Showing posts with label DVD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DVD. Show all posts

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Pandora’s Box (Limited Edition Box Set) starring Louise Brooks due out October 30

Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, is due out on October 30th. This limited edition box set, which is limited to 3000 copies, is a UK release, which means it may not play on American Blu-ray players, i.e. you would need a region free player. (I ordered mine as soon as it was released, and just received my copy. I plan on writing a review next month.) More information on this new release can be found HERE.


The trailer for this new release, shown below, can be found on VIMEO. Otherwise, here is some information from Eureka: 

In a role intended at one point for Marlene Dietrich (The Blue Angel), 22 year-old Louise Brooks (Diary of a Lost Girl), with her fragile beauty and iconic dark bob hairstyle, gives a performance decades ahead of its time and immortalised her as an icon. Largely condemned and censored upon its initial release for its daring treatment of sexuality and female desire, Brooks’ understated yet erotically charged performance, endures as among the most modern of the silent era.

Adapted from a pair of plays by Frank Wedekind, Pandora’s Box tells the story of prostitute Lulu, a free spirit whose open sexuality breeds chaos in its wake. When Lulu’s latest lover, the newspaper editor Dr. Ludwig Schon (Fritz Kortner, The Hands of Orlac), announces plans to leave her to marry a more respectable woman, Lulu is devastated. Cast in a musical revue written by Schon’s son, Alwa (Francis Lederer, The Return of Dracula), Lulu seduces Schon once more — only to have their tryst exposed, and Schon’s plans for a more socially acceptable marriage shattered. Left with no choice but to marry Lulu, Schon meets with tragedy on their wedding night. Lulu stands trial for the incident, facing years of imprisonment. With the aid of her former pimp (Carl Goetz, Tom Sawyer) an infatuated lesbian countess (Alice Roberts, The Merry Widower), and Alwa, she flees toward a fate of increasing squalor and peril, finally crossing paths one Christmas Eve with Jack the Ripper.

Reviled and bowdlerised at its debut, Pandora’s Box has since been recognised as one of the masterpieces of early German cinema. A sordid melodrama made with great style, it affirms G.W. Pabst as a daring and important director and Louise Brooks as one of cinema’s most exquisite and distinctive performers. The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present Pabst’s masterpiece in a new restoration on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Limited Edition Box Set - 3000 Copies
  • Limited Edition Hardcase featuring artwork by Tony Stella
  • Limited Edition 60-Page Book featuring new writing on the film by critics Alexandra Heller Nicholas, Imogen Sara Smith, and Richard Combs; alongside archival stills and imagery
  • 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a definitive 2K digital restoration
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Orchestral Score by Peer Raben
  • New audio commentary by critic Pamela Hutchinson
  • New visual appreciation by author and critic Kat Ellinger
  • New video essay by David Cairns
  • New video essay by Fiona Watson

One earlier Eureka release in their Masters of Cinema Series is their duel-format edition (DVD & Blu-ray) of Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen), which came out a few years ago. More information on it can be found HERE.

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saturday, August 5, 2023

The Canary Murder Case, co-starring Louise Brooks, coming on DVD

Coming this fall from Kino Lorber: the 1929 William Powell / Louise Brooks ' film, The Canary Murder Case, will be released on DVD by Kino Lorber Classics as part of a three-film Philo Vance Collection. I assume this is the sound version, not the silent version. Further details to come.


THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saturday, February 4, 2023

It's the Old Army Game gets another DVD release - films stars W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks

I just learned that It's the Old Army Game, the 1926 Louise Brooks film starring W.C. Fields, was released as a region 0 DVD-R by Alpha Video / Oldies.com in April of 2022. More info can be found HERE.

STOP: Before you investigate further, please note that Alpha Video is a budget label whose releases more often than not compare poorly with those from KINO Classics, Milestone, FlickerAlley and others labels which release silent or classic films. And that's likely the case here. KINO released the film in March 2018. It was mastered in 2k from 35mm film elements preserved by The Library of Congress, features Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, and includes an audio commentary by film historian James L. Neibaur, author of The W.C. Fields Films, as well as an organ score composed and performed by Ben Model. I own a copy of the KINO release, and its looks real good.


Admittedly, I haven't yet seen the Alpha Video release. (I just ordered it.) But, it's webpage contains no information about its source material or musical accompaniment, let alone any sort of bonus material like an audio commentary. Also, the product page contains a disclaimer which reads:

This product is made-on-demand by the manufacturer using DVD-R recordable media. Almost all DVD players can play DVD-Rs (except for some older models made before 2000) - please consult your owner's manual for formats compatible with your player. These DVD-Rs may not play on all computers or DVD player/recorders. To address this, the manufacturer recommends viewing this product on a DVD player that does not have recording capability.

I do own a handful of Alpha Video releases, mostly all obscure B-films otherwise unavailable elsewhere, like The Street of Forgotten Women (1927), an early exploitation film who borrowed its title from The Street of Forgotten Men.

Aside from any reputational shortcomings, the text on the back of the release contains a factual error. The last couple of sentences read, "Director Edward Sutherland and Louise must have hit it off, as the filmmaker has the privilege of being Brooks' one and only husband... though they only stayed married for a little less than two years. Oh, well." In actuality, Brooks was married twice. Her first husband was Eddie Sutherland. Her second husband was Deering Davis. That's sloppy work....

Once I receive it, I will watch, with a comparative eye, this Alpha Video release of It's the Old Army Game. If my expectations are exceeded, I post a revised assessment. In the mean time, I'm sticking with the KINO Classic release, which seems to be on-sale at a great price.


THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited.

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Louise Brooks film, Love Em and Leave Em, newly released on DVD

I haven't seen it, and can't vouch for what it may look like, but wanted to let everyone know that Oldies.com has recently released the 1926 Louise Brooks' film, Love Em and Leave Em. According to the Oldies.com website, "This product is made-on-demand by the manufacturer using DVD-R recordable media. Almost all DVD players can play DVD-Rs (except for some older models made before 2000) - please consult your owner's manual for formats compatible with your player. These DVD-Rs may not play on all computers or DVD player/recorders. To address this, the manufacturer recommends viewing this product on a DVD player that does not have recording capability." More information about this new release, which retails for only $7.98, may be found HERE

Here is the description by OLDIES.com: "On her deathbed, Mame Walsh's mother made her promise to always take care of her little sister, Janie. But Mame didn't expect her baby sister to grow up into a free spirited flapper with a cute little bob of jet-black hair and a set of killer gams! The sisters work together at Ginsburg's department store, where Mame puts her nose to the grindstone and Janie mostly flirts with the customers. After Mame sees Janie kissing the young stud she's sweet on, Bill Billingsley, she gives up and decides to adopt her sister's motto of "love 'em and leave 'em!" She impetuously starts a relationship with Lem Woodruff, a shady gambler and conman. She learns Janie has been gambling the store's money and owes quite a bit to this crook. When it looks like her sister could go to jail, Mame decides to risk all to get the money back from Woodruff and keep her little sister out of the hoosegow.

A charming silent comedy truly emblematic of the "Roaring Twenties", Love 'Em and Leave 'Em is best remembered as the star-making turn for 20-year-old former Ziegfeld Follies girl and Kansas City native Louise Brooks. In the following years she would make A Girl in Every Port (1928) and Beggars of Life (1928) for the same studio, but it was the films she made in Europe for director G.W. Pabst, Pandora's Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) that would lead cinephile Henri Langlois to proclaim, "There is no Garbo. There is no Dietrich. There is only Louise Brooks!" However, the star of Love 'Em and Leave 'Em is really Evelyn Brent, cast in the thankless role of Louise's overprotective older sister. The gorgeous, tough-as-nails actress had a long career in Hollywood, with standout roles including a gangster's moll in Underworld (1927) and a Russian spy in The Last Command (1928). Osgood Perkins was an accomplished stage actor (he originated the role of Walter Burns in The Front Page on Broadway) but had some memorable moments on the silver screen, including the original Scarface (1932) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936). He is best remembered today as the father of Psycho star Anthony Perkins."

DVD-R Details

    Run Time: 1 hours, 4 minutes
    Video: Black & White
    Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
    Released: January 18, 2022
    Originally Released: 1926
    Label: Alpha Video 


 More about Love Em and Leave Em can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page.

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Louise Brooks Society marks 25th anniversary

Earlier, at the beginning of this year, I was looking forward to this summer. I was looking forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Louise Brooks Society. But now, with all that has happened in 2020 — things I could not have imagined in January or February, I am resigned to merely marking the occasion. [The pandemic, and Trump's failure to help the nation get through it, has certainly sucked the air out of the room. Who feels like celebrating when one is only trying to get by....]

In the summer of 1995, I posted my first webpages about Louise Brooks and proclaimed the formation of a society dedicated to the silent film star. That was 25 years ago, at the beginning of the internet. The Louise Brooks Society was a pioneering website. It was the first site devoted to Brooks, one of the very first about silent film, and one of the earliest related to the movies. I am proud that I have kept it going to this day, making the LBS one of the older websites around.

Why did I do it? Since first becoming interested / fascinated / obsessed with Louise Brooks, I have always appreciated meeting others who shared my enthusiasm for this singular silent film star. Early on, I searched for some kind of fan club — but found none. Over time, it occurred to me that I might form my own group. The idea of starting the Louise Brooks Society coincided with my growing interest in computing. That was in the early to mid-1990s. And that’s when I realized there would be no better way of forming a fan club than over the internet. A fan club (in the traditional sense) would be a way to share information and “meet” other like-minded individuals. Thus, enabled by the world wide web, by email, by bulletin boards and listserves, and by all the mechanisms of the internet, the Louise Brooks Society was born.

The Louise Brooks Society website (which was just a few pages at first) was launched in the summer of 1995. Since then, the LBS has become one of the leading websites devoted to any film star — silent or sound. It has also received a fair amount of media attention. Just a year after I launched my website, In May of 1996, USA Today named the LBS a “Hot Site,” noting “Silent-film buffs can get a taste of how a fan club from yesteryear plays on the Web. The Louise Brooks Society site includes interviews, trivia and photos. It also draws an international audience.”


I remember how excited I was when I received an email from a fan telling me they noticed something about my website in the paper! That sent me to my local library library to get a look at a back issue of USA Today, and hopefully photocopy the mention. (The USA Today piece was syndicated to various newspapers, including Florida Today, which is pictured below. Thank you Sam Vincent Meddis, where ever you are.)


More press followed. In the summer of 1996, the LBS was named one of five best sites devoted to actresses in a UK computing magazine, Net Directory. In March of 1997, there was a passing mention of the LBS in another British publication, the Times Literary Supplement (TLS)! And in September of 1997, the society was profiled in the Noe Valley Voice, a neighborhood newspaper located in San Francisco, California, where I then lived. That profile, by Fontaine Roberson, was titled "Flapper Has 'Virtual' Fan Club in Noe Valley."

Something was in the air, and the following year, 1998, was a big year for both Louise Brooks and the Louise Brooks Society. That was the year Hugh Munro Neely directed Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, the Emmy nominated documentary which debuted on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in May. My Louise Brooks Society website helped "inspire" its production. That's according to an article in Wired by Steve Silberman. In his April 10th piece, "Fan Site Sparks Biopic," Silberman wrote, "TCM spokesman Justin Pettigrew says the level of interest in the Louise Brooks Society, the most in-depth Web site devoted to the once nearly forgotten star, convinced the network to go ahead with the documentary and a mini-festival of Brooks' work.... 'The Web presence for Louise Brooks was overwhelming. It was definitely a driving force in convincing the network to produce this documentary," Pettigrew went on to add.

Other pieces followed. In 1998, there were mentions of the Louise Brooks Society in an Italian magazine, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and in the Melbourne Age, a newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. I appeared on cable TV on the Louise Brooks episode of "E! Mysteries and Scandals," along with Roger Ebert, Hugh Hefner, Barry Paris and others. And there was a big write up, "Lovely Lulu Lives Again," in the San Francisco Chronicle which discussed the documentaty and my website. In 1999, when Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu aired in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post wrote "The voiceless Internet has been the perfect medium for reviving the image of one of the greatest icons of the silent movie era. Louise Brooks, with her trademark raven 'helmet' hair style, adorns many a Web site. The renewed interest in her, fueled by the cyberspace Louise Brooks Society, prompted Turner Classic Movies to fund the television profile Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (World, 10 pm)."

Over the next few years, other mentions and praise would follow in San Francisco Examiner and, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, as well as the Stuttgarter Zeitung and London Sunday Times. In 2002, the New York Times noted, "The Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com) is an excellent homage to the art of the silent film as well as one of its most luminous stars." And in 2005, when the Louise Brooks Society was turning ten years old, Leonard Maltin wrote "Not many sites of any kind can claim to be celebrating a tenth anniversary online, but that’s true of the Louise Brooks Society, devoted to the life and times of the magnetic silent-film star and latter-day memoirist. Thomas Gladysz has assembled a formidable amount of material on the actress and her era; there’s not only a lot to read and enjoy, but there’s a gift shop and even a 'Radio Lulu' function that allows you to listen to music of the 1920s. Wow!"

The Louise Brooks Society has come along way since then — since those early days.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

New G.W. Pabst DVD Blu-ray set features Louise Brooks

A new 16 disc set featuring the films of the Austrian-born German director G.W. Pabst has been released in France. And what's more, this gorgeous looking box set features Louise Brooks on the cover.
The set, released by Tamasa Diffusion and titled G.W. Pabst-Le Mystère d'une Âme, features 12 of the acclaimed director's best films, including Joyless Street (1925) and The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927) as well as The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929), The Three Penny Opera (1931), and Kameradschaft (1931). And of course, there is also Pandora's Box (1929) and The Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). The set, which runs 1289 minutes, focuses on Pabst's early efforts, but regrettably omits Secrets of a Soul (1926). Likewise, it includes Don Quixote (1933), but omits L'Atlantide (1932).

The set proclaims: "witnesses of his mastery of staging and his permanent inventiveness." The more than three and one-half hours of bonus material scattered over the various discs includes short documentary presentations, alternative versions, archival material and more. A bonus disc includes the 60 minute documentary Looking for Lulu. Also included is a 132 page book, Imaginary correspondence with Georg Wilhelm Pabst, written by Pierre Eisenreich.

I haven't yet seen this recently released set, but hope to acquire a copy soon. I need to save up my Euros! As of now, G.W. Pabst-Le Mystère d'une Âme seems only to be available via amazon France or directly (and at a better price) from its distributor, Tamasa.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Louise Brooks as Lulu to make Blu-ray debut

BIG news. Pandora's Box, Louise Brooks' greatest screen triumph, is set to debut on Blu-ray next month. The acclaimed 1929 film starring Louise Brooks as Lulu will be released in Germany on November 15 (the day after LB's birthday) by Atlas Film GmbH. The 2 disc set -- described as a "limited mediabook" -- can be found on amazon's German site and as of now nowhere else. NOTE: this is a region B / 2 DVD/ Blu-ray release, and it may not play on all DVD/ Blu-ray players. This list price is given as 21,99 Euros. The link to the amazon.de page for this new release can be found HERE.

Earlier Atlas Film media book releases are well regarded. Visit this Atlas Film page for more information on this new release HERE.

This Atlas Film media book marks the 90th anniversary of the film. This copy of Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box is the restored 2009 George Eastman House collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française, the Cineteca Bologna, the Gosfilmofond of Russia, the Narodni Filmovy Archive Prague and the Deutsche Kinemathek. Pandora's Box is accompanied by Peer Rabens' 1997 Kurt Weill-inflected score, stylishly performed by the Kontraste Ensemble. The film's run time is given as 109 minutes, with the total run time of each disc including bonus material at 133 minutes. The cover of the Mediabook is based on the original 1929 premiere poster.



According to the amazon.de page, the release includes the short documentary The Shadow of My Father: Michael Pabst on G. W. Pabst's The Pandora's Box; an extensive booklet with historical documents and information on the history of the film; and three postcards with different vintage posters for the film. IMHO, it looks good.
This is great news, and about time! Hopefully, this German release will spur Criterion or some other American company to also release the film on Blu-ray AND with lots of bonus materials!


Today, coincidentally, I was working on the Pandora's Box chapter of my forthcoming book, Around the World with Louise Brooks, which in part, details the little known history of the film in Cuba, Indonesia, Japan, Poland and elsewhere. This Atlas Film release adds the story....


Saturday, July 27, 2019

Update on The Chaperone, the Louise Brooks inspired bio-pic

There is still no word on when The Chaperone will be shown on television. The Louise Brooks-inspired bio-pic played in theaters earlier this year in limited release. And to the book's and Brooks' many fans, the film came and went all too quickly. The expectation is that the PBS Masterpiece produced film will be shown on PBS in the United States this Fall.

The film is based on the book by Laura Moriarty: "Amid the backdrop of the tumultuous times of the early 1920's, the life of a Kansas woman (Elizabeth McGovern) is forever changed when she chaperones a beautiful and talented 15-year-old dancer named Louise Brooks (Haley Lu Richardson) to New York for the summer. One of them is eager to fulfill her destiny of dance and movie stardom; the other hopes to unearth the mysteries of her past."

This update is being posted because today I noticed the film is being released on DVD in Australia. This region 4 release hit store shelves on August 14th on the Universal Sony Pictures Entertainment label. Curiously, The Chaperone and Australia seem to have a special relationship. Star Elizabeth McGovern made a special appearance in Sydney to debut the film at the city's historic art deco theater, The Ritz. Why Australia debuted the film before other countries like England, and why Australia has the film's first DVD release is something of a mystery.


Earlier this year, back in March, the film's official soundtrack was released in the United States. This Sony Classical release features music by Marcelo Zarvos, The Sundown Stompers, The Hot Pennies, and others, including the great Vince Giordano And The Nighthawks. Those interested can stream, download, or purchase copies on amazon.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

It's the Old Army Game announced for release on DVD / Blu-ray

It's the Old Army Game, the delightful 1926 comedy starring W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks, has been announced for release on DVD / Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

The film was directed by A. Edward Sutherland, who was known as Eddie Sutherland. Brooks and Sutherland met during the making of the film (which was in production during February 1926). They were married in June, 1926 and divorced a couple of years a later.

From Kino: "It’s the Old Army Game (1926) is an uproarious silent comedy in which the inimitable W.C. Fields finds it impossible to get some sleep. It was the fourth film in which Fields appeared, but the first over which he had some control, as it was adapted from his own stage play. Co-starring Louise Brooks (also in her fourth feature), and directed with verve by A. Edward Sutherland, It’s the Old Army Game is a non-stop comedy of errors. Fields plays Elmer Prettywillie, a druggist kept awake by clamorous garbage collectors, a nosy woman seeking a 2-cent stamp, bogus land deals, and phony fortunes."


DVD Extras Include:

Mastered in 2K from 35mm film elements preserved by The Library of Congress
Audio commentary by film historian James L. Neibaur, author of THE W.C. FIELDS FILMS
New score by Ben Model

Some Trivia from the Louise Brooks Society:

It’s the Old Army Game was originally announced as starring Fields and future “It girl” Clara Bow, but as she was shooting Mantrap (1926),  the female lead fell to Brooks. Clarence Badger was originally assigned to directed the film.

The film features the popular stage actress Blanche Ring (1871 – 1961) in one of her few film appearances. Ring was Eddie Sutherland’s aunt. Ring’s sister was Frances Ring, who was married to Thomas Meighan, a popular stage and film actor who appeared with Brooks in The City Gone Wild (1927). Blanche Ring was married four times, the last time being to Charles Winninger, a popular character actor who appeared in God’s Gift to Women (1931) with Brooks.

Outdoor scenes in Palm Beach, Florida were shot at El Mirasol, the estate of multi-millionaire investment banker Edward T. Stotesbury. In 1912, after having been a widower for thirty-some years, Stotesbury remarried and became the stepfather of three children including Henrietta Louise Cromwell Brooks (known simply as Louise Brooks), an American socialite and the first wife of the war hero General Douglas MacArthur. In her heyday, she was “considered one of Washington’s most beautiful and attractive young women”. Because of their names, the two women were sometimes confused in the press.

It’s the Old Army Game received mostly positive reviews, though some critics noted its rather thin plot. Algonquin Round Table playwright Robert E. Sherwood (who would go on to win four Pulitzer Prizes and an Academy Award) was then writing reviews for Life magazine. His pithy critique read, “Mr. Fields has to carry the entire production on his shoulders, with some slight assistance from the sparkling Louise Brooks.”


Tuesday, January 9, 2018

A few Louise Brooks related announcements

Here are a few Louise Brooks related announcements:

Pandora's Box, the sensational 1929 film starring Louise Brooks, is set to screen in Chicago, Illinois on April 3, 2018. The movie will be accompanied by Jay Warren, Chicago's foremost pipe organ expert, on the classically restored 3/16 Marr Colton / Geneva Arcada organ.

The film will be shown at the Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St. in St. Charles, as part of its continuing  "Silent Film Night" series featuring silent film classics.

More information about the event can be found HERE.


===========================

Recently, I wrote a new page on the Louise Brooks Society website (www.pandorasbox.com) which I invite everyone to read and explore.

The page, under the "Dancer & Show Girl" menu, is sub-menued  "Denishawn" (and titled "Louise Brooks and Denishawn"); it pertains to the period in Brooks' life when she was a member of the Denishawn Dance Company.

There is some new information there, as well as some pictures which I think will please.


===========================

And here is some news we've been waiting for.....


Kino Lorber is bringing A. Edward Sutherland's It's the Old Army Game starring W.C. Fields, Louise Brooks, Blanche Ring, William Gaxton, and Mary Foy to Blu-ray on March 13. The disc will feature a new 2k master Supplements will include:


- Audio commentary by film historian James L. Neibaur, author of The W.C. Fields Films
- New score by Ben Model

Plot Synopsis: Elmer Prettywillie, the village druggist, is awakened by a woman who needs a 2-cent stamp in the middle of the night. Seeking again a state of somnolence, Prettywillie must contend with the clamorous collectors of garbage, and with those of his own castle who have caught forty winks and then some. The letter-carrying lady, in trying to post her missive, manages to summon the city's fire department to the pharmacy where, unable to find a fire, they sit and sip sodas while Prettywillie panders to their every want. When they leave, a bit of a blaze does erupt, but Prettywillie is forced to his own resources. Meanwhile, George Parker is smitten with Elmer's buxom assistant and uses the storefront to promote a bogus land deal. The Prettywillie fortune is thus inflated, enabling the purchase of a flivver, but Elmer ends up wrecking a Florida estate and finally the flivver, foiling the schemers and delighting the denizens of the town, whose jubilation Elmer takes for an acute case of distemper. He jails himself for safekeeping. Also starring Louise Brooks, Blanche Ring, William Gaxton, and Mary Foy.


Likewise, the label will also release Gregory La Cava's Running Wild starring W.C. Fields, Marie Shotwell, Mary Brian, Claude Buchanan, and Frederick Burton on March 13 as well. The disc will feature a new 2k master Supplements will include:

- Audio commentary by film historian James L. Neibaur, author of The W.C. Fields Films
- New score by Donald Sosin

Friday, September 15, 2017

Help Make Beggars of Life a Success - Here's How to show your Love for Louise Brooks

Want to see more Louise Brooks films released in the future? Here are two ways you can help.

1) Purchase a copy of the new Beggars of Life DVD / Blu-ray from either Kino Lorber or Amazon. Both usually offer a discount. The more copies that sell, the more encouragement companies like Kino Lorber will have to release other Louise Brooks films in the future. Wouldn't you like to see a restoration of Love Em or Leave Em on DVD? How about both the silent and sound versions of The Canary Murder Case? Or the out-of-print The Show-Off? Or Louise Brooks first film, The Street of Forgotten Men? Come on, let's do this!  

Beggars of Life is also available through Barnes and Noble (B&N), Target, Walmart, your local video store, etc.... It ain't hard to find!

2) If you can't afford a new DVD, why not recommend that your local public library purchase a copy. I did, and they put 5 copies of the DVD on order for the library system. Many public libraries have a button or link on their home page where patrons can suggest a new title for purchase. It doesn't hurt to try! And heck, if you know a librarian or visit your local library why not make a suggestion in person. And while you are at it, thank them for the valuable work they do. Libraries are supported by your tax dollars. So why not "spend" your tax dollars on something that will entertain and inspire. It's a great why to share your love of Louise Brooks.

3) And while your at it, why not recommend your local library purchase a copy of my new book, Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film. A few libraries around the country have already purchased it, including the Bates College Library in Lewiston, Maine and the SEO Automation Consortium in Caldwell, Ohio.

I have done my part, and have donated a handful of copies to certain key libraries including those in Jim Tully's hometowns (St. Marys, Ohio and Kent, Ohio ) and Louise Brooks' hometown (Wichita, Kansas), as well as my new hometown, Sacramento, California. I also sent a copy to two places where Brooks used to hang out, the Rochester Public Library and the George Eastman Museum (both in Rochester, New York). I also sent a copy to Hollywood: and I felt like I had been given an Oscar when I received a thank you note in return on official stationary from the library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Of course, you can always purchase a copy of my book, which is available through amazon.com, B&N.com, or through your local independent bookstore. The book retails for a mere $10.00. Though some wacky New Hampshire booksellers are charging as much as $88.63. Email me directly to order an autographed copy. Every purchase or recommendation counts.

Back in the year 2000, the biography of Louise Brooks by Barry Paris had fallen out of print. The Louise Brooks Society started an on-line petition drive to bring it back. And it succeeded. The University of Minnesota Press reprinted both the Barry Paris biography and Brooks' own Lulu in Hollywood with great success. At one point, the press told me that those two books were among their best sellers. Both remain in print to this day. And both contain an acknowledgement for what were all of our combined efforts! Isn't that cool!


So come on, let's do this! Don't complain you can't see more of Louise Brooks films' (or any silent or pre-code film for that matter) unless you are willing to somehow support those who are making the effort to get them into circulation and into the history books!

Here is something I will always cherish. It is an inscription Barry Paris wrote in my old beat-up copy of his biography of Louise Brooks. The occasion was an event I put on with the author (we are pictured below) at the time the book was republished.




Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Beggars of Life, starring Louise Brooks, releases today on DVD

Something we have all been waiting for . . . . Beggars of Life, the sensational William Wellman directed film starring Louise Brooks, releases today on DVD / Blu-ray through Kino Lorber.

An American silent film classic, Beggars of Life (1928) stars Louise Brooks as a train-hopping hobo who dresses like a boy to survive. After escaping her violent stepfather, Nancy (Brooks) befriends kindly drifter Jim (Richard Arlen). They ride the rails together until a fateful encounter with the blustery Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery) and his rambunctious band of hoboes, leading to daring, desperate conflict on top of a moving train. Based on the memoir of real-life hobo Jim Tully, and directed with adventuresome verve by William Wellman (The Ox-Bow Incident), Beggars of Life is an essential American original.

Special Features: Digitally restored from 35mm film elements preserved by the George Eastman Museum | Audio commentary by actor William Wellman, Jr. | Audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, founding director of the Louise Brooks Society | Booklet essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton | Musical score compiled and performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, employing selections from the original 1928 Paramount cue-sheet

The film is available directly from Kino Lorber, as well as through amazon.com, B&N and other outlets.

But wait, that's not all. . . .  Also out is Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, by Thomas Gladysz.

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 hobo life—and filmed by Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar), Beggars of Life is a riveting drama about an orphan girl (screen legend Louise Brooks) who kills her abusive stepfather and flees the law. She meets a boy tramp (leading man Richard Arlen), and together they ride the rails through a dangerous hobo underground ruled over by Oklahoma Red (future Oscar winner Wallace Beery). Beggars of Life showcases Brooks in her best American silent—a film the Cleveland Plain Dealer described as “a raw, sometimes bleeding slice of life.”

With 15,000 words of text, more than 50 little seen images, and a foreword by actor William Wellman, Jr., son of the legendary director. The book is available directly from the author, as well as through amazon.com, B&N and select independent bookstores.

"I can say (with head bowed modestly) that I know more about the career of director William A. Wellman than pretty much anybody anywhere -- always excepting my friend and co-author John Gallagher -- but there are things in Thomas Gladysz's new book on Wellman's Beggars of Life that I didn't know. More important, the writing is so good and the research so deep that even when I was reading about facts that were familiar to me, I was enjoying myself hugely." -- Frank Thompson, co-author of Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman

"Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film is a quick, satisfying read, illustrated with promotional material, posters and stills as well as press clippings. In these pages, Gladysz takes us through the making and the reception of the film and clears up a few mysteries too.... Beggars of Life is a fascinating movie, made by some of the silent film industry's most colourful characters. This highly readable book will deepen your enjoyment and understanding of a silent Hollywood classic." -- Pamela Hutchinson, Silent London

"I cannot help but give this an enthusiastic two thumbs up. It really is the perfect companion, before or after you have seen the film. The volume might be slim, but, it is packed with information and rare photographs. It has been impeccably researched and beautifully executed.... This is a thorough examination of the film from start to finish and written in a breezy style that is not only informative, it is a very entertaining read." -- Donna Hill, Strictly Vintage Hollywood

Monday, July 31, 2017

Kino Lorber announces release of 1928 Louise Brooks film Beggars of Life

Kino Lorber
Kino Classics Releases William A. Wellman's Beggars of Life
Starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks

Available on Blu-ray and DVD August 22nd
Digitally Restored from 35mm Film Elements Preserved by the George Eastman Museum With Special Features including Audio Commentaries by William Wellman Jr. and Thomas Gladysz, Founding Director of the Louise Brooks Society


"Exciting and brilliantly parsed action scenes." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
New York, NY -- July 27, 2017 -- Kino Classics is proud to announce the Blu-ray and DVD release of Beggars of Life, the 1928 American silent film classic directed by William A. Wellman (Wings, A Star is Born, The Ox-Bow Incident) and starring Wallace Beery (The Champ), Richard Arlen (Wings), and silent screen icon Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box). 

This exciting drama, following the adventures of a band of hobos riding the rails, was inspired by the adventures of writer Jim Tully, who spent years on the road traveling across the country on boxcars and railways as a real-life hobo, and who wrote about these experiences in his 1924 autobiography, also called Beggars of Life.

Beggars of Life will become available on Blu-ray and DVD August 22nd, with a SRP of $29.95 for the Blu-ray and $19.95 for the DVD. 



This edition from Kino Classics is digitally restored from 35mm archival film elements preserved by the George Eastman Museum, and features a musical score compiled and performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, employing selections from the original 1928 Paramount music cue-sheet.

Special features include audio commentaries by actor William Wellman, Jr., and Thomas Gladysz, founding director of the Louise Brooks Society and author of Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, and a booklet essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton. The Blu-ray and DVD also include reversible cover art.

An American silent film classic, Beggars of Life (1928) stars Louise Brooks as a train-hopping hobo who dresses like a boy to survive. After escaping her violent stepfather, Nancy (Brooks) befriends kindly drifter Jim (Richard Arlen). They ride the rails together until a fateful encounter with the blustery Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery) and his rambunctious band of hobos, leading to daring, desperate conflict on top of a moving train. Based on the memoir of real-life hobo Jim Tully, and directed with adventuresome verve by William Wellman (The Ox-Bow Incident), Beggars of Life is an essential American original.


Beggars of Life (1928)
Director: William A. Wellman
Written by Benjamin Glazer and Jim Tully
Starring Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen, Louise Brooks

Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: August 22, 2017
Blu-ray SRP: $29.95
DVD SRP: $19.95

Special Features:
Audio commentary by actor William Wellman, Jr.
Audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, founding director of the Louise Brooks Society
Booklet essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton
Musical score compiled and performed by The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, employing selections from the original 1928 Paramount cue-sheet

Still images courtesy of the Louise Brooks Society

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Marion Davies Kickstarter for Beauty's Worth

I adore Marion Davies. Don't you? I must admit, Show People is one of my favorite silent films (along with each of Louise Brooks' silent films, of course).

Here is another worthwhile Kickstarter project: to buy, edit, and score the 1922 Marion Davies' film, Beauty's Worth, and get it back into circulation. I have contributed to past campaigns for reviving rare Davies films, and would like to encourage everyone to do so. And, knowing how much Brooks loved watching old films and appreciated knowing Davies ever so long ago, I think she would have donated to this project. Don't you?

This project is to fund the purchase of a 35MM print of Beauty's Worth (1922) from the Library of Congress, edit the film, and add a professional music score. The film is in the public domain and is one of hundreds of silent films preserved in archives or in private collections, unseen by the vast majority of film buffs and historians. More information HERE.




Wednesday, November 4, 2015

More great reviews for the KINO Lorber Diary of a Lost Girl starring Louise Brooks

More good reviews for the new KINO Lorber DVD & Blu-ray of Diary of a Lost Girl continue to trickle in. Yesterday, Stephen Schaefer wrote in the Boston Herald:


"Among the silent cinema’s style icons the sole rival to Greta Garbo is America’s Louise Brooks who never attained the stature of the glum Swede but whose remarkable memoir, the 1982 LULU IN HOLLYWOOD, single handedly revived her reputation and insured her position for posterity.  A Kansas born dancer/actress Brooks is known for epitomizing the Roaring Twenties flapper with her distinctive bobbed haircut.  She is revered for the two 1929 films she made in Europe for G. W. Pabst, PANDORA’s BOX about the femme fatale Lulu who destroys every man who comes into sphere until she is murdered by Jack the Ripper and DIARY OFA LOST GIRL (Blu-ray, Kino Classics, unrated).  DIARY has Brooks a lost soul, seduced, disowned, imprisoned in a “home” for wayward women and ending up in a swank brothel.  In this masterful restoration, from archival 35 mm elements, DIARY benefits from an incisive commentary by the director of the Louise Brooks Society Thomas Gladysz.  There is also, strangely and surprisingly and happily enough, an 18-minute sound short Brooks made in 1931, WINDY RILEY GOES HOLLYWOOD.   Brooks was 78 when she died in 1985, three short years after her book was published."


While the day before that, Amy Longsdorf, wrote in the (Cherry Hill, NJ) Courier-Post:

"Diary of a Lost Girl (1929, Kino, unrated, $30) After “Pandora’s Box,” director G.W. Pabst and actress Louise Brooks teamed up for one of the most stunning melodramas of the silent era. Beautifully restored to its original running time, the Berlin-shot film follows a naive pharmacist’s daughter as she is seduced and abandoned by her father’s assistant. Placed in a horrific home for wayward girls, she escapes only to wind up in a brothel. Way ahead of its time, “Diary” tackles provocative themes of sexuality and exploitation while providing  Brooks with a role that helped defined her career."

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Louise Brooks film Diary of a Lost Girl out on Blu-ray

Today, KINO releases Diary of a Lost Girl on Blu-ray and DVD ! Be sure and order your copy.


"The second and final collaboration of actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box), DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is a provocative adaptation of Margarethe Böhme's notorious novel, in which the naive daughter of a middle class pharmacist is seduced by her father's assistant, only to be disowned and sent to a repressive home for wayward girls. She escapes, searches for her child, and ends up in a high-class brothel, only to turn the tables on the society which had abused her. It's another tour-de-force performance by Brooks, whom silent film historian Kevin Brownlow calls an 'actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history'."

Special Features: Mastered in HD from archival 35mm elements, and digitally restored; Audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, Director, Louise Brooks Society; and includes the short Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931, 18 Min., featuring Louise Brooks).
  • Actors: Louise Brooks, Josef Rovenský, Fritz Rasp
  • Directors: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
  • Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC, Subtitled
  • Language: German
  • Subtitles: English
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: Kino Lorber
  • Run Time: 112 minutes


Sunday, September 20, 2015

Louise Brooks' Diary of a Lost Girl on Blu-ray one month from today

One month from today, KINO will release Diary of a Lost Girl on Blu-ray and DVD! Be sure and pre-order your copy today. Here are some details.


"The second and final collaboration of actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box), DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is a provocative adaptation of Margarethe Böhme's notorious novel, in which the naive daughter of a middle class pharmacist is seduced by her father's assistant, only to be disowned and sent to a repressive home for wayward girls. She escapes, searches for her child, and ends up in a high-class brothel, only to turn the tables on the society which had abused her. It's another tour-de-force performance by Brooks, whom silent film historian Kevin Brownlow calls an 'actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history'."

Special Features: Mastered in HD from archival 35mm elements, and digitally restored; Audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, Director, Louise Brooks Society; includes the short Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931, 18 Min., featuring Louise Brooks).
  • Actors: Louise Brooks, Fritz Rasp, Valeska Gert
  • Directors: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
  • Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC, Subtitled
  • Language: German
  • Subtitles: English
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: Kino Lorber
  • DVD Release Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2015
  • Run Time: 112 minutes

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Louise Brooks film Diary of a Lost Girl coming on Blu-ray

I am pleased to let everyone know that KINO will be releasing the 1929 Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, on Blu-ray in the Fall. And that this new release will feature audio commentary by yours truly, Thomas Gladysz. 

Below is a sneak peak at the cover art. The print on the Blu-ray is the Murnau Stiftung restoration (the best we are likely to ever get). My commentary will reveal a number of previously unknown bits about the cast and film - like the fact that the actor who plays the elder Count Osdorff was a friend of James Joyce and had a role in the original stage production of Pandora's Box alongside author Frank Wedekind! And then there is the Cabinet of Doctor Caligari connection....

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