Louise Brooks Society blog

Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown on Thursday November 6th at the York Theater Royal in York, England with live musical accompaniment by the one and only Dodge Brothers! This special event is part of the Aesthetica Film Festival. More information about this event can be found HERE.And here is a piece which appeared in the Ryedale Gazette & Herald. “Never has a film and a band been more perfectly matched than Beggars of Life andthe Dodge Brothers – deep dish Americana, rail-riding hoboes and Louise Brooks – they were made for each other.” – Bryony Dixon, […]

Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in at the Museum of the Moving Image on Saturday October 19th. This early afternoon screening is being shown as part of the MoMi's ongoing Silent, Please series.  More information about this screening, which will take place at the Redstone Theater and which will feature live musical accompaniment, can be found HERE.Diary of a Lost Girl + Book Signing with Daniel KehlmannSunday, Oct 19, 2025 at 1:00 p.m.Featuring live piano accompaniment by Makia Matsumura Here is what the venue had to say about this event: "Like American […]

The Louise Brooks Society is pleased to join in the celebration for Silent Movie Day, an annual day dedicated to celebrating and preserving silent movies!According to their must-visit website at silentmovieday.org, "Silent Movie Day is an annual celebration of silent movies, a vastly misunderstood and neglected cinematic art form. We believe that silent motion pictures are a vital, beautiful, and often powerful part of film history, and we are united with others in the goal to advocate for their presentation and preservation.This day provides an opportunity for academics, aficionados, […]

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at Film Society East in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 4 pm and 7 pm on September 29th. This special screening, sponsored by the Philadelphia Film Society, is part of the international Silent Movie Day celebration. More information about the two screenings can be found HERE.The event description reads:G. W. PABST | GERMANY | 1929 | 141 MIN | NR | SILENT W/ INTERTITLES  In honor of Silent Movie Day, PFS presents one of the greatest achievements of the silent film era from renowned German cinema master G. W. Pabst. The surprisingly modern […]

It seems as though the world can't get enough of Louise Brooks, as there are multiple screening of her films scheduled for the fall all across the United States and Europe. Here is one I just heard about.... It's the Old Army Game (1926), starring W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks, will be shown this Saturday, September 27th at Preservation Hall, 1274 Logan St. in Noblesville, Indiana. The showing of It's the Old Army Game will feature a live piano score by Roger Lippincott. And what's more, admission is free, and complimentary popcorn and beverages will be served! Doors open at 7 p.m., and […]

Beggars of Life is, in my opinion, Louise Brooks best American silent, and alongside Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, one of her very best films. If you would like to learn more about this William Wellman directed masterpiece, I would recommend my 2017 book Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film. This book, a publication of the Louise Brooks Society, is available on amazon.com and elsewhere on the internet.This first ever study of Beggars of Life looks at the film Oscar-winning director William Wellman thought his finest silent movie. Based on Jim Tully’s bestselling book of […]

I have a bunch of YouTube channels which I like, watch and subscribe to -- among them Sidetrack Adventures, which explores the highways and byways of the Southwestern United States, especially California. A couple of months ago, the channel posted a 25 minute video on the Jacumba Hot Springs near the United States - Mexico border. HERE is a link to that video, which is also embedded below.The video description reads: "Jacumba, California was once an extremely popular resort destination, attracting the rich and famous, but after the trains stopped coming and the freeway bypassed the town, […]

Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in 1928. Directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win an Academy Award), Beggars of Life is a terse drama about a girl (Louise Brooks) dressed as a boy who flees the law after killing her abusive stepfather. With the help of a young hobo, she rides the rails through a male dominated underworld in which danger is close at hand. Picture Play magazine described the film as “Sordid, grim and unpleasant,” adding, “it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the […]

Overland Stage Raiders, starring John Wayne, was released on this day in 1938. It was Louise Brooks' last film. In Overland Stage Raiders, the “Three Mesquiteers” (led by Wayne) fight bad guys in the modern-day west. The “stages” being raided are buses bearing gold shipments to the east. Airborne hijackers steal the gold, but the Mesquiteers defeat the crooks and then parachute to safety. The film stars John Wayne, who was then on the brink of stardom. Brooks plays his love interest.More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website filmography page. For […]