More Louise Brooks on examiner.com

For five years, I've been writing about silent film for examiner.com; and for four of those years, I've also been the national Louise Brooks correspondent. My first piece appeared on May 11, 2010. I've written dozens of pieces, perhaps more than one-hundred (I've lost count). To mark my fourth anniversary as the national Louise Brooks examiner, I've put together this checklist of some of my favorite pieces about the actress. A few have enjoyed some buzz, including tweets by the likes of Roger Ebert and Neil Gaiman (each fans of Louise Brooks).

Diary of a Lost Girl, with Louise Brooks, screens in Brooklyn
May 11, 2010

Pandora's Box, with Louise Brooks, screens in SoCal
May 17, 2010

Six questions with . . . the Dodge Brothers
May 23, 2010

Interview with a bassist with an interest in Louise Brooks
June 4, 2010

Canary Murder Case screens in Rochester, NY
June 9, 2010

Daisy D'Ora, one-time German actress, dies at age 97
June 26, 2010

New short film homage to Louise Brooks
June 29, 2010

Berlin film festival features Louise Brooks
July 6, 2010

Rolled Stockings screenwriter turns 110
July 8, 2010

The Show-Off screens in Los Angeles July 10
July 8, 2010

Celebrating G.W. Pabst at Bard College
July 14, 2010

Discovering a Polish Lulu
August 2, 2010

Beggars of Life to show in Los Angeles
August 13, 2010

Louise Brooks' first review on this day in 1925
August 31, 2010

New restoration of Pandora's Box announced
September 8, 2010

The Curious Case of F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
September 13, 2010

Rufus Wainwright talks about Louise Brooks
August 8, 2010

Valeska Gert rediscovered
September 17, 2010

A Beggars of Life revival
September 21, 2010

The Diary of a Lost Girl: A brief history of a banned book
September 25, 2010

Kevin Brownlow talks about archives and Louise Brooks
September 29, 2010

Who was Margarete Bohme?
September 30, 2010

Louise Brooks’ private journals to be revealed
October 2, 2010

Louise Brooks letters revealed in Dear Stinkpot
October 16, 2010

Rare documentary part of Louise Brooks celebration
October 27, 2010

Louise Brooks films celebrated in Paris
December 23, 2010

Beggars of Life, by Jim Tully, back in print
December 29, 2010

Louise Brooks & Bruz Fletcher: Camped, Tramped, Riotous Vamps
December 16, 2010

A Girl in Every Port set to screen at BFI in January
November 30, 2010

Remembering Richard Leacock
March 29, 2011

Louise Brooks film featured at Toronto Silent Film Festival
April 3, 2011

Remembering Theodore Roszak
July 9, 2011

New Lou Reed - Metallica album inspired by Lulu plays
September 22, 2011

Pandora's Box to screen in Dubai
November 20, 2011

Rolled Stockings screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas dies at age 111
January 7, 2012

Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life in New York
February 17, 2012

Louise Brooks' film debut screens in Syracuse
March 12, 2012

Pandora's Box in America - A Brief History
March 25, 2012

Louise Brooks stars in Montreal Film Series
May 21, 2012

Laura Moriarty talks about Louise Brooks and her new novel, The Chaperone
June 6, 2012

Rare screening of Louise Brooks film, Prix de Beauté
June 23, 2012

Sid Kay's Fellows - Music in Pandora's Box
July 5, 2012

Pandora's Box shows twice on July 14, in Chicago and San Francisco
July 11, 2012

Louise Brooks and The New Woman in Film
September 29, 2012

Louise Brooks film screens at Andy Warhol Museum
October 30, 2012

Louise Brooks and Downton Abbey
January 27, 2013

Louise Brooks stars in new music videos
May 19, 2013

Interview with British musician Stephen Horne
July 12, 2013

Beggars of Life with Louise Brooks in England and Italy
October 6, 2013

Louise Brooks, a magnet of meaning, more popular than ever
November 14, 2013

Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks shows in Seattle and Toronto
January 22, 2014

Nominate a Louise Brooks film for the National Film Registry
February 17, 2014

The 19th San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The 19th San Francisco Silent Film Festival
May 29–June 1, 2014
Castro Theatre, San Francisco
silentfilm.org

  True art transcends time.
 

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2014 – Live cinema takes the spotlight at the 19th San Francisco Silent Festival from May 29th through June 1st at the Castro Theatre. For information, please visit www.silentfilm.org.

From iconic silent film actors to fantastic restorations, the lineup for this year spans the globe to bring an outstanding mix of classic film from this golden age of movies – all accompanied by live music. Here are some highlights from this year’s stellar lineup:

OPENING NIGHT: THE FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE (USA, 1921)
The film that made Rudolph Valentino a star and brought director Rex Ingram to prominence, Four Horsemen is one of the greatest of the Great War chronicles. Valentino brought a new kind of leading man to the screen in the role of Julio Desnoyers: the Latin lover. Desnoyers is the favorite grandson of a wealthy Argentinean rancher, who spoils the boy. After his grandfather’s death, Julio moves to France, falls in love with a married woman (Alice Terry) and is finally shamed into joining the army. Based on the best-selling novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and adapted for screen by June Mathis, Four Horsemen was among the biggest box office hits of the silent era, premiering in March 1921 to great critical acclaim. The film was re-released in a shortened version in 1926, the year Valentino died, and was seen in that truncated form until Kevin Brownlow and David Gill undertook a restoration in the early 1990s. Brownlow and Gill returned the film to its original length with its original color tints, as well as restoring the famous tango to its scintillating splendor. SF Silent’s presentation commemorates the 100th anniversary of World War I, as well as the 25th anniversary of the accompanying ensemble—who started life as a Ragtime and Tango Orchestra. Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra (9:15 p.m., Thursday May 29) An opening night party will follow the screening at the top floor loft of the historic McRoskey Mattress Company Building (1687 Market Street in San Francisco) with party food by Bartavelle and Poesia.

CLOSING NIGHT: THE NAVIGATOR  (USA, 1924)
Cinema legend Buster Keaton stars and co-directs this brilliant comedy with Donald Crisp. As his fourth feature film, Keaton stars as a wealthy man who tries to win the heart of Kathryn McGuire only to end up adrift at sea. THE NAVIGATOR is a wonderful feat of filmmaking, complete with elaborate stunts and an amazing underwater sequence. The film was a critical success at the time and was one of Keaton’s favorites. Musical accompaniment by the Matti Bye Ensemble (9 p.m., Sunday June 1st)

SPECIAL EVENT: AMAZING TALES FROM THE ARCHIVES
The Silent Film Festival continues their AMAZING TALES FROM THE ARCHIVES program with a three behind-the-scenes presentations. The first presentation features Bryony Dixon, the British Film Institute’s Curator of Silent Film. Dixon will present early innovative nature films preserved by the BFI National Archive. Daniel Streible, Founder and Director of the Orphan Film Symposium, takes an in-depth look at the iconic snippet of film known as FRED OTT’S SNEEZE, which had been missing almost half of the frames shot in 1894. Finally, Craig Barron (Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor) and Ben Burtt (Academy Award-winning sound designer) explore the technical effects Charlie Chaplin used in his legendary films. From matte shots to sound effects to miniatures, Barron and Burtt’s presentation shows how Chaplin adapted new technology to his process via behind-the-scenes stills and film clips. The event is free. Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne on piano (10 a.m., Friday May 30)

COSMIC VOYAGE (USSR, 1936)
The Soviet Union was serious about its science fiction, bringing in rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky as a technical consultant on Cosmic Voyage. Tsiolkovsky designed miniatures for this big budget project that enjoyed the full backing of the Communist Youth League. A trip to the moon, what better way to inspire the youth of a nation! Set in 1946 (a mere 10 years away!), Cosmic Voyage portrays the Soviet space program fractured by warring factions—those who want to play it safe and those who are eager to go to the moon. Professor Sedikh (of the pro-moon-trip faction) is considered too old to lead the first manned moon flight, but he and his assistant Marina elude the naysayers and blast off on their mission, aided by a boy scout (Andryusha) and a fluffy Cat. Cosmic Voyage is a wonderful adventure with hilarious subplots and remarkably sound science. In fact, the film is visionary in its relevance to real-life developments in space exploration. Cosmic Voyage had a brief release in early 1936 before Soviet censors took it out of release. Scenes of cosmonauts hopping across the low-gravity lunar surface didn’t fit with their ideal of socialist realism. Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald and Frank Bockius, as Silent Movie Music Company (10 p.m., Friday May 30)

DRAGNET GIRL (Japan, 1933)
Best known for his gentle family comedies and dramas, Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu also made three silent gangster films. Dragnet Girl, the last and best of them, stars future Mizoguchi muse Kinuyo Tanaka as a typist by day, and gun-toting gangster’s moll by night. As her ex-boxer lover, Joji Oka matches her tough bravado. Ozu, a fan of American films, pays stylish homage to the genre, filling the frame with Hollywood-style décor and costumes, moody lighting and noir shadows. The sets and cinematography were reportedly influenced by the work of Joseph von Sternberg. Not typical Ozu, but a surprising, delightful anomaly. Musical accompaniment by Guenter Buchwald on piano (12 p.m., Sunday June 1)

THE GOOD BAD MAN (USA, 1916)
Douglas Fairbanks is producer, writer, and star of this silent western directed by Allan Dwan and photographed by Victor Fleming. Fairbanks stars as the character Passin’ Through, a Robin Hood-like bandit who robs from the rich to aid unwanted children. The film also stars Bessie Love and Pomeroy Cannon and was beautifully photographed in picturesque Tucson. THE GOOD BAD MAN was thought to be lost for many years, but materials were found and restored by the SFSFF’s Tracey Goessel and Rob Byrne for the World Premiere screening at the festival. Musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin on piano (10 a.m., Saturday May 31)

THE EPIC OF EVEREST (UK, 1924)
This extraordinary documentary is the official film record, shot by Captain John Noel, of the third British expedition to attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak. We begin with the large contingent of men, animals and equipment gathered to journey across the Tibetan Plateau towards Everest. En route the film records some of the earliest images of the Tibetan people and their culture and when the camera can go no further on the slopes of Everest, a specially designed telephoto lens records the final attempts of climbers Mallory and Irvine to reach the summit. Noel’s film served both as an absorbing documentary of an extraordinary journey into the interior of Tibet and as a memorial to a tragedy. The loss of Mallory and Irvine turned the failed expedition into one of the 20th century’s most compelling mysteries. Musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne on piano and Frank Bockius on Tibetan bells (2 p.m., Saturday May 31)

THE GIRL IN TAILS (Sweden, 1926)
A fizzy comedy that makes some serious feminist points, The Girl in Tails was directed by forgotten multi-hyphenate Swedish director Karin Swanström. The film is based on one of a series of novels satirizing small-town life by one of Sweden’s leading early 20th writers. Katja (Magda Holm) wants a new dress for her graduation dance, but her father won’t buy her one. So Katja dresses up in her brother’s tuxedo and attends the dance, smoking cigars, drinking brandy, and shocking the locals. Director Swanström gives herself a juicy role as a formidable dowager who is the town’s leading citizen. Today, Swanström is a footnote in film history, a studio talent scout who is sometimes credited with discovering Ingrid Bergman. But during the 1920s and ’30s, Swanström—a character actress, director and studio executive—was one of the most powerful people in the Swedish film industry. Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra (2:30 p.m., Sunday, June 1)

RAMONA (USA, 1928)
Edwin Carewe directed the 1928 version of what had by then proven a durable story, filmed twice previously (and at least once subsequently). Adapted from Helen Hunt Jackson’s hugely popular 1884 novel, RAMONA’s narrative is set in early California where powerful rancher Señora Moreno (Vera Lewis) is raising the mixed-race orphan Ramona (Dolores del Rio) along with her own son Felipe. Ramona falls in love with Alessandro (Warner Baxter), a Temecula Indian who works at the ranch. Defying Señora Moreno, Ramona elopes with Alessandro, and starts a new life embracing her Indian heritage. But her new family endures tragedy and persecution in an age that held little tolerance for Native Americans. Director Carewe, himself of Chickasaw descent (a very rare thing in Hollywood), represented a felicitous match for the material and a sensitive interpreter of the action. Also inspired was the choice of Dolores del Rio as the star of the 1928 version, being herself a proud Mexican actress who famously declined to be identified as “Spanish” during her career. Thought lost for many years, RAMONA was restored from a surviving print discovered in the Czech National Archive in 2010.
Musical accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra (7:30 p.m., Friday May 30)

Tickets Information, Festival Dates and Public Contact Numbers
The 19th San Francisco Silent Film Festival will take place May 29-June 1 at the historic Castro Theatre. For the complete lineup of films and to purchase tickets and festival passes, go to www.silentfilm.org. Festival passes are available for sale in person with no fee at McRoskey Mattress Company (1687 Market Street at Gough, SF).

For more information, visit the SFSFF website at www.silentfilm.org.

Cool pic of the day - Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks - fashion photo by Eugene Richee

New Natalie Merchant song about Louise Brooks

I've been a longtime fan of Natalie Merchant, both for her work as a solo artist and for her earlier recordings with 10,000 Maniacs. That's why I was thrilled to learn that today, May 6th, Nonesuch Records will release Natalie Merchant's sixth solo album. This self-titled and self produced collection of 10 new and original songs is her first offering in 13 years. And what's more, it features a song "about" Louise Brooks. The song is titled "Lulu."

Merchant describes her writing style as "empathetic." The songwriter may as well have been talking about Louise Brooks when she described her new album as one that reflects on "love gained and lost, regret, denial, surrender, greed, destructiveness, defeat, and occasional triumph." A recent biographical statement reads 

Her musical approach mirrors the interplay between her alternately inward and outward-looking lyrics. Deeply personal moments are juxtaposed with more overt social commentary, though the lines are often intriguingly blurred like on “Lulu,” a look at silent screen icon Louise Brooks. “By writing ‘Lulu’, I tried to compress her colossal life into a few verses of a song. She was such an intelligent, sensuous woman, and intuitive artist born years before her time. She was hedonistic and unapologetic, headstrong and impulsive. She rose to dizzy heights of international stardom and fell into a life of hand to mouth subsistence and seclusion only to be rediscovered and revived again before her death.

According to an May 5th article about Merchant in the Wall Street Journal, "She also found inspiration in the lives of other women—one track, "Lulu," was written after she read the 1982 memoir Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks, a dancer and early film star who made the bob haircut famous in the 1920s.

"She was born so far ahead of her time," Ms. Merchant said. "She was sensual and hedonistic and ended up alcoholic and living on the Lower East Side in a small apartment. Everyone remembers Charlie Chaplin, but she's been forgotten. I think it illustrates the temporal nature of fame."

According to earlier articles I've come across on the web, Merchant has played the song a few times in concert, and it has been well received. I've heard it online, and I like what I've heard. The song's lyrics includes a number of references to incidents in Brooks' life.

Merchant has announced a summer tour in support of her new album. Among the stops is the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 25. Noteably, Louise Brooks danced on the stage of that theater as a member of the Denishawn Dance company, on October 2, 1922 and March 12, 1923 and December 29, 1923 (two performances).

I hope to include "Lulu" and the instrumental track that proceeds it, "Lulu (an introduction)," on RadioLulu, once I've gotten my copy of Merchant's new album. More about Merchant and her music may be found on her website.

Italian television adaption of The Canary Murder Case

Here is La Canarina Assassinata, a Italian television adaption of The Canary Murder Case. The 1929 film version featured Louise Brooks as the Canary. This more recent adaption, from the 1970s, has a "Jazz Age" feel about it.

La Canarina Assassinata was shown in September 1974 on the Public Radio and Television Company (RAI1), together with two other Philo Vance films, La fine dei Green (The Greene Murder Case) and La morte del signor Benson (The Benson Murder Case). The films starred Giorgio Albertazzi, a famous Italian actor; both he and the Canary, blonde Virna Lisi, are still active today. Here is the Italian Wikipedia page for the series, and here is a page featuring the DVD release. Thanks to Gianluca for a heads up on this film.

Tiny Dynamite - Slicing the old Louise Brooks

Tiny Dynamite is an Italian electronic music group who have issued an EP called Slicing the old Louise Brooks. Haven't been able to find out much about them. Their four track EP,  released 15 August 2013, can be listened to or downloaded here.

01.Slicing the old Louise Brooks (Chainsaw Version) 02:27
   
02.Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (Pepi's Rolled Stockings Silent Version) 03:12

03.Pandora's Box (The Cleaner) 01:17
   
04.Slicing the old Louise Brooks (Minipimer Version) 01:39 

King of Gamblers - A round up of reviews

King of Gamblers was officially released on this day in 1937. The film is an underworld crime drama about the slot-machine racket and the crusading reporter who uncovers it. The film was sometimes referred to and was shown under the title Czar of the Slot Machines. [This 1937 film should not be confused with a later release, King of the Gamblers, from 1948.]

The film stars Claire Trevor (as nightclub singer Dixie Moore), Lloyd Nolan (as reporter Jim Adams), Akim Tamiroff (as gangster Steve Kalkas), Buster Crabbe (as Eddie), Helen Burgess (as Jackie Nolan), Evelyn Brent (as Cora), and Natalie Moorhead (as woman at table). Scenes with Louise Brooks playing the role of Joyce Beaton were cut, and it is not known if they still exist.

Though only a "B" picture from Paramount, King of Gamblers was given "A" treatment by noted director Robert Florey. The film was based on a story by Tiffany Thayer, who is best known today for his novel Call Her Savage, the basis for the 1932 Clara Bow film, as well as for being a founder of the founder of the Fortean Society. King of Gamblers was scripted by Doris Anderson with uncredited contributions by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

With its expressionist flourishes, King of Gamblers might be considered an early example of film noir (attention Eddie Muller). When first released, the film was both praised and condemned. Some noted its realism, while others thought it too violent. Here is a round up of magazine and newspaper reviews and articles drawn from the Louise Brooks Society archive.

Evelyn Brent and Louise Brooks pose for a
publicity photo for King of Gamblers

author unknown. Hollywood Reporter, April 13, 1937.
--- "This is an excellent crime melodrama on the program level that, without departing radically from established plot elements, progresses by so much fresh and believable episode and builds for such high suspense that it will win general approval."

author unknown. Box Office, April 24, 1937.
--- "Given the benefit of superior production, this film is meaty but highly entertaining fare."

author unknown. Motion Picture Review, May, 1937.
--- "Such a picture as this has no constructive social value."

anonymous. "Monitor Movie Guide." Christian Science Monitor, May 1, 1937.
--- "Sociological aspects of the theme are quite overshadowed by melodramatics which may prove too violent for the more sensitive."

author unknown. Philadelphia Exhibitor, May 1, 1937.
--- "Above average racketeer story, this is packed with fast action, suspense."

Southern California Council of Federated Church Women. Fox West Coast Bulletin, May 8, 1937.
--- "Not wholesome. Waste of time."

anonymous. "King of Gamblers Exciting Film On Screen At Allyn." Hartford Courant, May 21, 1937.
--- "Three personalities who until a short time ago were among the obscurities of filmdom but are now definitely headed for the peaks of stardom, appear in the principal roles in King of Gamblers, the exciting, at times startling and occasionally almost too brutally realistic. . . ."

author unknown. National Council of Jewish Women, May 25, 1937.
--- "Excellent direction of a well chosen cast adds materially to this interesting expose of 'slot machine' racketeers."

C(risler), B. R. "At the Criterion." New York Times, July 3, 1937.
--- "Unscrupulous editing and the conscienceless substitution of camera angles and mechanical dissolves for ideas and genuine suspense have made a superficially presentable melodrama out of King of Gamblers at the Criterion."

Lusk, Nobert. "Unheralded Film Lauded by Broadways." Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1937.
--- "An unpretentious picture that tops in interest and appeal those which arrive on Broadway with benefit of ballyhoo."

anonymous. "A Brisk Drama Of Gamesters Clicks at Met." Washington Post, July 31, 1937.
--- "The cold chills and icy thrills of King of Gamblers make the Metropolitan air-conditioning quite superfluous. If you are one for hard-boiled homicides mixed in with your entertainment, this show will give you a good time and a half."

author unknown. "King of Gamblers, by Thayer, Racket Expose, Is at the Capitol." Atlanta Constitution, August 1, 1937.
--- "Tiffany Thayer, one of America's outstanding writers on crime and rackets, comes through with another winner in King of Gamblers, a during story of the slot machine racket as it exists in many cities, which opens a week's engagement at the Capitol theater...."

How to kiss Louise Brooks . . . .

How to kiss Louise Brooks . . . . with musical accompaniment by Sixpence None the Richer.

May Day: Louise Brooks and the Daily Worker

Upon their release, the films of Louise Brooks were reviewed in all manner of publications, from fashion magazines in the United States to fascist newspapers in Europe. They were also noted in the pages of the Daily Worker, a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA.

Publication of the Daily Worker began in 1924. While it reflected the prevailing views of the Communist party, attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a broader spectrum of left-wing opinion. The Daily Worker covered the arts, and one-time poet Whittaker Chambers, Native Son novelist Richard Wright, and musician Woody Guthrie were all contributors at different times. At its peak, the newspaper achieved a circulation of 35,000.

Here are a couple citations for Louise Brooks' films from the pages of the Daily Worker. Surprisingly, the paper did not write-up Beggars of Life.

anonymous. "Screen Notes." Daily Worker, February 18, 1928.
--- brief write-up about A Girl in Every Port

Gaynor, Edward. "Tamiroff Displays Ability in King of Gamblers." Daily Worker, July 5, 1937.
--- film review in which Akim Tamiroff is noted as having studied acting in Moscow and Louise Brooks is listed as a member of the cast (despite the fact her role was cut)