There are a few reasons why Just Another Blonde may be Louise Brooks’ least known silent film. Certainly, the most significant reason is the fact that about half of the film is considered “lost,” which implies it is thought to no longer exist. It was either scrapped by the studio, disintegrated over time, was misplaced and forgotten, or … who knows? Today, all that remains is about 30 minutes of footage, fragments of various lengths from five of the film’s six reels.
Just Another Blonde was released in the United States in December of 1926, and according to exhibition records pieced together by the Louise Brooks Society, it was last shown in Brazil in 1930. Since that time, the film has been absent from the screen — and likewise absent from the attention of critics, reviewers, and film historians for nearly 100 years. Compounding this unfortunate history is the fact that Just Another Blonde wasn’t all that well reviewed back in the Twenties, and, as well, it was released by First National, a second tier studio compared to Paramount, through whom all but two of Brooks’ American silents were released. When it comes to the number of screenings a film might have, to the publicity and promotional campaigns a film and its actors might enjoy, etc…, Paramount was a juggernaut. First National less so. Consequently, Just Another Blonde has the smaller footprint when it comes to the historical record.
Nevertheless, Just Another Blonde is a deserving film. There are points of interest to it aside from its two still remembered stars, Dorothy MacKaill and Louise Brooks; there is also the exceptional cinematography of Arthur Edson, and the historically interesting location work shot in Coney Island. Having the smallest footprint among Brooks’ silent American films also suggests it is the one silent film we know the least about. This page on the Louise Brooks Society website brings together bits and pieces from the historical record. All together, they help shine a light on this otherwise little known, but still deserving film. [I hope to add to this page on an ongoing basis.]
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Most newspaper advertisements borrowed text and graphics from studio supplied materials, which are known as a press kit. These ads, like the one in the middle from Fresno, California, typically showed Dorothy MacKaill and carried studio tag-lines about the film, such as “The Live-Wire Romance of the Year.” The ads to the left and right stand-out as they are unique. The ad to the left seems to have been both hand-drawn and hand-lettered. Additionally, it carries the local tag-line “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – and all Mansfield Will Adore This One.” It’s cute, and resembles a crudely drawn comic. In the boldly decorative piece on the right, Just Another Blonde shares both ad space and the stage with Gene Dennis, “The Kansas Wonder Girl.” For those not familiar, Gene Dennis was a popular psychic performer in the 1920s and 1930s who toured the country with her “act.” Famous in her day, the name “Wonder Girl” was said to have been given her by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She was also known as “the girl who amazed Einstein”. Additionally, this is the only advertisement for a Louise Brooks film in which the film shared the bill not with a musical group or vaudeville act, but with a clairvoyant.
BTW: a couple of New York City advertisements showing the film promoted under the title The Girl from Coney Island can be found on the Louise Brooks Society page, Just Another Blonde – location shooting.
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Majestic Theater – Jan. 1927 Mansfield, Ohio |
Kinema Theater – Jan. 1927 Fresno, California |
Liberty Theater – Feb. 1927 Portland, Oregon |
Here is another rather unusual advertisement. It comes a June, 1927 issue of the Baltimore Afro-American, a newspaper serving the Afro-American community. While the use of a decorative swastika border may give pause, what caught my attention in the Just Another Blonde ad was its allusion to another then recently released Louise Brooks film, Love Em and Leave Em — especially considering the fact that the two December releases came from different studios. The text reads “GIRLS — If you go riding and you don’t Love ‘Em, You Can Leave ‘Em — BUT if you were in an aeroplane WHAT WOULD YOU DO? This story gives the answer and YOU’LL BE SURPRISED!” It is also worth noting that Just Another Blonde is described as a “Seven Act” or seven reel film. Despite the fact that Just Another Blonde is know to have been a six reel film, this advertisement claiming it is seven reels is not the only to do so. Might there have been different versions of the film in circulation?
And here is one of my favorite pieces, a near full page puff piece (in the form of images and text) of the film. It comes from the Town Crier, the Sunday Magazine Section of the Wichita Beacon, Louise Brooks hometown newspaper. Notably, two of the images depict scenes not found in the surviving footage. The middle image on the left shows Buster Collier’s character (on the right) disarming Lucien Prival’s character, who is wielding a knife. (Footage depicting moments before this incident can be seen in the film’s surviving trailer.) Jack Mulhall’s character, who is sporting a bowler hat, looks on. The other still not found in the surviving footage is at the bottom right. It depicts Collier and Mulhall’s characters in what appears to be a bank.
The caption in bold beneath the group of film stills reads “Louise Brooks is getting to be a screen favorite and from now on Wichita fans can expect to see her often. In Just Another Blonde the honors are divided four ways, being shared by Louise, Dorothy Mackaill, William Collier Jr., and Jack Mulhall. It is a very clever picture with unusually breezy titles by George Marion Jr.”
Otherwise, the piece which takes up most of the page relates to Just Another Blonde. It is, no doubt, drawn from publicity materials provided by the studio, First National.
Jimmy O’Connor was some hustler. He sold Tuesday morning newspapers on Wednesday night and gave change in Canadian coins!
That gives you an idea of the amusing characters in Just Another Blonde, the fast-moving, wise-cracking comedy which opens at the Miller Thursday, with Dorothy Mackaill and Jack Mulhall featured and William Collier, Jr., and Louise Brooks heading the supporting cast.
This sophisticated little yarn of a pair of Bowery gamblers and their Coney island sweethearts has the same fresh, humorous sparkle that made Classified, Subway Sadie and Bluebeard’s Seven Wives such sensational successes.
If you saw those three films hits, you don’t need to look to know that the same man that directed them gets credit for the smoothness of this newest First National Film Picture.
Santell directed
Alfred Santell is fast becoming one of the screen’s most finished directors and Dorothy Mackaill, who really steals this picture, though the rest of the cast are exceedingly good, has pushed very close to stardom under the sympathetic tuition of this master of the megaphone.
Just Another Blonde tells the tale of the gamblers, pledged to a “Fifty-Fifty, “Even-Stephen” comradeship through life.
If you read the late Gerald Beaumont’s story, “Even Stephen,” in the Red Book you’ll know what a wealth of material the players have to work with in this modern Damon and Pythias partnership.
But in case you didn’t read the story, let us give you a hint — and only a hint — of the plot. There is such suspense, such a lot of action and romance in the plot, it would be a shame to spoil it, by giving it all away.
Coney Island Shown
The pair drift to Coney Island and there set up a gambling joint. Just as they are sworn to life-long friendship, so are the two girls, one a dance hall hostess, and the other a shooting gallery attendant, whom they meet.
Now “Kid” Scotty, played by William Collier, decides that having a pal is pretty fine but having a wife would be better and the “sure shot” Annie Oakley, played by Louise Brooks, agrees.
But Jimmy O’Connor (Jack Mulhall) was “off” women. So the “Kid” cements their friendship by making it a “quadruple alliance” in a modern version of “The Courtship of Miles Standish” with Jeanne Cavanaugh on “Speak for Yourself, John” end.
All four of the featured players give the best performance of their young lives in this peppy tale.
Just Another Blonde is more fun than a trip to New York! Better make it!
For more about Just Another Blonde, please visit the Just Another Blonde (filmography page) here on the Louise Brooks Society webpage. There, you will find links to other pages on the film.