Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1929

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1929. Based on two plays by the  German dramatist Frank Wedekind, Die Büchse der Pandora, or Pandora’s Box, tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant showgirl whose behavior leads to tragic consequences. Louise Brooks plays Lulu, the singular femme fatale. 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 had few bounds, and this once controversial film features what may be the screen’s first lesbian character. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page.

The film went into production at the Nero-Film Studio in Berlin, with production lasting between October 17 and November 23, 1928. The film premiered on February 9, 1929 at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin, Germany.

Under its original German title, Die Büchse der Pandora, documented screenings of the film took place in Austria, Danzig, Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia), Latvia, Luxembourg, Ukraine, and the United States.

Outside Germany, Die Büchse der Pandora was exhibited or written about under the title Loulou (Algeria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Argentina); Le boîte de Pandore and Loulou (Belgium); A caixa de Pandora (Brazil); Кутията на Пандора (Bulgaria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Chile); Lulu La Pecadora (Cuba); Pandořina skříňka or Pandořina skříňka (Lulu) and Umrít Büchse der Pandoru (Czechoslovakia) and Pandorina skrínka (Slovakia); Pandoras æske (Denmark); De doos van Pandora (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Pandora’s Box (England); Pandora laegas (Estonia); Pandoran lipas (Finland); Loulou and Le boîte de Pandore (France); Λούλου and Lulu- το κουτί της Πανδώρας (Greece); Pandóra szelencéje (Hungary); Lulu and Il vaso di Pandora and Jack lo Sventratore (Italy); パンドラの箱 or Pandoranohako and The Box of Pandora (Japan); Korea (Box of Pandora);  Pandoras lade and Pandoras Kaste (Latvia); Pandoros skrynia (Lithuania); Lou lou La Boite de Pandore (Luxembourg); La caja de Pandora (Mexico); De doos van Pandora (The Netherlands*); Pandoras eske (Norway); Lulu and Puszka Pandory (Poland); A Bocéta de Pandora and A caixa de Pandora (Portugal); Cutia Pandorei and Lulu and Pandora szelenceje (Romania); Lulu and Pandorina skrinjica (Slovenia); La caja de Pandora (Spain); Pandoras ask (Sweden); Meş’um Fahişe and Meş’um Fahişe (Lulu) (Turkey); Dzieje Kokoty Lulu (Ukraine); Box of Pandora and Pandora’s Box and Pandora szelencéje (Hungarian-language press) and Ящик Пандоры (Russian-language press) (United States); La caja de Pandora and Lulu and El alma de la herrera (Uruguay, sound version); Lulu and Лулу and Ящик Пандорьі (U.S.S.R.); La caja de Pandora (Venezula).

Since the late 1950s, numerous screenings of the film have been taken place around the world, including first ever showings under the title Pandora’s Box in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere. Within the last few years, a showing of the film also took place in Turkey under the titles Pandora’nın Kutusu and Pandora’nýn Kutusuö. The film has also been shown on television across Europe as well as in Australia, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere.

*Despite the film being banned in The Netherlands in 1930, it was shown on October 18, 1935 in Amsterdam at De Uitkijk.

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

 — The jazz combo seen playing in the wedding scene in the film is Sid Kay's Fellows. They were an actual musical group of the time. Founded in 1926 and led by Sigmund Petruschka (“Sid”) and Kurt Kaiser (“Kay”), Sid Kay’s Fellows were a popular ten member dance band based in Berlin. They performed at the Haus Vaterland (a leading Berlin night-spot) between 1930 and 1932. And in 1933, they accompanied the great Sidney Bechet during his recitals in the German capitol. Sid Kay’s Fellows also accompanied various theatrical performances and played in Munich, Dresden, Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Barcelona and elsewhere. The group’s depiction in Pandora’s Box predates their career as recording artists. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, Sid Kay’s Fellows were forbidden to perform publicly. They disbanded, and transformed themselves into a studio orchestra and made recordings for the Jewish label Lukraphon.

— When Pandora’s Box debuted in Berlin in 1929, an orchestra playing a musical score accompanied the film. The score was reviewed in at least one of the Berlin newspapers. The score, however, does not apparently survive. What is also not known is if the music of Sid Kay’s Fellows, or any sort of jazz, played a part in the music of Pandora’s Box. [Interestingly, director G.W. Pabst included another jazz combo in his next film with Brooks, The Diary of a Lost Girl.]

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 © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Street of Forgotten Men & Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, part two

In a previous post, I mentioned that in the course of my research into the history of The Street of Forgotten Men (Louise Brooks' first film), I came across a rather interesting article in the January 1926 issue of  Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, a trade journal. I thought the article interesting because it not only touched on Louise Brooks' life story, but it also illuminates the experience faced by motion picture exhibitors in the silent film era.

The previously mentioned article, “An Exhibitor’s Problems in 1925,” was authored by Eric T. Clarke, the Director of the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York (Louise Brooks' future home). The article focused on how an exhibitor went about selecting appropriate films for their venue. Notably, The Street of Forgotten Men was mentioned in Clarke’s article. 

The following year in the same journal, Clarke followed up his article with a similar piece, "An Exhibitor’s Problems in 1926,” and again, The Street of Forgotten Men was mentioned! I think Clarke's January 1927 article is interesting, as it gives a thoughtful, man-in-the-trenches, perspective -- something we don't often see. Double click on the individual pages to call up a larger version of the image.

 

 

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 © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

The American Venus, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926

The American Venus, featuring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1926. The film is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of a beauty pageant, namely the actual 1925 Miss America contest in Atlantic City. The film is the second in which Louise Brooks appeared, but the first for which she received screen credit. More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page.

Production took place in the fall of 1925, beginning around August 24 and ending around November 10. (The exact dates are not known.) The film was shot in part in early September at the Miss America beauty pageant in Atlantic City, and later at Paramount’s Astoria Studios on Long Island (located at 3412 36th Street in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens), as well as on the Coney Island boardwalk, in Greenwich, Connecticut (in the vicinity of Round Hill and Banksville), and “near a swimming hole” in Ocala, Florida (the future shooting location of It's the Old Army Game).

In the United States, the film was also presented under the title La Venus Americana (Spanish-language press) and A Venus Americana (Portuguese-language press). Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada (banned in the province of Quebec due to “nudities”), China, Dutch Guiana (Surinam), India (Bengali censorship records from 1927 called for the elimination of close-ups of women in the film’s tableaux, noting “The figures are too naked for public exhibition”), Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, New Zealand, Panama, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales).

Elsewhere, The American Venus was shown under the title Vénus moderne (Algeria); Die Amerikanische Venus (Austria); A Venus Americana and La Venus Americana (Brazil); La Venus Americana (Chile); La Venus Americana (Cuba); Americká Venuše (Czechoslovakia) and Die amerikanische Venus (Czechoslovakia, German language); Den amerikanske venus (Denmark); La Venus Americana (Dominican Republic); De Moderne Venus (Dutch East Indies - Indonesia); Vénus moderne (Egypt); The Modern Venus (England); Miehen ihanne (Finland); Vénus moderne and Vénus américaine (France); Die Schönste Frau der Staaten (Germany); Az amerikai Vénusz (Hungary); Il trionfo di Venere and Trionfo di Venere (Italy); 美女競艶 or Bijo dai Kei tsuya (Japan); Venus Moderne – Die Modern Venus (Luxembourg); La Venus americana (Mexico); Moderne Venus and De Amerikaansche Venus (The Netherlands); Amerykan’ska Wenus and Venus Pokutujaca (Poland); A Vénus American (Portugal); Miss Amerika (Slovenia); Американская Венера (Soviet Union); La Venus americana and La Venus Moderna (Spain); Mannens ideal and Mannens ideal–Venus på amerikanska (Sweden); and La Venus moderne (Switzerland).

SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:

Miss Bayport, the role played by Louise Brooks, was originally assigned to Olive Ann Alcorn, a stage and film actress who had bit parts in Sunnyside (1919) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925).

Townsend Martin, whose story served as the basis for the film, was a college friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald. According to the New Yorker and other publications, famed humorist Robert Benchley wrote the film’s titles.

The film was privately screened at the Atlantic City Ambassador Hotel as a benefit under the auspices of the Atlantic City Shrine Club on December 26, 1925. A benefit screening of the film also took place at midnight on December 31, 1925 in Oakland, California -- the hometown of star Fay Lanphier.

The American Venus officially premiered at the Stanley Theater in Atlantic City on January 11, 1926. It then opened at the Rivoli Theater in New York City on January 24, 1926.

The film was a hit. Such was it's "buzz" that according to the 1999 book, Russian Writings on Hollywood, author Ayn Rand reported seeing The American Venus in Chicago, Illinois not long after she left the Soviet Union.

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 © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.
 

Street of Forgotten Men & Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, part one

In the course of my research into the history of The Street of Forgotten Men (Louise Brooks' first film), I came across a rather interesting article in Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, a trade journal. I think the article interesting because it not only touches on Louise Brooks' life story, but it also illuminates the experience faced by motion picture exhibitors in the mid-1920s, the silent film era.

The article, “An Exhibitor’s Problems in 1925,” was authored by Eric T. Clarke, the Director of the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York. (Louise Brooks future residence.) The article focused on how an exhibitor might select appropriate films which might draw an audience. Clarke’s 16-page piece was, in fact, the text of an earlier talk given before the S.M.P.E. (Society of Motion Picture Engineers), to which was added the transcript of the discussion which followed Clarke’s address. 

Notably, The Street of Forgotten Men, and its merits as a film, were mentioned in Clarke’s article, as were some of the other films in circulation in 1925. Double click on the individual pages to call up a larger version of the image.

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 © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Beggars of Life, with Louise Brooks, screens in NYC TODAY

Sorry about the late notice, but thought some might want to know .... Beggars of Life (1928), the terrific William Wellman film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at Film Forum in New York City later today. 

Wellman’s long-thought-lost silent, starring Louise Brooks and Wallace Beery and featuring dazzling location work on speeding trains, screens on Sunday, January 22 at 3:10 pm! The film will be shown with live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner and a special pre-recorded introduction by Leonard Maltin & Bruce Goldstein. More information HERE.

From the Film Forum website: 

Partial inspiration for Sturges’ SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (screening immediately after).
♪ Silent, with live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner
Pre-recorded introduction by Leonard Maltin, with Bruce Goldstein

U.S., 1928
Directed by William Wellman
Starring Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen
Based on Outside Looking In, a stage play by Maxwell Anderson, adapted from Jim Tully’s 1924 autobiographical book, Beggars of Life
Approx. 81 min. DCP.

On the run after killing a molesting stepfather, dressed-as-a-boy Louise Brooks is befriended by Richard Arlen and falls in with Wallace Beery’s band of hoboes. Long-thought-lost silent classic, with Brooks’ best pre-German work (director G.W. Pabst was so impressed by her screen presence that he soon cast her in PANDORA'S BOX) and dazzling location work on speeding trains.  The set-up of a young woman impersonating a boy, traveling with hoboes on a box car, may have inspired Preston Sturges to re-create it — this time, with Veronica Lake dressed as a boy — in SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. 

“A rowdy, violent, romantic adventure…The bladelike Brooks, domineering with a mere glance, looks right at home in a man’s suit… [Wellman] has an eye for the physical and moral degradation of the persecuted and despised.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

If you love this film as much as I do, be sure and check out my 2017 book, Beggars of Life: a Companion to the 1928 Film. It is available on amazon all around the world.

This first ever study of "Beggars of Life" looks at the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. Based on Jim Tully’s bestselling book of hobo life—and filmed by Wellman the year after he made "Wings" (the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar), "Beggars of Life" is a riveting drama about an orphan girl (screen legend Louise Brooks) who kills her abusive stepfather and flees the law. She meets a boy tramp (leading man Richard Arlen), and together they ride the rails through a dangerous hobo underground ruled over by Oklahoma Red (future Oscar winner Wallace Beery). "Beggars of Life" showcases Brooks in her best American silent—a film the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life.” With more than 50 little seen images, and a foreword by William Wellman, Jr.

"I can say (with head bowed modestly) that I know more about the career of director William A. Wellman than pretty much anybody anywhere -- always excepting my friend and co-author John Gallagher -- but there are things in Thomas Gladysz's new book on Wellman's Beggars of Life that I didn't know. More important, the writing is so good and the research so deep that even when I was reading about facts that were familiar to me, I was enjoying myself hugely." -- Frank Thompson, co-author of Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman

"Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film is a quick, satisfying read, illustrated with promotional material, posters and stills as well as press clippings. In these pages, Gladysz takes us through the making and the reception of the film and clears up a few mysteries too.... Beggars of Life is a fascinating movie, made by some of the silent film industry's most colourful characters. This highly readable book will deepen your enjoyment and understanding of a silent Hollywood classic." -- Pamela Hutchinson, Silent London

"I cannot help but give this an enthusiastic two thumbs up. It really is the perfect companion, before or after you have seen the film. The volume might be slim, but, it is packed with information and rare photographs. It has been impeccably researched and beautifully executed.... This is a thorough examination of the film from start to finish and written in a breezy style that is not only informative, it is a very entertaining read." -- Donna Hill, Strictly Vintage Hollywood

"Read your book. I love it. It is thorough and extremely interesting. The art work is compelling." -- William Wellman, Jr., author of Wild Bill Wellman

"Gladysz has written a brief but informative book .... offers a profound and true insight." -- Jack Garner, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

"For this film, including details on what is known about the original recorded soundtrack, I highly recommend Thomas Gladysz's book Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film." -- Rodney Sauer, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

"There is an affordable and highly recommended book that goes perfectly with the blu ray. Gladysz, director of the Louise Brooks Society, has written a companion book to the movie that features a wealth of information, insight, and photos.  It really puts this film into historical perspective and helps to further understand and more deeply appreciate its status as a  screen classic." -- James Neibur, film historian and author

 

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 © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

 

Speaking of Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box, and speaking of Weimar Cinema

Speaking of Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box, and speaking of Weimar Cinema . . . be sure and check out the newly updated WeimarCinema.org website. Although created by film scholars for film scholars, this resourceful website might well be of interest to everyone interested in silent film... and what's more, the site is bursting with information, essays, and links to resources about films and filmmaking in German-speaking world between the two World Wars.

As the site explains on its About page, "The website WeimarCinema.org is designed to foster and inspire new scholarship about Weimar cinema. Under the heading RESEARCH, we provide an overview of current publications (for the moment restricted to work done in Germany and the United States), including online blogs and websites." One of those website, I am proud to say, is the Louise Brooks Society, whose description reads:

"This blog and website center around the American film star Louise Brooks who acted in such iconic German films as Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora’s Box. The Blog also contains numerous links to international film websites and magazines about the Jazz Age."

The "numerous links" referred to above exist on both the Louise Brooks Society website and the here, on the LBS blog. When I compiled them over the course of a couple-three days last year, they were one of the most complete list of links to silent film era magazines just about anywhere. Be sure and check it out HERE on the Silent Film Links page.

As the site's webpage also notes, "WeimarCinema.org has its roots in the sourcebook The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907- 1933, edited by Anton Kaes, Nicholas Baer and Michael Cowan and published by the University of California Press in 2016. In this book, the editors gathered and curated more than 250 historical documents that contemplate the nature and function of the new medium of film, its promise and potential. The book’s media-archaeological approach opened up past debates to current discussions about new media and sought to reconsider what cinema was when it began." It is a tremendous book, one which I am very pleased to own. It is well worth checking out, as it the adjunct Promise of Cinema website.

 

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 © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.