It's the Old Army Game gets another DVD release - films stars W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks

I just learned that It's the Old Army Game, the 1926 Louise Brooks film starring W.C. Fields, was released as a region 0 DVD-R by Alpha Video / Oldies.com in April of 2022. More info can be found HERE.

STOP: Before you investigate further, please note that Alpha Video is a budget label whose releases more often than not compare poorly with those from KINO Classics, Milestone, FlickerAlley and others labels which release silent or classic films. And that's likely the case here. KINO released the film in March 2018. It was mastered in 2k from 35mm film elements preserved by The Library of Congress, features Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, and includes an audio commentary by film historian James L. Neibaur, author of The W.C. Fields Films, as well as an organ score composed and performed by Ben Model. I own a copy of the KINO release, and its looks real good.

Admittedly, I haven't yet seen the Alpha Video release. (I just ordered it.) But, it's webpage contains no information about its source material or musical accompaniment, let alone any sort of bonus material like an audio commentary. Also, the product page contains a disclaimer which reads:

This product is made-on-demand by the manufacturer using DVD-R recordable media. Almost all DVD players can play DVD-Rs (except for some older models made before 2000) - please consult your owner's manual for formats compatible with your player. These DVD-Rs may not play on all computers or DVD player/recorders. To address this, the manufacturer recommends viewing this product on a DVD player that does not have recording capability.

I do own a handful of Alpha Video releases, mostly all obscure B-films otherwise unavailable elsewhere, like The Street of Forgotten Women (1927), an early exploitation film who borrowed its title from The Street of Forgotten Men.

Aside from any reputational shortcomings, the text on the back of the release contains a factual error. The last couple of sentences read, "Director Edward Sutherland and Louise must have hit it off, as the filmmaker has the privilege of being Brooks' one and only husband... though they only stayed married for a little less than two years. Oh, well." In actuality, Brooks was married twice. Her first husband was Eddie Sutherland. Her second husband was Deering Davis. That's sloppy work....

Once I receive it, I will watch, with a comparative eye, this Alpha Video release of It's the Old Army Game. If my expectations are exceeded, I post a revised assessment. In the mean time, I'm sticking with the KINO Classic release, which seems to be on-sale at a great price.

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.

DVD Review: The Beginnings of Fritz Lang from Kino Lorber

Dubbed the "Master of Darkness," Fritz Lang is counted among the most influential directors of all time, alongside the likes of Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Truffaut, and Orson Welles. His best known films include the futuristic Metropolis (1927), and the chilling M (1931), a film noir precursor made before he moved to the United States.

Lang is considered one of the great German directors – he is certainly the single greatest German director between the two World Wars, a period straddling the silent and sound eras. (His only rivals are, arguably, G.W. Pabst and F.W. Murnau.) Lang was also an accomplished Hollywood director – his American movies include Fury (1936), a classic, as well as a handful of notable dramas, Westerns, and thrillers including Ministry of Fear (1944). Today, Lang’s reputation rests largely on the dozen or so film noirs he made in Hollywood, stylish, brooding, gritty films like Scarlet Street (1945), The Big Heat (1953), and While the City Sleeps (1956).

Kino Lorber, a label best known for their reissues of cinema classic, has just released Fritz Lang: The Silent Films, an impressive twelve-disc, Blu-ray only collection gathering the complete surviving silent films of the cinema's supreme early stylist. Along with a 32-page booklet and a generous helping of special features and bonus material, the boxed set includes The Spiders (1919), Harakiri (1919), The Wandering Shadow (1920), Four Around the Woman (1921), Destiny (1921), Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), Metropolis (1927), Spies (1928), Woman in the Moon (1929), and The Plague of Florence (1919). The latter, based on Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” was directed by Otto Rippert from a screenplay by Lang. All of the other films were directed by Lang, with a few having also been written or produced by the director.

Lang enthusiasts or silent film buffs who purchased earlier video tapes or DVDs or even boxed sets of the director’s early work will find each of their treasures represented here in best available or restored versions (including original tints). Metropolis, for example, is the newsworthy 2010 restoration which incorporates 25 minutes of missing footage found in Argentina. (That missing footage include the material featuring Diary of a Lost Girl star Fritz Rasp.) There is also a 50 minute documentary on the making and restoration of the dystopian classic about a worker’s revolt.

The pleasure of a collection like Fritz Lang: The Silent Films is the chance to see the director’s lesser known and sometimes hard-to-find work. Two years after revolutionizing the science fiction film with his epic Metropolis, Lang revisited the genre with Woman in the Moon (1929), an ambitious spectacle that dramatizes the first lunar expedition. There’s also the strange and haunting film, Destiny. Inspired by a childhood dream, this is the work that first brought Lang widespread recognition. It is the story of a young man, taken by Death as he about to be married, whose fiancé makes a deal with Death to save him. Director Luis Bunuel wrote that Destiny “opened my eyes to the poetic expressiveness of the cinema … I suddenly knew that I wanted to make movies.”

Lang's monumental Die Nibelungen is well known in film history, but how many have seen it? This beautifully remastered edition of the more than four hour retelling of a Nordic legend boasts a high definition transfer that sweeps you into its mythic past.

The Spiders is an adventure film, and The Wandering Shadow is a thriller. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (along with the later, sound-era Mabuse films) had an impact on the development of the crime film, as did Spies on the espionage genre. In some way, each anticipates the visual and metaphorical darkness of Lang’s later film noir efforts.

The Austrian-born Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang (1890 – 1976) had a five-decade long career as a filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional producer and actor in the two of greatest centers of film making in the 20th century, Weimar Germany and Hollywood. He worked in different genres and styles, successfully transitioning from silent to sound film and producing masterpieces in both forms. As noted film scholar Tom Gunning states in his booklet essay, “No other filmmaker had a career like Fritz Lang…. his silent films forged his unique vision. This box set brings together all of Lang’s existing silent films in restored versions (including original tints), offering a chance to experience the unity of his work as never before possible.”

I agree. Whether of not you own one or two or three of these films already, this affordably-priced box set is one every silent film enthusiast will want to own.

Lang’s films are at the heart of another recent release from Kino Lorber, From Caligari to Hitler,  a 2014 documentary by Rüdiger Suchsland. Anyone interested in exploring the cinema of Weimar Germany should check out this compelling study, which explores the many connections between the expressionist cinema of Germany and the subsequent rise of Nazism. Looking at landmark films like Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, Metropolis, The Golem, and others, Suchsland tracks the timely concept of the charismatic villain who bewitches the people. Sound familiar?

Weimar German culture seems to be trending.....

Weimar Germany seems to be trending..... I just came across a rather good article in Tablet magazine about the avant-garde performer Valeska Gert. "The Forgotten World of the Badass Valeska Gert," by Elyssa Goodman, looks at the influence of the "incomparable ‘dance performance artist’ who inspired entertainers from German Expressionism through to 1980s punk."

I've been fascinated by this strange artist ever since I saw her in the 1929 Louise Brooks film, The Diary of a Lost Girl. Despite Brooks' presence, Gert dominates the few scenes she is in. As Goodman notes,

"Gert began performing all over Europe, at Brecht’s cabaret The Red Revue, in Paris, in London, and elsewhere. She also moved her parody into a new medium, performing in film alongside a very young Greta Garbo in the 1925 film Joyless Street; in G.W. Pabst’s 1929 film Diary of a Lost Girl also starring American cinema sensation Louise Brooks; in the first film version of Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera as Mrs. Peachum in 1931, and many others. Gert knew how to manipulate her face and her body to dominate a stage in her solo performances, and the same happens even when she’s on screen with multiple people, as in this scene from Diary of a Lost Girl: Her face twists, her eyes expand, her mouth bends and even if she’s not saying anything, you simply can’t look away."

I encourage everyone to check out Goodman's article HERE. It is a good read. Back in 2010, I also wrote a piece on Gert which you may also want to check out, "The Remarkable Life of Valeska Gert." It ran on Huffington Post.

And that's not all the news from Weimar Germany. The culture of this special period in history is being celebrated in a new book, Night Falls on Berlin in the Roaring Twenties by Boris Pofalla (Author) & Robert Nippoldt (Illustrator). It is due out in May from Taschen. The publisher description reads thus:

"It was the age of drag balls, Metropolis, and Josephine Baker. Of scientific breakthroughs, literary verve, and the political chaos of the Weimar Republic. After the best-selling Hollywood in the 30s and Jazz: New York in the Roaring Twenties, illustrator Robert Nippoldt teams up with author Boris Pofalla to evoke the fast-moving, freewheeling metropolis that was Berlin in the 1920s.

Like a cinematographic city tour through time, Berlin of the Roaring Twenties takes in the urban scale and the intricate details of this transformative decade, from sweeping street panoramas, bejeweled with new electric lights, to the foxtrot and tango steps tapped out on dance floors across the town. With characteristic graphic mastery of light, shadow, and expression, as well as a silver-printing sheen, Nippoldt intersperses portraits with cityscapes, revealing the changing scenery and dynamic hubs of this burgeoning and rapidly industrializing capital, as well as the extraordinary protagonists that made up its hotbed scene of art, science, and ideas.

With an eager eye on the eccentrics and outlaws that made up this heady age as much as the established “greats,” Nippoldt includes rich profiles not only of the likes of Lotte Reiniger, Christopher Isherwood, Albert Einstein, Kurt Weill, Marlene Dietrich, and George Grosz, but also for “the woman with ten brains” Thea Alba, “Einstein of Sex” Magnus Hirschfeld, and the city’s notorious criminal Adolf Leib. So, too, does the book contain special features for some of the most prominent cultural and political phenomena of the time, whether the most iconic film characters or the frenzied chaos of the Weimar cabinet.

Beyond the people and the places, the book captures above all the incomparable and ineffable spirit of time and place, of an epoch suspended between two world wars and a country caught between joie-de-vivre daring and the darkness of encroaching National Socialism. Before the night falls, Nippoldt shows it all to us: the bright lights and the backstage whispers, the looming factories and the theoretical physics, the roar of the sports hall and the hush of the theater, the songs of the Comedian Harmonists, the satire of George Grosz, and the gender-bending icon of Marlene Dietrich, lighting up a cigarette in top hat, tuxedo, and come-to-bed eyes."

Check out this video introduction to the book:

Or, check out this Taschen podcast about the new book:

But wait, there's more.... Just out on DVD from Kino Lorber is Rudiger Suchsland's documentary film From Caligari to Hitler. From Kino: "In the relevatory documentary From Caligari to Hitler filmmaker Rüdiger Suchsland explores the connections between the expressionist silent cinema of Germany and the subsequent rise of Nazism. The film illustrates Siegfried Kracauer's 1947 thesis that Nazism is anticipated in many themes found throughout Weimar cinema of the 1920s, whiles situating Kracauer in the philosophy and histories of the time. Looking at landmark films like Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, Metropolis, The Golem, and many others, Suchsland brilliantly tracks the concept of the charmismatic villain bewitching the people." (Reminds me of someone today.) From Caligari to Hitler got a ★★★ review on Video Librarian: "In fact, one of the documentary's major virtues is that it not only covers noted filmmakers such as Lang, F.W. Murnau, and Ernst Lubitsch but also serves as an introduction to movies in many different genres by other directors who are virtually forgotten today."

Of course, Louise Brooks made two of her greatest films in the Weimar era, the G.W. Pabst directed Pandora's Box (1929) and The Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). The English film critic Pamela Hutchinson has written a newly released book, Pandora's Box, published by BFI Film Classics. I just got a copy last week, and read it promptly. It is really, really good - displaying graceful prose and lively thinking. If you haven't already done so, check it out.

And lastly, there is a new article about G.W. Pabst which ran in a Brazilian publication, Estadao Cultura. The piece is titled "Georg Wilhelm Pabst: A obra por trás do homem."

Louise Brooks Society: Looking Back at 2017, Looking Forword to 2018

It's been a great year for all things Louise Brooks....

In 2017, fans were gifted with the discovery of a previously lost film, Now We're in the Air. Wow! I must admit, after nearly 25 years of being a Louise Brooks' fan, I thought I would never see the day.... To date, there have been a few screenings of the preserved film, at its premiere at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, at the Library of Congress, and in Pordenone, Italy at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival -- where it proved popular. Fingers-crossed, they may be more next year.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

This year also saw the home video release of what is by consensus Brooks' best American film, Beggars of Life, on DVD / Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. This new release marks the first time this now digitally restored film has ever been released on home video. And it looks great -- so much better than the poor and rather dark version floating around the web! This new release has received many good reviews, and in fact, it has made a few critic's lists of the best new release. If you haven't gotten a copy, do so today!

And that's not all. Also out this year were not one, not two, but three new illustrated books about the actress' films, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film and Now We're in the Air (both Louise Brooks Society publications from PandorasBox Press), as well as Pamela Hutchinson's excellent Pandora's Box (BFI Film Classics).

As well in 2017, there have also been many screenings of Louise Brooks' films, especially Beggars of Life and Pandora's Box, held all around the United States and the world. Notably, as a result of these screenings and the accompanying media interest around the various new releases, the number of readers of this blog has increased steadily. As have the number of people following the Louise Brooks Society on Facebook and Twitter. Louise Brooks is more popular than ever.

Next year promises to be nearly as good a year for all things Louise Brooks. A few screenings have already been announced (watch/follow this blog for announcements), and there is at least one film (It's the Old Army Game, Kino Lorber) coming out on DVD / Blu-ray.  

The Chaperone, which features a young Louise Brooks as a character, is also expected to be released next year (from PBS Masterpiece), as is, hopefully, Charlotte Siller's promising Documentary of a Lost Girl. And that's not all. I am also planning on releasing another book on Louise Brooks, and am working on another. Of late, I've also added a few new pages to the LBS website, and there have been nearly 150 LBS blog posts in 2017.

Who knows what else might pop up next year? It's just around the corner! Happy new year.

My Louise Brooks Wish List !

If I were to make a Louise Brooks wish list of things I would like in the new year, here is what I would wish for:

1) For someone to find one previously "considered lost" Louise Brooks film. My pick, Rolled Stockings (1927). Why? Because it's the one American film where Louise Brooks was given star billing. And from the stills I have seen, she looks pretty flapper-esque.

2) DVD/Blu-ray release of Prix de beaute (1930), with both the silent and sound versions included. I think such a release would generate considerable interest. Whenever either version is shown, it generates great response.

3) DVD/Blu-ray release of The Street of Forgotten Men (1925). Though Louise Brooks is only in it for about five minutes near the end, it is a terrific, Lon Chaney-esque silent film. I think so. And so does Kevin Brownlow, who has told me he thinks so as well.

4) DVD/Blu-ray release of The Canary Murder Case (1929), with both the silent and sound versions included. Though I've never seen it, I've read that the silent version is considered superior. Why? This was a major release in 1929, and is considered an early modern detective film. And, it features not only Louise Brooks, but also William Powell and Jean Arthur. Those are reasons enough!

5) For someone to find another previously lost Louise Brooks film. My second pick, The City Gone Wild (1927). Why? Because this James Cruze-directed early gangster film shows Brooks in a whole new [dark] light.

If you were to make a Louise Brooks wish list, or a silent film list, what would it include? Post your lists in the comments field below, or email me direct. If there are enough of them, I will post the best wishes next week.

Last minute gift recommendations for the Louise Brooks fan on your holiday shopping list

Here are some last minute gift recommendations for the Louise Brooks & silent film fan on your shopping list

And here are some more recommendations . . . .


And here are just a few more recommendations . . . .


Why not consider these as well . . . .


I promise, this is the last bunch!

Rescuing the Past: The Fall and Rise of Silent Film

With the advent of the talkies, silent film took a hit. A big hit. The silent cinema was devalued. In fact, things got so bad that some studios melted down their old films, believing a print’s meager silver content more valuable than whatever artistry contained in the movie itself. In this way, hundreds if not thousands of titles were lost to posterity. Others were thrown away, or abandoned. Others simply disintegrated over time, and no one much cared.

There was also a perception problem. Aside from a few exceptions, like Charlie Chaplin or your grandparent’s favorites, silent movies were never thought to be all that good. They were herky-jerky, and overly melodramatic. If you are old enough, you might remember those ridiculous compilations they once showed on television where “humourous” dialogue was added over sped-up excerpts from the “flickers,” making everything seem rather corny.

These days, however, silent film is seemingly on the ascendancy.

Led by the pioneering Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in the United States, like-minded and rather well-attended festivals seem to be springing up just about everywhere. Among others, there is a silent film festival in Kansas, one in Toronto, Canada, and one in Manila, in the Philippines. And too, one-off screenings of movies by favorites like Buster Keaton and Louise Brooks are taking place at a frequency that is almost startling. One section on NitrateVille.com—an old-school bulletin board site devoted to talking about, collecting and preserving classic film—is devoted entirely to listing silent film screenings. They’re everywhere. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, in Chicago, Illinois, and in Fremont, California at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. Yes, there’s an entire museum devoted to silent film.

One way to mark this resurgence of interest is through the number of documentary films related to early film. It started back in the late 1960s and early 1970s with Kevin Brownlow, the English documentary film maker and author; in 2010, he became to the first film historian to become an Academy Award honoree. In his acceptance speech, he hit back at an industry that has all-too-often neglected it past.

This year has been an exceptional year for documentaries related to silent film. One promising example, Saving Brinton, premiered earlier this year at the AFI Docs Film Festival in Washington D.C. It unreels the story of an eccentric collector who found a cache of rare films in Iowa, including a once lost Georges Méliés short, while offering a glimpse into the worlds of early film exhibition and modern-day film preservation.

There are others, including three documentaries released on DVD / Blu-ray. The one receiving the biggest buzz—the one even non-film buffs might have heard of—is Dawson City: Frozen Time (Kino Lorber), by Decasia director Bill Morrison. Part film history, part Gold Rush history, part poetic meditation on the fragility of just about everything, Dawson City: Frozen Time obliquely tells the incredible but true story of hundreds of silent film reels, buried for nearly half-a-century, in a swimming pool located deep in the Yukon permafrost.
 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Dawson City was a Gold Rush boom town (located about 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle) largely gone bust but still in need of entertainment, and that included the movies. Among the cast of characters who passed through Dawson (and some who resided there) were actor Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, showman Sid Grauman, impresario Alexander Pantages, and future director William Desmond Taylor (each a key figure in early Hollywood history), as well as poet Robert Service, businessman Solomon R. Guggenheim, boxing promoter Tex Rickard, and even Donald Trumps’ grandfather, Frederick Trump, who made a fortune operating a brothel. Dawson City: Frozen Time is an impressionistic documentary of-a-kind, told mostly without dialogue (silent film style) using the fragments of film found abandoned in this last place on earth which also happened to be the end of the distribution line for the films shown there.

A more traditional documentary, The Champion: The Story of America’s First Film Town (Milestone), has also received a good deal of attention, and rightly so. It tells the fascinating story of a small New Jersey town, located just a ferry ride away from Manhattan, that gave birth to the American film industry. In other words, before there was Hollywood, there was Fort Lee.

Here, many of the major studios of the time—including the Goldwyn Picture Corporation, Fox, Metro, Paramount ArtCraft, and Selznick—established themselves alongside smaller outfits like Champion Studios. And with them came a score of the biggest names in early film, including Will Rogers and Alice Guy-Blaché, Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks, Theda Bara, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford, and Barrymore family, to name just a few. And then it ended, when the industry moved to sunnier California. However, for a few years in the 1910’s, Fort Lee was the place to be. A two disc set, The Champion includes five rare short films made at the Champion Studios, none of which have previously been released on DVD. Notably, these films mark the beginnings of today’s Universal, which purchased Champion and its building in 1912.

Another documentary, this one focusing on an early key figure, is John Bunny – Film’s First King of Comedy (Mind Pilots Media). Though little known today, Bunny was one of the biggest comedic stars of his time. His personality driven, situational comedy set the stage for later greats like W.C. Fields and Jackie Gleason.

Born during the Civil War, Bunny worked on the stage and only achieved modest success. He likely would have been forgotten had it not been for the advent of motion pictures. This new medium, which required a different kind of acting, brought Bunny stardom. In fact, during his brief four year career in front of the camera, from 1911 to 1915, Bunny was a sensation, hugely popular in the United States, but even more so in England and Russia. Film historian Steve Massa and legendary film archivist Sam Gill offer insightful commentary. John Bunny – Film’s First King of Comedy includes four short films showcasing Bunny’s talents.

Though not a documentary, also newly out and of related historical interest is Little Orphant Annie, a film restoration by Eric Grayson. Everybody knows of the character Little Orphan Annie, whether through James Whitcomb Riley’s original 1885 poem, the long-running comic strip which debuted in 1924, the radio and film adaptions of the 1930s, the smash-hit Broadway musical from 1977, or its three subsequent film adaptions, the most recent in 2014.

Grayson, a film historian and preservationist, has painstakingly restored Little Orphant Annie from five different prints, making this release the longest version of the 1918 film ever commercially available. It also recreates the tints that were seen in the now-lost 35mm nitrate print. It’s a beauty.

Notably, this silent film represents the character’s earliest cinematic incarnation. Full of vanished Americana as well as striking dreamlike imagery, this entertaining film features the earliest surviving appearance by actress Colleen Moore (one of the biggest stars of the 1920s) as Annie, as well as a rare screen appearance by the once popular poet who started it all (Riley died two years before the film was released).

This crowd-funded project includes a number of special documentary features, among them a valuable booklet essay and commentary track by Moore biographer Jeff Codori, notes on the restoration and a commentary by Grayson, a behind-the-scenes featurette from the restoration premiere, and more. This worthwhile disc is one that silent film buffs, Little Orphan Annie collectors, and those interested in children’s literature will want to get.

Next year looks to be as promising as this for silent film documentaries. Among the works set for completion in 2018 is Charlotte Siller’s Documentary of a Lost Girl, a film that uses newly uncovered archival materials, interviews with surviving friends, and location shoots to reveal the life—away from the camera—of film icon Louise Brooks. There is also a documentary about Alice Guy-Blaché, the first female film director, in the works. It is called Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache. I am looking forward to both.

a variant of this article by Thomas Gladysz first appeared on Huffington Post

Louise Brooks, the Persistent Movie Star

Louise Brooks, the silent film star best known for her bobbed hair as well as for her charismatic performance as Lulu in Pandora’s Box, is once again enjoying the spotlight. This year, 2017, promises to be a big year in the actress’ afterlife.

The American-born actress made relatively few films—24 in total, and most movie goers have likely seen only one or two of her European films. That should change now that Brooks’ best American film, Beggars of Life (1928), has just been released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

Digitally restored from film elements held at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, this new DVD marks the film’s first real release. For classic film buffs, it is a must see. [As the author of a new book on the film, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, I am enthusiastically biased.]

Chances are, even if you are a film buff, you haven’t seen Beggars of Life—at least not like this. Though widely acclaimed when first released, the film fell between the cracks of movie history and was considered lost for decades. Only recently, since its digital restoration, has this once-obscure film returned to general circulation. The new print is bright and detailed and a thrill to watch.

Based on the bestselling novelistic memoir by the celebrated “hobo author” Jim Tully, Beggars of Life was directed by multiple Academy Award winner William Wellman the year after he directed Wings (the first film to win the Oscar for Best Picture). It is a rough and tumble story about an orphan girl (Brooks) who kills her abusive step-father and flees the law, dressing as a boy and riding the rails through a hobo underground ruled over by future Oscar winner Wallace Beery. The film also includes leading man Richard Arlen, as well as the pioneering African-American actor Edgar “Blue” Washington.

Movie goers will have a chance to see Beggars of Life on the big screen in the coming months. The Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts is set to screen Beggars of Life on September 5. The historic movie house will also screen Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), another digitally restored film starring the actress, on September 6. And on September 7, the Brattle reprises both films with special double bill.

The Cambridge screenings take place just before a larger Louise Brooks series at Film Forum in New York City. The famous repertory house is set to screen Diary of a Lost Girl on September 17, Beggars of Life on September 19, Pandora’s Box on October 1, followed by a reprise of Diary of a Lost Girl on October 14. Each film will feature live musical accompaniment by silent film pianist Steve Sterner.

Brooks is also the focus of a multi-film series in Helsinki, Finland. That country’s National Audiovisual Institute, KAVI, is set to show Beggars of Life on October 12 and 15, Diary of a Lost Girl on October 19 and 21, Prix de beaute on October 27 and 29, and Pandora’s Box on November 27 and December 1. Elsewhere, Pandora’s Box will be shown in Manila, Phillipines on September 3 as part of the 11th annual International Silent Film Festival Manila.

In the United States, other screenings of Beggars of Life are set to take place in Cleveland, Ohio at the Cinematheque at the Cleveland Institute of Art on September 23 (with an introduction by Tully biographer Paul Bauer), and in Madison, Wisconsin at the University Cinematheque on December 1.

The new Kino Lorber Beggars of Life is a deluxe package. Besides being digitally restored, the Kino Lorber release has a fine audio commentary by actor William Wellman, Jr., the son of the film’s director; an audio commentary by yours truly, Thomas Gladysz; a booklet essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton; a graceful musical score by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra; and swell, original cover art by artist Wayne Shellabarger.

Word has also gotten out that Kino Lorber will also release the W.C. Fields / Louise Brooks film, It's the Old Army Game (1926) sometime later this year. All this Louise Brooks activity (the DVD release, my book, and the subsequent screenings) comes after two major announcements earlier in the year.

In March, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival revealed that film preservationist Rob Byrne had found a 23-minute fragment of the long missing 1927 Brooks film, Now We’re in the Air, in an archive in the Czech Republic. Newly restored, the film made a well received world premiere at the San Francisco Festival in June, followed by a showing before archivists and historians at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Next up for the once lost work is the prestigious Le Giornate del Cinema Muto | Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy in October, where Now We’re in the Air will be shown as part of the Festival’s “Rediscoveries and Restorations” program.

That’s not all the news from Europe.
The British Film Institute recently announced the forthcoming publication of a new book on Pandora’s Box by Pamela Hutchinson, a London critic who writes on early film for the Guardian newspaper and Sight & Sound magazine. Hutchinson’s book, an illustrated study of the once controversial film, will be published as part of the BFI’s familiar Film Classics series. The book will be released in Europe on November 21, and in the United States on December 19. Screenings of Pandora’s Box around England are in the works.

But wait, there’s more! In February, an opera with a Louise Brooks inspired character and with music by Stewart Copeland (the co-founder and drummer for the Police) opened in Chicago. The Invention of Morel will be staged in Long Beach, California in March 2018.

In August, PBS announced that Columbus and Split star Haley Lu Richardson will play Louise Brooks in The Chaperone, joining Elizabeth McGovern in a period drama from PBS Masterpiece. The Chaperone, based on Laura Moriarty’s best-selling novel from 2013, is scripted by Julian Fellowes and directed by Michael Engler. PBS announced principal photography has started on the film, which will air on PBS stations nationwide after its initial theatrical run in 2018.

McGovern, who is also a producer, optioned the novel and worked with Fellowes (both were involved with the popular PBS series Downton Abbey) to adapt the story for the big screen. In The Chaperone, McGovern portrays a woman whose life is changed when she escorts a teenage and soon to be famous Brooks to New York in the early 1920s.

Notably, The Chaperone is the first film from PBS Masterpiece, and, it’s the first film to feature Brooks as a central character.

That’s not bad for an actress whose last film was shot more than 80 years ago.

Thomas Gladysz is the Director of the Louise Brooks Society, a website and online archive launched in 1995. Gladysz contributed an audio commentary to the Kino Lorber release of Beggars of Life, and recently published a book on the movie, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film. He also had a small hand in the restoration of the lost Louise Brooks’ film, Now We’re in the Air. In July, Gladysz was a guest DJ on KDVS (90.3 FM in Davis, California), where he played Louise Brooks-related rock and pop music.

A variant of this article originally appeared in Huffington Post

Children of Divorce with Clara Bow coming to DVD & Blu-ray

Great news for all you flappers, shebas & sheiks

Almost 15 years after the release of its first publication, Flicker Alley, in partnership with the Blackhawk Films® Collection, is proud to celebrate 50 fully-published titles with the Blu-ray/DVD world premiere of Children of Divorce, starring Clara Bow and Gary Cooper.

FormatBlu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition (NTSC)
RegionAll: A,B,C/0
DirectorFrank Lloyd and Josef von Sternberg (uncredited)
FeaturingClara Bow, Gary Cooper, Esther Ralston
ComposersMont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
Year1927
LanguageEnglish
Length71 minutes
UPC6-17311-6758-9-8

More info HERE.

The film begins in an American "divorce colony" in Paris after the First World War, where parents would leave their children for months at a time. Jean, Kitty, and Ted meet there as children and become fast friends. Years later, in America, when wealthy Ted (Gary Cooper) reconnects with Jean (Esther Ralston), the two fall deeply in love, vowing to fulfill a childhood promise to one day marry each other. But true love and the most innocent of plans are no match for the scheming Kitty—played by the original Hollywood “It” girl, Clara Bow—who targets Ted for his fortune. After a night of drunken revelry, Ted wakes up to find he has unwittingly married Kitty. This unfortunate turn of events, however, carries with it the traumatized pasts of the three players, whose views of marriage have been shaped as children of divorce.

Sourced from the original nitrate negative held by the Library of Congress, as well as their 1969 fine grain master, this new restoration of Children of Divorce was scanned in 4K resolution, and represents over 200 hours of laboratory work by the Library of Congress in order to create the best version possible. Though some deterioration remains, this is the first time the film has ever been released on home video, allowing audiences to enjoy a rare viewing of classic performances from two of early cinema’s most recognizable stars.

Flicker Alley is delighted to reach the milestone of its 50th publication with Children of Divorce. This Blu-ray/DVD dual-format edition features a new score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and was made possible thanks to the Blackhawk Films® Collection, Paramount Pictures, and the Library of Congress.

This title is currently available for PRE-ORDERS ONLY. If purchased, the item will be shipped on or before the official release date of DECEMBER 6, 2016.

Bonus Materials Include:

    “Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl” – Narrated by Courtney Love, this hour-long film documents the life of the woman who would become the icon of the flapper era, from her tragic childhood to her tumultuous personal life as Hollywood’s first sex symbol.

    Souvenir Booklet – Featuring rare photographs; an essay by film preservationist and Clara Bow biographer David Stenn; notes on the production of the documentary by producer-director Hugh Munro Neely; and a brief write-up about the music by Rodney Sauer, score compiler and director of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

Gift ideas for the Louise Brooks or silent film fan on your list

There are a handful of new releases in 2015 which would make a great gift for the Louise Brooks or silent film fan on your list. Click on the title links to make a purchase.

The Diary of a Lost Girl (Kino Lorber)
by G.W. Pabst

The second and final collaboration of actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box), DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is a provocative adaptation of Margarethe Böhme's notorious novel, in which the naive daughter of a middle class pharmacist is seduced by her father's assistant, only to be disowned and sent to a repressive home for wayward girls. She escapes, searches for her child, and ends up in a high-class brothel, only to turn the tables on the society which had abused her. It's another tour-de-force performance by Brooks, whom silent film historian Kevin Brownlow calls an actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history.


Special Features: Mastered in HD from archival 35mm elements, and digitally restored, Audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, Director, Louise Brooks Society, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1930, 18 Min., featuring Louise Brooks)

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Louise Brooks Detective (NBM Publishing)
by Rick Geary

A fictional story centered on actress Louise Brooks, this graphic novel by Rick Geary is spun around her actual brief meteoric career as a smoldering film actress who popularized bangs. Geary fantasizes about her coming back to her home town of Wichita where she becomes intrigued by a murder involving a friend, a famous reclusive writer and a shady beau. Not before she gets herself in great danger will she emerge with the solution the police fail to grasp.

The author, Rick Geary, is related to Louise Brooks.

"A fun, twisty mystery for both film buffs and crime fiction lovers, and the final revelation is satisfying." — Publishers Weekly

"He knows his way around both history and crime stories. Geary is also possessed of a unique and charming art style, something I've dubbed 'faux woodcut,' which makes everything he draws look like it's lifted from some magical era of the past that never really existed, but should have." — Andrew A. Smith, Tribune News Service

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Louise Brooks, Frank Zappa, & Other Charmers & Dreamers (The Devault-Graves Agency)
by Tom Graves
 

Award-winning author and journalist Tom Graves in "Louise Brooks, Frank Zappa, & Other Charmers & Dreamers" collects the best of his long-form journalism and profiles as well as his in-depth interviews with a variety of curious personalities. The lead piece is "My Afternoon with Louise Brooks" about Graves's encounter in 1982 with the reclusive silent film legend Louise Brooks. He was the last journalist ever to sit bedside with Miss Brooks, who allowed very few people into her life. Also included are Graves's 1979 sit down with the king of Southern grit lit, Harry Crews, his discovery of the first Elvis impersonator, his search with the help of Quentin Tarantino to find actress Linda Haynes, who had vanished from Hollywood. Included are also Graves's in-depth question and answer interviews with: Frank Zappa, Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones, Lee Mavers of the cult band the La's, and Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Some of Graves's best essays are also part of this anthology: his piece on the Sex Pistols in Memphis, an apology for biographer Albert Goldman, a revisit of Woodstock, and more.

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Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel  (Pantheon)

by William Wellman  Jr 

The extraordinary life—the first—of the legendary, under celebrated Hollywood director known in his day as “Wild Bill” (and he was!) Wellman, whose eighty-two movies (six of them uncredited), many of them iconic; many of them sharp, cold, brutal; others poetic, moving; all of them a lesson in close-up art, ranged from adventure and gangster pictures to comedies, aviation, romances, westerns, and searing social dramas.

Among his iconic pictures: the pioneering World War I epic Wings (winner of the first Academy Award for best picture), Public Enemy (the toughest gangster picture of them all), Nothing Sacred, the original A Star Is Born, Beggars of Life (with Louise Brooks), The Call of the Wild, The Ox-Bow Incident, Battleground, The High and the Mighty...

Wellman directed Hollywood’s biggest stars for three decades, including Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, and Clint Eastwood. It was said he directed “like a general trying to break out of a beachhead.” He made pictures with such noted producers as Darryl F. Zanuck, Nunnally Johnson, Jesse Lasky, and David O. Selznick.

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Ziegfeld and His Follies: A Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer (University Press of Kentucky)
by Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson

The name Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (1867–1932) is synonymous with the revues that the legendary impresario produced at the turn of the twentieth century. These extravagant performances were filled with catchy tunes, high-kicking chorus girls, striking costumes, and talented stars such as Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Marilyn Miller, W. C. Fields, Will Rogers. and Louise Brooks. After the success of his Follies, Ziegfeld revolutionized theater performance with the musical Show Boat (1927) and continued making Broadway hits―including Sally (1920), Rio Rita (1927), and The Three Musketeers (1928)―several of which were adapted for the silver screen.

In this definitive biography, authors Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson offer a comprehensive look at both the life and legacy of the famous producer. Drawing on a wide range of sources―including Ziegfield's previously unpublished letters to his second wife, Billie Burke (who later played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz), and to his daughter Patricia―the Bridesons shed new light on this enigmatic man. They provide a lively and well-rounded account of Ziegfeld as a father, a husband, a son, a friend, a lover, and an alternately ruthless and benevolent employer. Lavishly illustrated with over seventy-five images, this meticulously researched book presents an intimate and in-depth portrait of a figure who profoundly changed American entertainment.

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The Roaring Road: Book 1 The Road West (Road Trip Dog Publishing)
by Johann M.C. Laesecke

(Jazz Age inspired fiction) 1924 – Prohibition has been the law since 1920 but that did not stop people from wanting alcoholic beverages nor did it stop the organizations that supplied them. Lack of good alcoholic beverages causes many speakeasies and gangs to manufacture low quality substitutes made from dangerous ingredients. Violence is on the rise as the gangs protect their turf and their products. Dan and Laure grew up in small villages in the far north and south areas of Chicago. They meet in unusual circumstances and Dan loves her at first sight. Laure has the same feelings for him but a past relationship causes her to be cautious and Dan is forced to undertake an impossible mission. Thus begins the adventure of The Roaring Road. Take a prototype Duesenberg and a Road Trip Dog - add mayhem, a mob chief, a group of highwaymen and a gang of bank robbers, a pair of kidnappers and assorted other villains, throw in visits to speakeasies plus the lure of Hollywood in the form of a prank devised by the infamous actress Louise Brooks that turns out to be wildly successful, and Laure is offered a role in the 1926 movie 'The Great Gatsby'. Automobiles, trains, aeroplanes, flapper glamour, adventure, mayhem and lust on the roads and rails and in the speakeasies and blind pigs of Prohibition. What could possibly go wrong?

The Roaring Road: Book 2 The Road East (Road Trip Dog Publishing)
by Johann M.C. Laesecke

(Jazz Age inspired fiction) 1926 - Laure and Dan are being drawn into Hollywood even as their challenge of moving their contraband inventory becomes critical. Laure is a dancer on the 1926 production of The Great Gatsby movie, while Dan has an offer to become a movie producer. There are others who want Laure, and not for her dancing. Trouble looms as kidnappers are sent to grab Laure and send her to Chicago where her life expectancy will be very short. The railcar full of wine and booze is hijacked and their friend Scott is taken as a hostage and is forced to become a morphine addict. Dan's crew captures the train and Scott back and they send him to the rehab clinic Scott and Dan helped fund. Trouble continues to come at Dan and Laure but they gather a small group of people with unusual talents to help. The Chicago gangs become more involved and more mayhem leads to a confrontation in Cherryvale, Kansas which happens to be the hometown of Louise Brooks. Come with us on our adventure tale of captures, rescues, recapture, speakeasies, mayhem and lust on the roaring roads and rails of the Prohibition era. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?