooks has been getting the musical treatment. Rufus Wainwright released a musical tribute to Louise Brooks titled All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. And of course, it was preceded by earlier rock and pop musical tributes by the likes of Orchestral Manuevers in the Dark (OMD), Marillion, Australian Jen Anderson, Soul Coughing, and others - even the cartoonist Robert Crumb. Where might your score fit into this history?

Dodge Brothers: Well all of these tributes are really great and it’s nice to be in their company. I haven’t heard Rufus Wainwright’s but I guess in this history we will probably be closer to R. Crumb’s. We are trying to bring a flavour of the kind of music that might have been played in the rural areas of the US to this film. 

Remember that the orchestras in most of those theatres at the time would have been as small as a quartet. They also played to their audience who would have known the railroad songs as well as the popular tunes of the day so they would mix them up. We’ll be doing something similar and hopefully support the wide-ranging emotions in this film, from lonesome and sad, to tender, to fast action and gunplay. Louise does it all here and, come to think of it, that’s a good description of The Dodge Brothers’ music too.

Louise Brooks celebrated in London, England

As fans know, Louise Brooks made her first big splash in England in 1924, when she became the first girl to dance the Charleston in London. That was at the city's famous Cafe de Paris, then only recently opened. Brooks, a precocious dancer and showgirl, was 17 years old at the time.

Now, more than 85 years later, the late, legendary silent film star is set to be the toast of London once more as two of her very best films are scheduled to be shown in the coming days.

On April 13th, the Classic Cinema Club of Ealing will screen Pandora's Box (1929) at the Ealing Town Hall. The film will be followed by a discussion.

And on April 29, Beggars of Life (1928) will screen at the Barbican center as part of its silent film & live music series. This screening will feature live musical accompaniment by The Dodge Brothers, with special guest Neil Brand on the piano.

Today, Brooks is best known for her role as Lulu in the German-made Pandora's Box, G.W. Pabst's late silent masterpiece. Pandora’s Box tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant show-girl whose flirtations lead to devastating encounters. Lulu was played by Brooks, an American actress especially recruited for the iconic German role.

Close Up, an English film journal of the time with an interest in adventuresome German cinema, noted "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."

Brooks inhabited her character thoroughly and gives a great performance. Despite having appeared in 23 other films - some of them also very good, Brooks' role as Lulu is the one with which she is most identified. So much so, in fact, that it is not unusual for articles or web pages today to refer to the actress by the name of Lulu. If you haven't seen Pandora’s Box, don't miss this UK opportunity to see one of the great performances in film history on the big screen.

Little seen and long obscure, 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 is a gripping drama about a girl (played by 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. An American film magazine of the time, Picture Play, described the film as "Sordid, grim and unpleasant," though added "it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie."

And that it is. But what's more, this special screening is a fine example of how invigorating the combination of a great silent movie and contemporary live music can be. The Dodge Brothers, an Americana-drenched roots music quartet featuring English film critic Mark Kermode on bass and harmonica, will accompany the film. When The Dodge Brothers accompanied Beggars of Life at the British Film Institute a years ago, they wowed a packed audience.

April will also see the release in England of a new novel inspired, in part, by Brooks early life. Laura Moriarty 's The Chaperone (Penguin) tells the story of Brooks' 1922 journey from Wichita, Kansas to New York City to join the Denishawn Dance Company, then America's leading modern dance troupe. Brooks was only 15 years old, and she was accompanied by a middle aged chaperone, whose story the novel also tells. We at the Louise Brooks Society are looking forward to its release in the United States next month.

Pictured above is the UK cover. Thanks to the great Meredith Lawrence for alerting us to
its publication "over there."

Louise Brooks to Siboney

Not sure if the editor of this video knew or not, but "Siboney" was a favorite of Louise Brooks. She recommends it as a dance number in her 1940 booklet, The Fundamentals of Ballroom Dancing. Brooks recommend the Xavier Cugat version, and a version of that classic song can be heard on RadioLulu.

Pandora's Box - An American history of Lulu

Today, Pandora's Box will be shown in Atlanta, Georgia (at 6pm at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center). To mark the occasion, here is a brief history of its reception in the United States.

Pandora's Box made its world premiere in February of 1929 at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin. German reviews of the time were mixed.

When Pandora’s Box opened at a small art house in New York City in December of that same year, American newspaper and magazine critics were also ambivalent, even hostile. Despite poor reviews, the film did well at its American debut. The New York Sun reported that Pandora’s Box “ . . . has smashed the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse’s box office records. It will therefore be held for another week.”

It has long been believed that Pandora’ s Box fell into obscurity and was not shown again in the United States until June 1958, when James Card screened the film at the Eastman House in Rochester, New York. However, documents uncovered in the last few years (by the Louise Brooks Society) reveal the film was exhibited on at least one occasion prior to 1958. The Little theater in Newark, New Jersey showed the Pabst film in 1931. Advertisements and newspaper clippings from the time note the film was shown at the Little – today’s equivalent of an art house, with English titles and synchronized sound effects. (The origin of these titles, and the nature of the sound effects, is unknown.) It was also advertised for "adult only."

And a year later, Moviegraphs – the exchange that handled distribution of Pandora’ s Box in New York state – applied for a new exhibition license with the intention of screening the film again. Records of later screenings, however, have yet to be found – and the fuller early history of Pandora’s Box in America remains obscure. It is known, however, that in 1943, Iris Barry, the pioneering curator who started the Museum of Modern Art film department, rejected Pandora’s Box for its collection – stating that the film had no lasting value.

Things changed since then. The film has been screened numerous times since the early 1980's. In 2006, when a new 35mm print of the film was shown at Film Forum in New York, Pandora’s Box was reported to be the week's second highest grossing independent film in the United States.

 Here are some excerpts from early American reviews of Pandora's Box.

“At that the picture is above the average of the usual foreign-made production shown in this type of theatre. It has a fast tempo which in itself is unusual. Undoubtedly Louise Brooks, who is starred, is largely responsible for this. -- Motion Picture News

“Louise Brooks is ideally suited to the role of Lulu.” -- Irene Thirer, New York Daily News

“Louise Brooks, especially imported for the title role, did not pan out, due to no fault of hers. She is quite unsuited to the vamp type which was called for by the play from which the picture was made.” -- Variety

“The management, in a program note, says that the picture, based on Wedekind’s dramas, Erdgeist and The Box of Pandora, has been prevented by the board of review of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York from being shown here in its entirety, ‘and for the rather saccharine ending that has been added we crave pardon’. . . . Louise Brooks acts vivaciously but with a seeming blindness as to what it is all about.” -- Marguerite Tazelaar, New York Herald Tribune

“But not even the censors may be blamed for all the film’s deficiencies – the acting, for instance, and the rather absurd melodramatic story. . . . Unlike Anna May Wong, and other Hollywood actresses who have blossomed into skilled players under European influence, Miss Brooks doesn’t seem to have improved since her departure. She is comely as ever, but her pantomimic abilities are sadly limited. . . . The picture is one of the less deserving efforts and was received with apathy by the audience.” -- Regina Crewe, New York American

“It was the privilege of a few reviewers to see Pandora’s Box shortly after it was received by its American exhibitors and before the New York censors got at it. In the beginning it appeared to this one to be a rather harmlessly lewd little exhibition with misery and murder and a touch of abnormalcy along other lines, but at that time, at least, it told a sort of story. Now, it is recommended principally, if at all, for its striking photographs of Miss Louise Brooks, the American actress. At least, the persons who have charge of our film morals have seen fit to leave Miss Brooks’s back, legs, and haircut as they pictured at the outset. Miss Brooks, therefore, retains all of her original charms. . . . Miss Brooks is being pursued by a very determined young woman who wears mannish clothes. I am of the opinion that the young woman in mannish clothes is not selling magazine subscriptions to pay her way through college. It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.” -- Quinn Martin, New York World 

“Louise Brooks, the American actress, has the part of an exotic girl who attracts men and women alike. It is too sophisticated for any but art theater audiences.” -- Harrower, Film Daily

“This feature spent several weeks in the censor’s board’s cutting room: and the result of its stay is a badly contorted drama that from beginning to end reeks with sex and vice that have been so crudely handled as not even to be spicily entertaining. Louise Brooks and Fritz Kortner are starred, with Miss Brooks supposed to be a vampire who causes the ruin of everyone she meets. How anyone could fall for la belle Brooks with the clothes she wears in this vehicle is beyond imagination. . . .  This is a silent production that has no business playing anything but guild theaters.” -- J. F. L., Billboard

“The little theaters continue to lead their own lives. There are nice eighteenth-century sets in Figaro, at the Little Carnegie, and a subdued Kraft-Ebing overtone in Pandora’s Box, at the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse, for the benefit of the Wedekind group.” -- J. C. M., New Yorker

Louise Brooks is Lulu in Pandora's Box

These days, Frank Wedekind is best known as the author of Spring Awakening. His 1891 play about teenage sexuality was turned into a smash-hit by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater. Their long running Broadway musical won eight Tony awards and has been performed all over the world.

Before Spring Awakening, Wedekind (1864 –1918) was best known for his Lulu plays. 

Those two "Lulu" plays, Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora's Box (1904), were originally conceived of as a single work. Called a "monster tragedy," the Lulu plays tell the story of an alluring, somewhat petulant show-girl who rises in society through her relationships with wealthy, lustful men - like "moths around a flame." Eventually, after a series of unfortunate events, she falls into poverty and prostitution. The play's frank depiction of sexuality and violence, including lesbianism, murder, and an encounter with Jack the Ripper, pushed the boundaries of what was then considered acceptable literature.

Despite their provocative subject matter, the Lulu plays are among the most performed and adapted early 20th century dramas. There were two silent films, and as many as a dozen later movies and TV films based on Pandora's Box alone. Alban Berg's acclaimed opera, Lulu (1937), was based on Wedekind's work. As were the works of numerous other writers, poets, performance artists, comic artists, and rock musicians who found inspiration in the German playwright's words. Rufus Wainwright's All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu (2010) and the Lou Reed - Metallica collaboration, Lulu (2011), are two recent examples.

On Sunday, March 25th the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia along with the Atlanta Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society will screen the second film version of Pandora's Box, which stars Louise Brooks as Lulu. Ron Carter, silent film accompanist and Callanwolde House Organist, will accompany the film on Callanwolde's 60 rank Aeolian organ using the instrument as a symphony orchestra.

Pandora's Box is a film which can still shock and enthrall, even 80 plus years after its release. It is also a film whose reputation has ridden a roller-coaster of scorn and acclaim.

Pandora's Box made its world premiere in February of 1929 at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin; German reviews of the time were mixed. When Pandora’s Box opened at a small art house in New York City in December of that same year, American newspaper and magazine critics were also ambivalent, even hostile.

Photoplay, one of the leading fan magazines of the time, 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.”

Mordaunt Hall, critic for the New York Times, famously wrote “Miss Brooks is attractive and she moves her head and eyes at the proper moment, but whether she is endeavoring to express joy, woe, anger or satisfaction it is often difficult to decide.” Quinn Martin, critic at the New York World, echoed Hall’s remarks when he stated “It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.”

Variety put the nail in the coffin when its critic opined “Better for Louise Brooks had she contented exhibiting that supple form in two-reel comedies or Paramount features. Pandora’s Box, a rambling thing that doesn’t help her, nevertheless proves that Miss Brooks is not a dramatic lead.”

Lulu has been described as a vamp or femme fatale, but in fact, she is a kind of naive, almost innocent character. As Brooks biographer Barry Paris put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful men around her.” And not just men.... Lulu’s sexual magnetism knows few bounds, and this once controversial film features what may be the screen’s first lesbian character.

At times, this G.W. Pabst directed film - heavily censored in its day and still incomplete - can come off a little heavy handed, almost like melodrama. In Pandora’s Box, Brooks nevertheless reveals her considerable gifts as an actress through an individualized interpretation of her otherwise archetypical character. And largely because of Brooks’ sensational performance, this more than 80 year old film now enjoys a large reputation. Today, Pandora’s Box is widely considered not only Brooks’ best work, but one of the great masterpieces of the silent film era.

What is it that continues to attract contemporary viewers to Pandora’s Box, and to its singular star? Perhaps, the answer lies in our ability to see beyond the film’s melodramatic trappings, and to appreciate qualities found beneath its celluloid skin.

Lottie Eisner, the great German film critic, once described Brooks as “An astonishing actress endowed with an intelligence beyond compare.” While Kevin Brownlow, the Academy Award winning British film historian, described the actress as “One of the most remarkable personalities to be associated with films.” Louise Brooks is certainly both of these, and more.

Those who catch the film this Sunday night will be able to judge for themselves. Pandora's Box will be shown at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday, March 25 at 6:00p.m.

Read on at Examiner.com Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks screens in Atlanta - National Louise Brooks | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/louise-brooks-in-national/pandora-s-box-with-louise-brooks-screens-atlanta#ixzz1q3bBPcqx

Roger Ebert tweets about Louise Brooks

Yesterday and today, film critic and movie lover Roger Ebert tweeted three times about Louise Brooks and her 1929 film, The Diary of a Lost Girl. Here is what the Pulitzer Prize winner and self-admitted Brooks' fan had to say. Yesterday, Ebert tweeted:

@ebertchicago:My Streamer of the Day. "Diary of a Lost Girl," a silent masterpiece with the immortal Louise Brooks. on.fb.me/GH64U0

And this morning, Ebert tweeted:

@ebertchicago: New in my Great Movies Collection: Louise Brooks in Pabst's "Diary of a Lost Girl." Remorseless. On Netflix Instant. bit.ly/GHbzQK

And then a few hours later, Ebert Tweeted again:

@ebertchicago: The latest review in my Great Movies Collection: Louise Brooks in the unforgettable "Diary of a Lost Girl." bit.ly/GHbzQK

Be sure and follow the links at the end of each tweet. The first leads to Ebert's Facebook page and a conversation stream about The Diary of a Lost Girl. The second and third links lead to Ebert's just published article about the film on the Chicago Sun Times website.

The original Lassie, canine thespian

A few have written asking about Lassie, the canine actor in The Street of Forgotten Men. That film was shown on March 15th at Cinefest 32 in Syracuse, New York.

A 1927 New York Times article about the canine stated, "It is said that the death of Lassie in The Street of Forgotten Men was so impressive that persons were convinced that she must have been cruelly beaten. Her master, Emery Bronte, said that the dog seemed to enjoy acting in the scenes, and that after each 'take' she went over to Mr. Brenon and cocked her head on the side, as if asking for a pat or two." Apparently, this notable scene - her best scene - her death scene - is missing from the surviving six reels (of this seven reel film).

This Lassie, a contemporary of Rin-Tin-Tin, was bull terrier - cocker spaniel mix who predated the more famous Collie which starred in later movies and television shows. The New York Times describes her as an "intelligent animal" and a "clever screen actress." And according to that 1927 article, she was then earning a remarkable $15,000 a year as a canine actor / performer. That was a lost of money then.

Some of the other films in which Lassie appeared include Tol'able David, Knockabout Riley, The Beautiful City and Sonny. Her fellow actors included Mabel Normand, Viola Dana, Richard Barthelmess, Marion Davies, Richard Dix, Tom Moore and George Walsh, among others.

Here is an April, 1926 Mexican newspaper advertisement for The Street of Forgotten Men (and two others) showing a character from the Herbert Brenon-directed film holding Lassie. (In Spanish, The Street of Forgotten Men is titled La Calle del Olvido.) Here is another depiction of Lassie, who looks like a pretty cute dog. Watch out Uggie!