Barely over 20, actress Louise Brooks was becoming the talk of Hollywood. Breaking into movies in 1925, she was a hot commodity when she was offered contracts from two studios, MGM and Paramount Pictures. She opted for Paramount. In her second film for the studio, Brooks was disguised as a boy escaping the law in September 1928's "Beggars of Life."
During the production of the William Wellman directed film, Brooks dated George Preston Marshall, the owner of a chain of laundromats and soon-to-be owner of NFL's Boston Braves. The actress considered herself as a liberated woman, and had dalliances with several famous men, including Charlie Chaplin. In the early weeks of filming, she apparently had a one-night stand with a stuntman, who falsely told his colleagues the next day the actress had vd. Brooks had just finalized her divorce from her first husband, Eddie Sutherland. Her co-star in "Beggars of Life" was Richard Arlen, a close friend of Sutherland. When the actor heard about her liaison with the stuntman, he treated her rudely. In addition, she was ordered by Wellman, director of the Academy's "Outstanding Picture" 1927's "Wings," to climb on moving trains, which, she claims, nearly killed her on a few occasions. Brooks wrote in her memoir, "I knew Billy (Wellman) was a phony brave man and consequently a woman-beater - all cowards revenge themselves on women - just by feel, especially when my butt hit the pavement." In short, she was getting pretty sick of Hollywood.
Sometimes adversity creates the best performances in actors and actresses. Film historians find her role in "Beggars of Life" the best performance of her American movies. Quinn Martin of the New York World wrote, "Here we have Louise Brooks, that handsome brunette, playing the part of a fugitive from justice, and playing as if she meant it, and with a certain impressive authority and manner. This is the best acting this remarkable young woman has done." Her part was especially grueling since she was the only woman amongst a group of extras, some actual homeless, who were unemployed hobos, recruited by the studio. Based on a 1925 Maxwell Anderson play from Jim Tully's 1924 novel 'Beggars of Life,' the movie version opens with Arlen playing Jim the hobo, who discovers Brooks, as Nancy, has killed her abusive foster father. The two hop trains in an attempt to escape to Canada, but they end up with a group of hobos. They soon find out she has a bounty on her head for murder.
Brooks made one more Hollywood film before checking out of the United States on the advice of her boyfriend Marshall to take up an offer by German director G. W. Pabst.
During the production of the William Wellman directed film, Brooks dated George Preston Marshall, the owner of a chain of laundromats and soon-to-be owner of NFL's Boston Braves. The actress considered herself as a liberated woman, and had dalliances with several famous men, including Charlie Chaplin. In the early weeks of filming, she apparently had a one-night stand with a stuntman, who falsely told his colleagues the next day the actress had vd. Brooks had just finalized her divorce from her first husband, Eddie Sutherland. Her co-star in "Beggars of Life" was Richard Arlen, a close friend of Sutherland. When the actor heard about her liaison with the stuntman, he treated her rudely. In addition, she was ordered by Wellman, director of the Academy's "Outstanding Picture" 1927's "Wings," to climb on moving trains, which, she claims, nearly killed her on a few occasions. Brooks wrote in her memoir, "I knew Billy (Wellman) was a phony brave man and consequently a woman-beater - all cowards revenge themselves on women - just by feel, especially when my butt hit the pavement." In short, she was getting pretty sick of Hollywood.
Sometimes adversity creates the best performances in actors and actresses. Film historians find her role in "Beggars of Life" the best performance of her American movies. Quinn Martin of the New York World wrote, "Here we have Louise Brooks, that handsome brunette, playing the part of a fugitive from justice, and playing as if she meant it, and with a certain impressive authority and manner. This is the best acting this remarkable young woman has done." Her part was especially grueling since she was the only woman amongst a group of extras, some actual homeless, who were unemployed hobos, recruited by the studio. Based on a 1925 Maxwell Anderson play from Jim Tully's 1924 novel 'Beggars of Life,' the movie version opens with Arlen playing Jim the hobo, who discovers Brooks, as Nancy, has killed her abusive foster father. The two hop trains in an attempt to escape to Canada, but they end up with a group of hobos. They soon find out she has a bounty on her head for murder.
Brooks made one more Hollywood film before checking out of the United States on the advice of her boyfriend Marshall to take up an offer by German director G. W. Pabst.