Jump to content

Beggars of Life

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beggars of Life
1928 lobby card
Directed byWilliam A. Wellman
Written byJim Tully (autobiography)
Maxwell Anderson (play)
Benjamin Glazer (screenplay)
Produced byJesse L. Lasky
Adolph Zukor
StarringWallace Beery
Louise Brooks
Richard Arlen
CinematographyHenry W. Gerrard
Edited byAlyson Shaffer
Music byKarl Hajos
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • September 22, 1928 (1928-09-22)
Running time
74 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSound (Part-Talkie)
English Intertitles

Beggars of Life is a 1928 American part-talkie sound film that was directed by William Wellman. Although the film featured sequences with audible dialogue, the majority of the film had a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The film was released on both sound-on-disc and sound-on-film formats. Currently circulating are mute prints from the sound-on-disc version. The majority of the sound discs (except for the first reel) are believed to be lost.

The film starred Wallace Beery and Richard Arlen as hobos, and Louise Brooks as a young woman who dresses as a young man and flees the law. The latter actress recounted her memories of working on the film in her essay, “On Location with Billy Wellman,” which is included in her 1982 book, Lulu in Hollywood.[1] The film is regarded as Brooks's best American movie.[2]

Plot

[edit]

Fleeing from the horror of her home life, Nancy (Louise Brooks), an orphan raised by a brutal foster father, kills the man in a moment of panic and self-defense. She is soon discovered by Jim (Richard Arlen), a young drifter and hobo, who stumbles upon the scene. Though initially reluctant, Jim agrees to help Nancy escape, and she disguises herself in boy’s clothes to pass unnoticed.

Their flight leads them onto a freight train, but they are thrown off by a brakeman. Injured and hungry—Nancy suffering a twisted ankle—the pair finds refuge in a hobo encampment where two dominant figures, Arkansaw Snake (Robert Perry) and Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery), are locked in a power struggle for control of the vagabond group.

Arkansaw Snake quickly suspects Nancy’s true gender, but Jim forestalls any attempt to harm her by publicly displaying a police handbill with her photograph, warning the others she is wanted and must not be touched. Tension erupts in the camp as Snake tries to assert authority, but Oklahoma Red, rough and commanding, overrides Snake’s orders and takes control, allowing the pair to remain.

Before conflict can escalate further, a police raid breaks up the camp, and the hoboes scatter. Jim, Nancy, and several others—including Black Mose (Blue Washington), a gentle giant, and Lame Hoppy (Roscoe Karns), a sickly tramp—manage to board another train and continue their journey.

While on board, Oklahoma Red tries to dispose of Jim, seeing him as a rival, but Nancy cleverly intervenes and turns the tables, sparking a fight between Red and Snake. In the melee, Jim seizes Red’s revolver and holds him off. Again, police break up the group, scattering the hoboes.

Now isolated, Jim, Nancy, Black Mose, and the ailing tramp take refuge in a remote shack. Red reappears, unexpectedly bearing women’s clothing and an automobile, offering Nancy a real chance at escape. Jim and Nancy flee together in the car.

Back at the shack, the sick tramp dies. In a final act of redemption, Red places Nancy’s discarded garments on the corpse, hides the body in a lumber car, and sets it aflame—staging the scene so that the police will believe Nancy has perished in the fire. The ruse works: when detectives arrive, they assume Nancy is dead.

Having saved the couple, Red dies—either killed by pursuing lawmen or in a final act of sacrifice.

As the story ends, Nancy and Jim ride atop a moving Pullman car, headed toward Canada and freedom. Having survived among the "beggars of life," they have found love—and a fragile but hopeful peace.

Cast

[edit]
Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks

Music

[edit]

The film features a theme song entitled "Beggars of Life" which was composed by J. Keirn Brennan and Karl Hajos.

Overview

[edit]
Beggars of Life (1928)

Beggars of Life was released as a sound film with a few talking sequences in September 1928. The majority of the film featured synchronized music and sound effects. The sound discs (with the exception of the first reel), which included recordings of train noises and of Beery singing a song, are now considered lost. This was Paramount's first feature with spoken dialogue and the first time Beery's voice was recorded for a film, although Beery's spoken dialogue was limited. Today, only the mute print version of Beggars of Life is known to survive.[3][4]

The film is based on Outside Looking In, a stage play by Maxwell Anderson adapted from Jim Tully’s 1924 autobiographical book, Beggars of Life. The play debuted September 7, 1925 at the Greenwich Village Theater. Among those who attended a performance was Charlie Chaplin, who was accompanied by Louise Brooks. Paramount purchased the rights to Tully's book and Anderson's play in early 1928.[5]

Arlen and Brooks had appeared together the previous year in Rolled Stockings, which is considered a lost film. Beery and Brooks had appeared together the previous year in Now We're in the Air, which was considered a lost film until 2016 when an incomplete copy was found in Czech Republic.[6][7]

In 2017, the best surviving copy of Beggars of Life was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. Commentaries on the Kino release are by William Wellman Jr. and Thomas Gladysz.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Louise Brooks. Lulu in Hollywood, Knopf 1982.
  2. ^ Thomas Gladysz. Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, PandorasBox Press, 2017.
  3. ^ Thomas Gladysz. Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film, PandorasBox Press, 2017.
  4. ^ The Library of Congress/FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:Beggars of Life
  5. ^ Barry Paris. Louise Brooks, Knopf, 1989.
  6. ^ Long Missing Louise Brooks Film Found on Huffington Post
  7. ^ Outside Looking In, the Broadway play upon which Beggars of Life is based, was staged at the Greenwich Village Theatre and 39th Street Theatre Sept.7, 1925-Dec 1925; IBDb.com

Sources

[edit]
  • Brooks, Louise (1982). Lulu in Hollywood. Knopf. ISBN 0394-520718.
  • Gladysz, Thomas (2017). Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film. PandorasBox Press. ISBN 978-0692879535.
  • Paris, Barry (1989). Louise Brooks. Knopf. ISBN 0394-559231.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beggars_of_Life&oldid=1304576188"