Beggars of Life (1928) - with Louise Brooks, film icon

Beggars of Life (1928) is quite remarkable for its vivid portrayal of hobo life in a pre-Depression America and for the opening sequence of Louise Brooks under attack from her guardian who tries to rape her.

After killing her treacherous caretaker, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, even stealing a car in their attempt to escape the police and reach Canada.

"Beggars of Life" presents a beautifully photographed portrait that is tough, gritty, realistic, while also a touching story that goes against the norm, especially in the context of 1920's cinema.

Louise Brooks is a film legend, and rightly so.
This film is regarded as Brooks's best American movie.

Part fairy tale, part picaresque, part documentary, "Beggars of Life" features actual hobos in bit parts and a story co-written by the hobo memoirist, Jim Tully, but its strongest points emerge from the strange cocktail of Brooks' mysterious femininity and the cocky masculine ego standard to Wellman's direction.

The film is based on "Outside Looking In", a stage play by Maxwell Anderson adapted from Jim Tully’s 1924 autobiographical book, "Beggars of Life". The play debuted September 7, 1925 at the Greenwich Village Theater. Among those who attended a performance was Charlie Chaplin, who was accompanied by Louise Brooks. Paramount purchased the rights to Tully's book and Anderson's play in early 1928.

"Beggars of Life" was released as both a silent and sound film in September 1928, the latter with added music, sound effects, and dialogue. The sound sequences, which included train noises and Beery singing a song, are now considered lost.
This was Paramount's first feature with spoken dialogue and the first time Beery's voice was recorded for a film, although Beery's spoken dialogue was limited. Today, only the silent version of "Beggars of Life" is known to survive.

Arlen and Brooks had appeared together the previous year in "Rolled Stockings", which is considered a lost film. Beery and Brooks had appeared together the previous year in "Now We're in the Air", which was considered a lost film, until 2016, when an incomplete copy was found in the Czech Republic.

The actress recounted her memories of working on the film in her essay, “On Location with Billy Wellman,” which is included in her 1982 book, "Lulu in Hollywood".

Stars: Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen
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"When Hollywood bored her, she walked out on Hollywood, ah,
when men bored her, she walked out on them." - Kenneth Tynan, one of the most famous theatrical critics of the 20th Century.

Louise Brooks, the stunning movie actress and tastemaker's presence in the ’20s & ’30s made women everywhere want to chop their hair as she created the bold and wildly popular “flapper girl” movement. Louise Brooks’ dark and exotic looks drew a throng of faithful followers that continues even to this day.

“A well dressed woman, even though her purse is painfully empty, can conquer the world.”
- Louise Brooks

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