Louise Brooks Movies
The daughter of a Kansas attorney, Louise Brooks was 15 when she accompanied her mother to New York. A talented if not inspired dancer, Brooks performed with the Denishawn dance troupe, then worked in such annual revues as George White's Scandals and The Ziegfeld Follies. Signed to a Paramount film contract in 1925, she was largely confined to nondescript leading lady roles in such films as W.C. Fields' It's the Old Army Game (1926), directed by her then-husband Eddie Sutherland. Better roles came her way in Howard Hawks' A Girl in Every Port (1927) and William Wellman's Beggars of Life (1928). With her darkly exotic good looks and distinctively bobbed-and-banged haircut, Brooks gained popularity with filmgoers, but neither critics nor studio executives were particularly impressed with her acting ability. All this changed when she was invited to work in Berlin by director G.W. Pabst. Her haunting, provocative performances in Pabst's Pandora's Box (1928) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) not only established her as a screen personality of the first rank, but also fostered a Louise Brooks "cult" which continued to flourish.Alas, when the temperamental Brooks refused to return to Hollywood to film sound retakes for her silent picture The Canary Murder Case (1929), she was effectively blacklisted in Hollywood. Despite another brilliant performance in René Clair's Prix de Beaute (1930), Brooks found herself consigned to thankless supporting roles when she returned to America. Soon she was scrounging for work in two-reel comedies and bit roles; her last screen appearance was a demeaning leading lady assignment in the 1938 Three Mesquiteers Western, Overland Stage Raiders, which she accepted because she needed 300 dollars in a hurry. She spent the next two decades in virtual obscurity, occasionally obtaining radio work, but generally limited to clerical and salesgirl jobs. She was rescued in the mid-'50s by a millionaire media executive with whom she'd allegedly had an affair, and who provided her with a modest monthly annuity for the rest of her life. She moved to Rochester where she formed a lasting friendship with film buff/curator James Card of the George Eastman House. It was Card who drew the reclusive Brooks out of her shell with a series of well-received Louise Brooks retrospectives. In her last two decades, she began a whole new career as a writer, producing well-researched and well-balanced articles on movie history. Still, she remained a mercurial personality to the end, alternately attracting and repelling her admirers with her unpredictable behavior. In 1982, Louise Brooks collaborated with Hollis Alpert on her witty, extremely candid autobiography, Lulu in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
The "Three Mesquiteers"--John Wayne, Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune--find themselves in the modern-day west in Overland Stage Raiders. The "stages" being raided are actually Greyhound buses, bearing gold shipments to the east. Airborne hijackers steal the gold, but the Mesquiteers vanquish the crooks, then parachute to safety. Overland Stage Raiders represents John Wayne's second appearance in Republic's Three Mesquiteers series, but never mind that. The film's leading lady was former silent star and future cult- figure Louise Brooks, the hauntingly beautiful leading lady of G.W. Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora's Box, here making her last film appearance. When asked in later years why she would accept such an unprepossessing project, the no-nonsense Brooks replied that she needed the three hundred dollars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Max "Alibi" Terhune, (more)
- 1937
Buck Jones both produced and starred in this offbeat Western also featuring silent screen icon Louise Brooks. Hoping to turn it into a profitable dude ranch, drifter Buck Devlin (Buck Jones) purchases the Ranch of Empty Saddles, the former site of a bloody war between cattle ranchers and sheep men. Buck cleans up the place with the help of peddler Swap Boone (Harvey Clark) and his daughter Boots (Brooks), and the ranch is soon teeming with Eastern tourists. As an added treat for the guests, the ranch hands stage a mock recreation of the old feud, which turns deadly serious when someone responds with real bullets. Future B-Western sidekick Frank Yaconelli, appearing unbilled, and a band of cowboys perform "Welcome to the Empty Saddle Ranch" and "Orchid of the Prairie". ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buck Jones, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1937
Akim Tamiroff, Paramount Pictures' resident crime lord, runs all illegal gambling activities in a major city. Reporter Lloyd Nolan struggles to get the goods on Tamiroff, but runs up against a stone wall until he meets nightclub singer Claire Trevor. Trevor is anxious to avenge the death of her sister (Helen Burgess), who was done in by Tamiroff's minions. Though only a "B" picture, King of Gamblers was given "A" treatment by director Robert Florey. The film was part of an unofficial Paramount series based on the J. Edgar Hoover book Persons in Hiding. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claire Trevor, Lloyd Nolan, (more)
- 1937
In this tuneful, romantic drama, an Australian opera star (Grace Moore) wants to perform in a major U.S. festival but cannot enter the country unless she is married. To this end, she hires a handsome artist (Cary Grant) temporarily marry her. At first it is all strictly business, but in time, the artist starts falling in love. Songs include: "Our Song," "Minnie the Moocher" (this number is usually cut out in 98m televised version of the film), "Siboney," and "The Waltz Song." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grace Moore, Cary Grant, (more)
- 1931
God's Gift to Women demonstrated conclusively that Warner Bros. would never make a movie star out of Broadway comedian Frank Fay. Portraying a most unlikely Frenchman, Fay pitches woo at every beautiful woman in sight, but falls in love with none of them. When Cupid genuinely strikes him for the first time, Fay is compelled by the girl's father to prove that he's honestly in love with her and not just with her millions. Fay does just that, but it takes ever so long. God's Gift to Women is injured beyond repair by the obnoxious, mannered performance of Frank Fay, and by the fact that Fay and director Michael Curtiz detested each other at first sight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Fay, Laura La Plante, (more)
- 1931
Windy Riley (Jack Shutta) is a hapless New Yorker who ends up stranded in Los Angeles without a car, the latter having been involved in an accident with the limo of a top studio executive (Dell Henderson) -- to pay off the damage, he's forced to work at the studio in the worst job they can find for him. He's a bit of a lunkhead, and ends up as an errand boy, and in that capacity crosses paths with Betty Grey (Louise Brooks). Betty is a star actress who has hit some bad times professionally and personally -- she's in the midst of making a new picture, "The Box-Car Mystery," but she's got a little too much mystery in her life now, as her current paramour has disappeared after being seen with her the previous night. The studio would like to have her lay low, but the hapless Riley has decided to boost her career with a lot of high-profile publicity. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1931
A remake of a 1919 silent film based on the stage farce by Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter C. Hackett, the light romantic comedy It Pays to Advertise stars comedienne Carol Lombard in one of her early Paramount talkies. Rodney Martin (Norman Foster) is the son of wealthy soap manufacturer Cyrus Martin (Eugene Pallette). Rodney has to make it on his own, so he starts up a rival soap company with the slogan "Thirteen - Unlucky for Dirt." After he hires advertising manager Ambrose Peale (Richard "Skeets" Gallagher) and loyal secretary Mary Grayson (Carole Lombard), his company takes off and his supply can't keep up with the demand. Dad Cyrus buys him out and he falls in love with trusty secretary Mary. Silent film star Louise Brooks appears in a small role. Paramount also made a French language version of this film with different actors called Criez-Le Sur Les Toits. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norman Foster, Carole Lombard, (more)
The French Prix de Beaute stars cult figure Louise Brooks as a nondescript typist for a Parisian newspaper. On a whim, Brooks submits her photograph to the Miss France Contest. To everyone's amazement--and her boyfriend Andre's (Georges Charlia) displeasure--she wins the contest, and is sucked into a whirlwind of photo ops and interviews at the Miss Europe contest in Spain. Here she is confronted by Andre, who angrily demands that she give up this foolishness and return home. But the lure of fame and fortune is much too strong, and before long Brooks has signed a movie contract. The heart-stopping tragic climax brilliantly juxtaposes the image of the dead Brooks with her "live" screen image. Not as highly regarded as Louise Brooks' German films for G. W. Pabst, Prix de Beaute nonetheless succeeds in terms of visual dynamics and the naturalness of the star's performance. Available in both sound and silent versions, the film never received a formal American release. Augusto Genina replaced the film's original director Rene Clair during the pre-production stages. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, (more)
German filmmaker G.W. Pabst's late-silent classic Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) stars the hauntingly beautiful Louise Brooks as libertine dancer Lulu. Ever out for the "main chance," Lulu persuades her wealthy lover Dr. Schön (Fritz Kortner) to marry her. But in a fit of jealous rage, he pulls a gun, a scuffle ensues, and she shoots him. Eventually escaping to London with the doctor's moonstruck son Alwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu takes up residence with her "adopted" father Schigolch (Carl Götz), where she is reduced to walking the streets, with tragic consequences. Pandora's Box (based on two works by the controversial German writer Franz Wedekind) exudes smoky sensuality in every frame; regarded now as a masterpiece, the film received surprisingly scathing reviews, with most of the critical broadsides aimed at Louise Brooks (this was long before Brooks graduated from just another pretty Hollywood starlet to Cult Goddess). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, (more)
- 1929
This early talkie is the film that destroyed the career of popular silent leading lady Louise Brooks. A detective story, it centers upon a conniving "canary" (a nightclub singer) who takes on wealthy lovers and then blackmails them into giving her money. If they don't cooperate, she will tell their wives and ruin their lives. It all unravels when she falls in love with a handsome young man and accepts his marriage proposal. She goes to each of her lovers and demands they each make one final large payment. She is found dead the next day and her fiancé is blamed until ultra-suave gumshoe Philo Vance shows up and proves his innocence. Originally, the film was made without sound. Later when Paramount decided to dub in voices, it recalled all of the actors, including Brooks, who was in Europe working with filmmaker Pabst. Brooks disdained talkies and refused to participate. This was a serious breach of contract, and she was released. Margaret Livingston ended up dubbing her voice for Brooks' role. Though later Brooks returned to Hollywood, she was relegated to appearing in low-budget Westerns. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, James Hall, (more)
German filmmaker G.W. Pabst and Hollywood expatriate Louise Brooks re-team after the success of Pandora's Box for the silent film Diary of a Lost Girl. On the day of her confirmation, innocent young Thymiane Henning (Brooks) is given a lockable diary as a present. She's distraught because the housekeeper Elisabeth (Sibylle Schmitz) is leaving under curious circumstances and turns up presumably dead. Her duties are taken over by the conniving Meta (Franziska Kinz), who accepts the advances of Thymiane's pharmacist father (Josef Ravensky). Trying to understand Elisabeth's fate, Thymiane agrees to meet her father's assistant, Meinert (Fritz Rasp). She passes out, he carries her up to her room, and by the next scene she has borne a child by him. Meta snoops in Thymiane's diary and finds out it was Meinert's baby, so she suggests they get married. Thymiane refuses, so they throw her in a creepy reformatory for fallen women and leave her baby with a midwife. While in the reformatory, she meets Erika (Edith Meinhard), with whom she eventually escapes. To escape from poverty and homelessness, the girls then become nominal prostitutes in a brothel and are "sexually liberated." ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Brooks, Fritz Rasp, (more)
- 1928
Wallace Beery appeared in this silent film with intertitles, a dark drama of hobo life. Jim (Richard Arlen), a wanderer, comes upon young Nancy (Louise Brooks), who has just killed the guardian who was trying to rape her. Disguised as a boy, she takes off with Jim and rides the rails to a hobo camp led by Arkansas Snake (Robert Perry). When Oklahoma Red (Beery) takes over the camp, he begins to pursue Nancy, but before he can take her from Jim, the detectives show up to arrest her. He escapes with Nancy and Jim, and when he sees how much they love each other, Red helps them escape by creating a diversion, during which the detectives kill him. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1928
The rampant male chauvinism in A Girl in Every Port might be hard for contemporary audiences to stomach, but fans of director Howard Hawks will be delighted. Victor McLaglen and Robert Armstrong play Spike and Salami, two sailors who become close pals but only after dukeing it out over a dame. Together, Spike and Salami travel all of the world in search of women and adventure and women. Their friendship is sorely tested when Spike decides to settle down to marry French fortune hunter Marie (Louise Brooks), but eventually Salami convinces his pal that this "skirt" just ain't worth it. Famed exotic dancer Sally Rand co-stars as one of the heroes' many sexual conquests. A Girl in Every Port was remade two years later as Goldie, with Spencer Tracy, Warren Hymer and Jean Harlow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong, (more)
- 1927
Based on a play by George Abbott and John V.A. Weaver, Love 'Em and Leave 'Em stars Evelyn Brent and Louise Brooks as sisters in competition over the affections of Lawrence Gray. One sister covers for the other when a large amount of money is stolen, but her selflessness is rewarded when "bad" sis steals Gray away. Things eventually get straightened out, no thanks to would-be seducer Osgood Perkins, who, as the title tells us, "spent three years curing himself of halitosis, only to find out that he was unpopular anyway." The two leading ladies are far more interesting than the vapid hero, who spends half his time looking cow-eyed or comporting about in a silly party costume. Louise Brooks would later recall that director Frank Tuttle didn't inform her that the film was a comedy; he wanted her to play the material straight, which turned to be most effective. Love 'Em and Leave 'Em was remade as a talkie starring Clara Bow and Jean Arthur, 1929's The Saturday Night Kid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Brent, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1927
During the late '20s, Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton made a series of comedies for Paramount. Although the studio hyped them quite a bit, there was nothing really special about the pairing, and the two actors (Beery especially) had better success apart in the long run. This picture was made along the same lines as two other Beery/ Hatton films, Behind the Front and We're in the Navy Now, but it wasn't as successful. Wally (Beery) and Ray (Hatton) are cousins whose grandfather, McTavish (Russell Simpson), is an aviation fanatic. To win favor with him, they join the U.S. Flying Corps when they enlist to fight in World War I. The two men wind up in a runaway balloon that sets them down behind enemy lines. But instead of being captured as prisoners of war, Wally and Ray are mistakenly considered heroes by the Germans, who send them back to U.S. lines as spies. They are captured by Allied forces, who really believe they are spies, and they're almost executed. Along the way, Wally and Ray fall in love with twin sisters, Grisette and Griselle, one loyal to the French, the other to the Germans (both played by Louise Brooks). In spite of a dual role, Brooks doesn't have much to do -- Moving Picture World felt that "any intelligent extra girl" could have handled the part. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Raymond Hatton, (more)
- 1927
Made during Hollywood's first "gangster cycle," The City Gone Wild stars Thomas Meighan as an honest prosecuting attorney. Meighan's integrity is compromised when he falls in love with Louise Brooks, the "moll" of gang boss Fred Kohler. Brooks steals the show from Meighan and Kohler, double-crossing both with impunity and paying for her chicanery in a most violent fashion. Who really cared about nominal "nice" heroine Marietta Miller? The City Gone Wild was directed in his usual perfunctory manner by James Cruze. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Meighan, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1927
Though billed second, the stunningly beautiful Louise Brooks is the focal point of the campus comedy Rolled Stockings. It's the old one about two collegiate brothers, Jim and Ralph Treadway (James Hall, Richard Arlen), in love with the same girl, Carol Fleming (Brooks). While carefree older brother Jim squanders his study time on wild parties and other such activities, level-headed Ralph tries to uphold the family tradition of academic and athletic excellence. On the eve of an important rowing match, Jim breaks training by taking Carol to a dance, whereupon the incensed Ralph, figuring that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, escorts the campus vamp (Nancy Phillips) to an off-limits nightclub. Undergoing a sudden case of responsibility, Jim saves Ralph from being bumped from the rowing team by claiming it was he, Jim, who was galavanting around with the vamp. Ralph goes on to win the match then publicly confesses his indiscretion and clears his brother's name. As a result, the vacillating Carol decides that Jim is the right man for her. Not unexpectedly, one of the publicity photos taken for this film was a close-up of a pair of rolled stockings, ostensibly filled by the trim legs of Louise Brooks; in fact, Brooks refused to pose for this cheesecake shot, whereupon her legs were "doubled" by her co-star, Nancy Phillips. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Hall, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1927
It stands to reason that the sartorially splendid Adolphe Menjou would star in a picture called Evening Clothes. At the beginning of the film, however,Menjou is crude, shabbily dressed French farmer Lucien D'Artois. Attracted by his wealth, avaricious Germaine (Virginia Valli) marries D'Artois, then leaves him for a more sophisticated man. D'Artois retaliates by moving to the city and learning the proper social graces. His new life style proves to be too expensive for him, and at the end he is left with nothing but one suit of evening clothes and his now contrite wife. The legendary Louise Brooks, sporting curls rather than her trademarked Dutch-bob hairstyle, has a lively secondary role as a Parisian flapper named Fox Trot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Virginia Valli, (more)
- 1926
The physical attributes of lovely leading lady Esther Ralston are amply displayed in American Venus. This satire of beauty contests gets under way when two competing cosmetic companies seek the endorsement of the winner of the American Venus pageant (Ralston, of course). Complication ensue when it appears that our heroine's contest win was rigged. This plot point mirrored a real-life occurrence in 1925, when it was alleged that the Miss America pageant had been fixed; apparently it hadn't, since Miss America herself, Fay Lanphier, makes a cameo appearance in American Venus. Of more interest historically is the presence in the supporting cast of cult favorite Louise Brooks, not to mention the Technicolor bathing-beauty scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Ralston, Lawrence Gray, (more)
- 1926
Also released as Just Another Blonde, The Girl From Coney Island stars Dorothy Mackaill as the title character. The star plays Jeanne Cavanaugh, one of the more popular hostesses at a Luna Park dance emporium. Gambling-hall employee Kid Scotty (William Collier Jr.) announces to one and all that he has fallen in love with Jeanne. Hoping to "save" his friend from heartbreak, Scotty's woman-hating pal Jimmy O'Connor (Jack Mulhall) begins pitching woo at Jeanne, only to fall in love with her for real. Out of loyalty to Scotty, Jimmy refuses to pledge his devotion to Jeanne but does so anyway when it looks as though he and the girl are about to be killed in a plane crash (they aren't, of course). Upon finding out what's what, Scotty isn't terribly put out, since he's already found a new sweetie in the form of brunette dance-hall gal Diana (Louise Brooks in a thankless role), and besides, he only pretended to be in love with Jeanne so that he could bring Jimmy and Jeanne together! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Mackaill, Jack Mulhall, (more)
- 1926
Originally, Louise Brooks was only supposed to have a supporting role in this comedy-drama starring Adolphe Menjou. Partway through filming, however, Menjou's co-star Greta Nissen dropped out and Brooks' role was rewritten and expanded. It was only her third film. Menjou is Max Haber, a barber in a small town who works at the shop belonging to his father (a surprisingly unslapstick-y Chester Conklin). His sweetheart is Kitty Laverne, an ambitious manicurist (Brooks). She goes to New York in hopes that Max will follow. He does, and he manages to land a job at a big New York barber shop. Mrs. Jackson-Greer (Josephine Drake) convinces Max to pose as a French Count, and he is pursued by April King, a title-seeking young woman (Elsie Lawson). Eventually Max's fakery is unmasked and he happily returns to his small town, followed by Kitty. Unfortunately, no copies of this film seem to exist -- the last known print was lost in a fire at the Cinematheque Francais. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1926
This first film version of George Kelly's stage comedy The Show Off stars former Keystone Kop Ford Sterling in the title role. Though he's only a thirty-dollar-a-week clerk, Aubrey Piper (Sterling) is an incorrigible braggart, brimming full of grandiose get-rich-quick schemes. Quickly ingratiating himself with the family of his fiancee Amy Fisher (Lois Wilson), Aubrey inveigles them into an investment scheme that nearly results in ruination for all concerned. Even though he and his victims are saved from penury by a last-minute miracle, Aubrey shows no signs of having learned his lesson by film's end -- but Amy loves him anyway. Critics in 1926 were amused by Ford Sterling but impressed by the coolly authoritative performance of up-and-coming Louise Brooks in a minor role. The Show-Off was remade with Spencer Tracy in 1934 and with Red Skelton in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ford Sterling, Lois Wilson, (more)
