The moving finger writes: and, having writ, moves on
updating the spreadsheet of what could be, what is and what has now been seen…
With apologies to Omar Khayyam
Patience is a virtue even if so often it is throttled by
hope but, no ifs or maybes, this release is all the Christmas we need for 2026
and is nailed-on as my home media of the year with mind-boggling restorations
and contributions from some of my favourite silent people. This blog began with
the purchase of a Pandora’s Box DVD in an old shop in Park Street, Bristol – an
acquisition which, literally opened a Brook’s Box of fascination about an
actress and a medium that led to what is now 16 years of reading, watching and
writing.
There are well over a million words on here, this being
the 1050th post, covering well over a thousand films but it all
began with Lulu and my subsequent search for all things Brooks including a
spreadsheet of the films she made, which ones were available on home media,
what else survived and what was lost. A lot of this was based on Barry Parris’
biography of Brooks and then the fabulous Louise Brooks Society website run by
Thomas Gladysz – a living archive now in its fourth decade. Then there was the
Silent London blog run by Pamela Hutchinson which listed screenings of Brooks’
films and opened up the world of silent film screenings and live accompaniment
which is where I found Stephen Horne (also one of my wife’s oldest friends, coincidence
or just Silent Magic at work?).
I never expected to see any of the four films featured in
this set over the ensuing years but gradually the list of the lost has been
reduced, at least to varying degrees. This brilliant new release fills in what
there is of four films including Brooks’ first two and features music from Mr
Horne, a visual essay from Ms Hutchinson and commentary, plus commentary from
Mr Gladysz and others. These people who have been with me on this Lulu of a
journey, all contributing to this celebration of what we now have and it is
very much a glass overflowing at half full nowhere near half empty.
So, I really do thank you three as well as Flicker Alley and San Francisco Film Preserve for this set, which really does show how Brooks’ career got started, how remarkably composed she was even from the off and how she could steel scenes from the best of ‘em.
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| LB with John Harrington |
The Street of Forgotten Men (1925) with Stephen
Horne accompaniment
Herbert Brenon's off-beat melodrama has been fully
restored with the odd gap being covered by new intertitles. It’s a very
watchable and quirky film that centres around an unlikely community of
professional beggars in New York City’s Bowery, some with hearts of gold,
others less so. Our hero among these men and women is Easy Money Charlie (Percy
Marmont who I’ll always root for after Manhunt with Torrence and Bow…) who uses
his natural charm to make a lot of money from a phoney missing arm. In a
sure-fire signifier of his good character, he has a dog, (played by Lassie, who
had played a similar role in Tol'able David (1921) and more) who is
killed by the jealous and less skilled Bridgeport White-Eye (John Harrington)
who can fake blindness but fails to see the need for compassion.
A dying woman
entrusts her daughter Mary to Charlie’s care and he takes this responsibility
seriously, begging a small fortune to make sure she never sees his day job as
he buys them a nice house in the country and pays her way through private
school. You wonder what else he could do if he really put his mind to it
because, Buddy, he can easily share a dime. In time Mary grows up to be played
by Mary Brian who, in turn develops a relationship with a well-to-do young
attorney called Philip Peyton (Neil Hamilton, still four decades away from answering
the Batphone as Commissioner Gordon in Gotham City… one of my favourite
silents-to-talkies facts).
You’d think that after twenty years of highly-successful
grifting, someone would have noticed the source of Charlie’s wealth and indeed
someone has and it is, of course, our fake blind man who is seen in the beggars
bar with a young moll at his table – it’s Louise and she radiates instant
impact in her few moments on screen, instantly assured even at the age of 18 by
which time she’d burned through the modern dance aesthetic of the Denishawn
Company and vaudeville, dancing in the 1925 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies at
the Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street. She’s recognisably the woman who would be
Lulu but at this point she’s all potential with a curious hint of rebellious
diffidence that you can’t quite pin down.
Easy Money fights White Eye for trying to blackmail
Mary’s beau and she roots for her man with ferocity before it transpires that
he does indeed have an eye condition; one too many blows and he may lose his
sight for real. It’s a scrappy ending to a film that infuses its beggars with
enough real life to make you care.
Stephen Hornes' accompaniment carries a hint of contemporary poverty songs but is his own creation as usual. He has such an affinity for Brooks - and, well, all silent film to be fair - but he illuminates her brief appearance with a lyrical statement that connects us to the broader Louise-verse; complex and mysterious, always stylish and self-assured!
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| Brooksie in colour and not much else. |
The American Venus (1926) with Wayne Barker
accompaniment
Brooks’ second film appearance was partially in colour
and it’s both a shame and a relief that just a fragment survives of our hero in
all her tonal glory. This half-minute segment exists in a BFI 35mm celluloid
and is stunning; the only glimpse we ever get of Brooks in her Hollywood pomp
but she was more than enough in black and white.
Directed by Frank Tuttle, the film stars Esther Ralston, former
Keystone Cop Ford Sterling (who would also feature with Brooks in The Show
Off (1926) which is extant and on DVD) there’s also Lawrence Gray, Miss
America Fay Lanphier, and young Douglas Fairbanks Jr as Triton to Ernest
Torrence’s King Neptune (now that I’d like to see!). Ralston plays Mary Gray, the
daughter of a beauty cream manufacturer (William B. Mack) who enters a national
beauty contest to save her father’s business from falling into the power of a
rival manufacturer, Hugo Niles (Sterling). Just to add extra complication Mary
is engaged to his son Niles (Kenneth MacKenna).
Louise Brooks is very believably Miss Bayport and there’s
enough on show to again see her screen presence even amongst the competition. What
survives are three trailers with differing content and two short extracts both
involving Sterling trying to hide a swimming costume-clad Brooksie from his
wife and the colour clip which may well have made it to the final film. Maybe
one day more will be found but until then these spectacular snippets will leave
much to the imagination…
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| Brooks, William Collier Jr. and Dorothy Macaill |
Just Another Blonde (1926) with Wayne Barker
accompaniment
As the commentary from Kathy Rose O’Regan explains, 35mm
nitrate elements of this film were found in the Czech Film Archive but, with
the best will in the World, damage seeps in over the decades, especially to the
end of each reel, which is more exposed. This means that what was a film well
over an hour is left at some 32 minutes with the damage between the changes in
reels and gaps in the narrative such as a spectacular plane crash near the end.
That said this is perfectly watchable and makes narrative
sense as two pals, Jimmy O'Connor (Jack Mulhall) and Kid Scotty (William
Collier Jr.) try to romance Jeanne “Blondie” Cavanaugh (Dorothy Mackaill, from
Kingston upon Hull!) and Diana “Blackie” O'Sullivan (Brooksie) in and around
Coney Island – the film was originally called The Girl from Coney Island
in fact. There are some lovely scenes in Luna Park which appear to have been
shot in the middle of the night with extras*. Of course, Coney Island is quite
familiar from its appearance in many silent films including The Crowd,
Lonesome, It and others and, much like in Maurice Elvey’s Hindle Wakes
(filmed in Blackpool) it pays tribute to the working-class playground. Director
Alfred Santell even attached a camera to one of the roller coasters much as
Elvey did on The Big Dipper in 1928, that’s still in place although I don’t
think Coney Island has retained much of its old fun fair?
The story is boys meet girls and Brooksie shows she is
able to play against type as the bookish Blackie who, in between being a
shooting gallery attendant, is seen reading Blondes Have More Fun. Well, as
Jean Harlow asked in Red-Headed Woman… “do they?” Unlikely in LB’s case… The
critics were critical and the audiences forgetful – in terms of remembering to
see the film**, but it’s fun and I’m sure brought many memories for New Yorkers
and the weekend denizens of “The Playground of the World”
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| Hatton, Brooks and Beery - no one else is looking up. |
Now we’re in the Air (1927), with Stephen Horne
accompaniment
“History isn't always about quality and Now We're in the Air proves that all too well. We are grateful for this sunshine glimpse of Brooks' extraordinary presence and yes, that probably is "code" but, you know what I and Henri Langlois mean...”
Me, after the restoration screening in Pordenone in 2017.
If these segments of Now We're in the Air didn't
exist we'd still fantasise about the rediscovery of a beautiful moment of
Louise Brooks that was lost. We have just over twenty minutes (a third of the
full running time?) to make sense of a comedy featuring Wallace Beery and
Raymond Hatton – one of a number of successful movies they made as Wally and
Ray in the same vein such as Behind the Front and We're in the Navy
Now from 1926. Brooks plays twin sisters, Grisette beloved of Wally and French,
the other Griselle, Ray’s choice and a German.
As Thomas says in the commentary it was probably Brooks’
most commercially successful film and she shines brightly out in those glimpses
we have, a twenty-year-old novice taking another care-less but convincing step
to stardom. Now we’re in the Air showed that Brooks had genuine
watchability and radiance especially alongside Mr Beery who she would later
appear with in Beggars of Life.
As Pamela says, these early films are the foundation of
Brooks’ career and her subsequent status. It’s not the quantity but the uncanny
quality of their star makes them very special indeed: the biggest comeback kid
in movie history, not in terms of box office but in her enduring influence and
actual star power.
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| That limited-edition spot gloss slipcover... |
There are a number of additional features to bear in mind if you are still considering whether to buy… although I can’t think of why you anyone would need further persuasion.
Restoration Demo – This includes a detailed
description of the restorations along with an explanation of the restorers’ art
and terms of reference: the aim being to preserve the original elements as they
should be.
Audio Commentaries – Hand on heart these are some of the most Informative audio commentaries including Brooks-ologist par excellence Pamela Hutchinson on The Street of Forgotten Men, then with author and film historian Thomas Gladysz and Kathy Rose O’Regan on Just Another Blonde, and with Gladysz and Robert Byrne on The American Venus and Now We’re in the Air. It’s interesting to hear both Gladysz vast subject knowledge mixed with the expertise of the restorers.
Looking at Lulu - this extended featurette from
film historian Pamela Hutchinson is one of the best visual essays I’ve watched
and reveals so much about the context of these films and their importance in
Brooks’ career trajectory. Content enriching expertise!
Image Galleries - Featuring production stills and
promotional material
Booklet Insert - With an essay by Thomas Gladysz
and restoration notes by Robert Byrne
English closed captioning for the deaf and hard of
hearing, as well as subtitle tracks in English, Spanish, French, and German
Blu-ray Authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity in
Motion
It has All Region Encoding (A, B, C) so you can play it
anywhere in the World!
There’s also a limited-edition spot gloss slipcover which
is only available at the Flicker Alley website and select indie retailers SO,
for the full set head over to their website now to order: I guarantee you will
be enthralled and more in love with silent film than ever before – I shall
personally underwrite this promise!
To recap, this is a collection of the extremely
unlikely, made exceptionally watchable with the most expert and caring of
restorations. It is not everything that might have been but… in this World, it
is enough and we should be very grateful!
That’s not to say that I wouldn’t want a volume two
Blu-ray set covering say restored versions of Love ‘em and Leave ‘em, A
Girl in Every Port and Beggars of Life but… one step at a time!
Additional reading… collect them ALL!
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| Thomas Gladwysz on Brooksie and two of the above films. |
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| Two of PH's works on two of my top ten films... more to come! |
*More details of locations on Thomas Gladysz’ LouisBrooks Society website!
** Also quoted on the LBS site: Eileen Creelman reviewing
for the New York American. She referred to the “fifth-rate story” but
did admit there were “a couple of amusing characterisations”.
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