Spotlight: Louise Brooks
Brooks was a Ziegfeld dancer Paramount used as decoration, then a face Hawks and Wellman could not quite place. Pabst saw A Girl in Every Port and brought her to Berlin. Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl are the films that made the rest look like assignments. She did not signal vice. She looked at people as if they had already decided. The Hollywood pictures are useful as a record of what the studio thought she was for. Miss Europe is the last silent she made in Europe, a typist watching her own image in a projection room. She left the business before thirty. The stills outlived the contracts.
8 films
From the Reading Room
- VIDEO
Looking For Lulu - Documentary on Louise Brooks
1998 documentary about the life of Louise Brooks, created by Hugh Munro Neely. Narrated by Shirley MacLaine and featuring numerous interviews with friends and relatives of the legendary star, it also contains excerpts from many of her films including her first on-screen appearance.
Hugh Munro Neely
—
The Show Off
1926 · Malcolm St. Clair
Less than a year in Hollywood, a supporting part in a play about a man who cannot stop performing. Brooks does the opposite. She stands still and the camera keeps going back to check, which is the whole Brooks problem for a studio that wanted decoration.
It's the Old Army Game
1926 · A. Edward Sutherland
W.C. Fields, a Florida land scheme, and Brooks as the girl next door, the part Paramount kept handing her. A revue uses a face the same way. Watch the close-ups they gave her by accident. The record of what the studio thought she was for starts here.
A Girl in Every Port
1928 · Howard Hawks
Hawks, two sailors, and Brooks as the one who breaks the pattern. A small part, and the one Pabst saw before he sent for her. The ports are interchangeable. Watch her in the tank act. The whole Berlin career starts in that look.
Beggars of Life
1928 · William A. Wellman
Her first real American part: a killing, boy's clothes, and the freights with Richard Arlen. Wellman shot outdoors and Beery runs the hobo jungle. Brooks does the disguise without winking. Watch her in the boxcar. It is the Pabst face, a year early.
Pandora's Box
1929 · G.W. Pabst
Lulu. She does not signal vice. She looks at people as if they had already decided, and the film follows the damage. Pabst brought her from Hollywood for this and it made the rest look like assignments. A revue, a wedding, a trial, a ship, London in the fog.
The Canary Murder Case
1929 · Frank Tuttle, Malcolm St. Clair
The punishment. She was in Berlin and would not come back to record lines, so Margaret Livingston spoke them and doubled some shots from behind. Trade papers noticed. Watch the silent cut. That is the last time Paramount had her face, and they used it to make a point.
Diary of a Lost Girl
1929 · G.W. Pabst
Thymian, passed from a pharmacist's house to a reformatory to a brothel, each one sure it is helping. Brooks does very little, and that is the performance. Same year as Lulu, colder weather. Watch her at the reformatory table when the gong starts.
Miss Europe
1930 · Augusto Genina
The last silent she made in Europe: a typist wins a contest, and the prize is a contract and a jealous man. Maté photographed it. The ending is Brooks in a projection room watching her own image, which is how the rest of the century met her. She left the business before thirty.