splash  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 usual movie.”

Beggars of Life is based on the 1924 novelistic memoir of the same name by Jim Tully, a celebrated “hobo author” highly regarded by H.L. Mencken and other literati of the time. Though shot as a silent and released in that format, Beggars of Life has the distinction of being Paramount’s first sound film: a synchronized musical score, sound effects, a few lines of dialogue and a song were added to some prints at the time of the film’s release. Advertisements for the film boasted “Come hear Wallace Beery sing!” The gravel-voiced character actor and future Oscar winner plays Oklahoma Red, a tough hobo with a soft heart. Richard Arlen, who the year before had starred in Wings, plays a vagabond and Brooks’ romantic interest.

In 1928, Beggars of Life was named one of the six best films for October by the Chicago Tribune; it also made the honor roll for best films of the year in an annual poll conducted by Film Daily. Musical Courier called Beggars of Life ” . . . one of the most entertaining films of the littered season.” And Photoplay thought it “good entertainment.” Nevertheless, it is not especially well known today, and its grim story set among the desperate and the downtrodden drew mixed reviews upon release. One Baltimore newspaper said it would have limited appeal, quipping, “Tully tale not a flapper fetcher for the daytime trade.”

Louella Parsons, writing in the Los Angeles Examiner, echoed the sentiment when she stated, “I was a little disappointed in Louise Brooks. She is so much more the modern flapper type, the Ziegfeld Follies girl, who wears clothes and is always gay and flippant. This girl is somber, worried to distraction and in no comedy mood. Miss Brooks is infinitely better when she has her lighter moments.” Her cross-town colleague, Harrison Carroll, added to the drumbeat of disdain when he wrote in the Los Angeles Evening Herald, “Considered from a moral standpoint, Beggars of Life is questionable, for it throws the glamour of adventure over tramp life and is occupied with building sympathy for an escaping murderess. As entertainment, however, it has tenseness and rugged earthy humor.”

Critics in New York were also divided on the merits of Beggars of Life, and many of them instead focused on Brooks’ unconventional, cross-dressing appearance. In the New York Times, Mordaunt Hall noted, “Louise Brooks figures as Nancy. She is seen for the greater part of this subject in male attire, having decided to wear these clothes to avoid being apprehended. Miss Brooks really acts well, better than she has in most of her other pictures.” The New York Morning Telegraph stated, “Louise Brooks, in a complete departure from the pert flapper that it has been her wont to portray, here definitely places herself on the map as a fine actress. Her characterizations, drawn with the utmost simplicity, is genuinely affecting.” While 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.”

Also getting attention for their role in Beggars of Life was Edgar “Blue” Washington. The Afro-American newspaper wrote, “In Beggars of Life, Edgar Blue Washington, race star, was signed by Paramount for what is regarded as the most important Negro screen role of the year, that of Big Mose. The part is that of a sympathetic character, hardly less important to the epic of tramp life than those of Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen, who head the cast.”

Girls dressed as boys, pastoral life gone wrong, the mingling of races, desperation depicted among the glitz and glamour of the twenties — there is a lot happening in Beggars of Life. It is, arguably, Brooks’ best American silent. [ Click below to listen to a vintage recording of the theme song to the film. ]


RELATED MATERIAL:

  • Promotional Materials
  • Posters & Lobby Cards
  • Scene & Publicity Stills

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STORY SYNOPSIS:
“Nancy lives in mortal fear of her foster father and, when he attacks her, she kills him in a moment of panic. The murder is discovered by Jim, a young hobo, who helps her to escape. Nancy dresses in men’s rough clothes, and she and Jim hop a freight; thrown off by the brakeman, they take refuge in a hobo camp, the leadership of which is bitterly contested between Arkansas Snake and Oklahoma Red. The encampment is broken up by detectives, and Jim and Nancy take refuge with Mose and a seriously ill tramp in an abandoned shack. Red unexpectedly shows up with a stolen car and women’s clothing for Nancy, helping her and Jim to escape in the car. The sick tramp dies, and Red, dressing him in Nancy’s rough clothes, places his body in a lumber car which he sets aflame. The pursuing detective kills Red, and Jim and Nancy (who is declared to be officially dead by the police) hop a passenger train for Canada.”

PRODUCTION HISTORY:
Production work on the film took place between May 18 and June 18, 1928, with location shooting near Jacumba, California taking place between May 30 and June 15. The film was released in both a silent and sound version; the sound version included music, sound effects, a bit of dialogue, and a song reportedly sung by Wallace Beery.

CAST
Wallace Beery
 Oklahoma Red
Louise Brooks
 The Girl (Nancy)
Richard Arlen
 The Boy (Jim)
Edgar “Blue” Washington
 Black Mose
H.A. Morgan
 Skinny
Andy Clark
 Skelly
Mike Donlin
 Bill
Roscoe Karns
 Lame Hoppy
Robert Perry
 The Arkansaw Snake
Johnnie Morris
 Rubin
George Kotsonaros
 Baldy
Jacques Chapin
 Ukie
Robert Brower
 Blind Sims
Frank Brownlee
 Farmer
Guinn Williams
 Baker’s Cart Driver
Matt Gilman
 Wallace Beery double
Duke Green
 stuntman (uncredited)
Mike Donlin
 undetermined role (uncredited)
Jack Holbrook
 Richard Arlen stunt double (uncredited)
Harvey Parry
 Louise Brooks stunt double (uncredited)
CREDITS
Studio:
 Paramount Famous Lasky Corp.
Producer:
 Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky
General Manager:
 B.P. Shulberg
Director:
 William A. Wellman
Assistant Director:
 Charles Barton
Writing Credits:
 Benjamin Glazer and Jim Tully (screenplay), adapted from the book by Jim Tully; titles by Julian Johnson
Cinematography:
 Henry Gerrard
Second Cameraman:
 Guy Bennett
Assistant Cameraman:
 Cliff Shirpser and Bob Rhea
Film Editor:
 Alyson Shaffer
Recording Director:
 Roy Pomeroy (Movietone)
Sound Editors:
 Andy Newman, Merrill White
Foley Recordist:
 Benjamin Glazer
Costumes:
 Travis Banton, with Edith Head
Makeup:
 James Collins
Property Man:
 John Richmond
Grip:
 Mitch Crawley
Assistant Grip:
 Andy Durkins
Format:
 Silent version – black & white & sound version – black & white (Western Electric Movietone sound-on-film)
Running Time:
 9 reels (reported as 7,504 and 7,560 feet), reported as 80 and 87 minutes – elsewhere, The Netherlands: 2244 meters. United Kingdom: 7,400 feet
Copyright:
 September 21, 1928 by Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. (LP25642)
Release Date:
 September 22, 1928
Premiere:
 September 18, 1928 at Paramount theater in New York City (sound version); earlier showings of the silent version took place in Indianapolis, Indiana and Salt Lake City, Utah beginning on September 1
Country of Origin:
 United States

ALTERNATE TITLES:
Under its American title, documented screenings of the film took place in Australia (including Tasmania), Bermuda, British Malaysia (Singapore), Canada, China, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), France, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (England, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Scotland). In the United States, the film was presented under the title Mendigos de la Vida (Spanish-language press) and Il Mendicante di Vita (Italian language press).

Elsewhere, Beggars of Life was shown under the title Les mendiants de la vie (Algeria); Bettler des Lebens (Austria); Meias indiscretag and Mendigos da vida (Brazil); Mendigos de la Vida (Chile); Mendigos de la Vida (Costa Rica); Mendigos de la Vida (Cuba); Žebráci života and Žebráky živote (Czechoslovakia); De Lovløses Tog (Denmark); Menschen Zijn Nooit Tevreden (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Elu wõõraslapsed and Eluvõõrad hinged (Estonia); Les mendiants de la vie (France); Az élet koldusai and Az orszagutak angyala (Hungary); I mendicanti della vita (Italy); Bettler des Lebens and Dzives ubagi (Latvia); Bettlers des Lebens (Les Mendiants de la Vie) (Luxembourg); Mendigos de vida (Mexico); Menschen Zijn Nooit Tevreden and Zwervers (The Netherlands); Ludzie bezdomni (Poland); Mendigos da Vida (Portugal); Strada cersetorilor (Romania); Mendigos de vida and Los mendigos de la vida (Spain) and Captaires de vida (Spain, Catalonian language); and Les mendiants de la vie (Switzerland).

STATUS:
The silent version of the film is extant, and notably dark, lesser quality, almost unwatchable dupes have been released on VHS and DVD and YouTube; the original sound sequences are presumed lost. A far superior print, once belonging to film historian William Everson, is housed at the International Museum of Photography and Film at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. This best surviving print is a 35mm preservation positive optically enlarged from Everson’s 16mm copy. The Eastman House print of Beggars of Life is occasionally screened at film festivals, and in 2017, it was released on DVD / Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. This disc features a new soundtrack recording, an informational booklet, as well as audio commentaries by the director’s son, William Wellman Jr., and Thomas Gladysz, Director of the LBS. The Kino Lorber release is the best available, and is highly recommended. Around the same time, Thomas Gladysz authored Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film (PandorasBox Press), a detailed look at the making of the film.

RELATED DOCUMENTS, PROGRAM NOTES, BLOGS, etc…:
— Press Sheet (Paramount, 1928)
— Thematic music cue sheet (Paramount, 1928)
— Beggars of Life sheet music (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
— Beggars of Life sheet music (alt version)
— Mendigos de Vida (Mensajero Paramount, January 1928)
— “Beggars of Life” by Laura Horak (San Francisco Silent Film Festival, 2016)
— “Beggars of Life” from 100 Silent Films by Bryony Dixon (British Film Institute, 2011)
— “Beggars of Life With Louise Brooks Screens in New York” by Thomas Gladysz (Huffington Post, April 18, 2012)
— “Beggars of Life” by Richard Brody (New Yorker, April 27, 2015)
— “Beggars of Life: The Sounds of a Louise Brooks’ Silent Film” by Thomas Gladysz (Louise Brooks Society blog)
— “Beggars of Life” by Cari Beauchamp (San Francisco Silent Film Festival, 2016)
— “Hobo beau” by Jeffrey M. Anderson (Combustible Celluloid, August 24, 2017)
— “Louise Brooks, Lost Girl” by Thomas Gladysz (Brattle Theater, August 27, 2017)
— “A World Turned Over: Wellman’s BEGGARS OF LIFE” by Thomas Gladysz (Wisconsin Cinematheque, November 28, 2017)

Beggars of Life
Beggars of Life – the companion book and the DVD (PandorasBox Press)

TRIVIA: about the film

— Beggars of Life (1924) is one of five autobiographical books Jim Tully (1886 – 1947) wrote which detail his transient childhood; a fictionalized memoir, it contains stories of the criminal tramp Oklahoma Red and the prostitute Nancy, who shoots and kills her abusive father. A play loosely based on these stories was woven into Outside Looking In (1925), a Broadway drama by Maxwell Anderson which starred James Cagney and Charles Bickford and was produced by a group that included Eugene O’Neill. Louise Brooks attended a performance of the play in the company of Charlie Chaplin.

— Beggars of Life was under consideration by Paramount as early as September of 1925.

— Brooks disliked Tully. “He was the most repulsive little Quilp I ever knew,” Brooks wrote years later to film historian Kevin Brownlow. “Short and fat with his belly hanging over his belt, yellow teeth to match his face and hair, full of the vanity of Vanity Fair and H.L. Mencken.” Nevertheless, Tully — who once served as Charlie Chaplin’s press agent, had his admirers, including the famed critic H.L. Mencken. Robert E. Howard, who authored the “Conan the Barbarian” stories, is oftentimes famously quoted as remarking that of all the writers living and working in his time there were only two whose work would endure — H. P. Lovecraft  and Jim Tully.

— Brooks respected director William Wellman. Her account of the making of Beggars of Life is found in her Lulu in Hollywood essay “On Location with Billy Wellman.” Included among the cast was Jacque Chapin, Wellman’s then 17-year old brother-in-law. Wellman’s wife served as script girl.

— By dressing her in men’s clothing, Beggars of Life was the first film to capitalize on Brooks’ androgynous appeal. The August 1928 issue of Motion Picture Classic ran a full-page spread of Brooks in male attire, stating “Many a girl has wished – or said she wished – she were a boy. Louise Brooks goes one better and becomes one in her portrayal of one of the Beggars of Life in Jim Tully’s screen story. Any time Louise wants a nickel for a cup of coffee, she has only to come to us. In fact, if she’d let us have one with her, we’d go as far as to wrench loose a dime.”

— With an added musical score, sound effects, and a song sung by Wallace Berry (either “Hark the Bells” or “Don’t You Hear Them Bells?” or “I Wonder Where She Sits Tonight”), Beggars of Life is considered Paramount’s first sound film. In Baltimore, Beggars of Life was the first “talking sequence picture” to play in the Century Theater.

— “Beggars of Life” by J. Keirn Brennan and Karl Hajos was recorded by The Troubadours, Scrappy Lambert and other artists and released as a 78 rpm recording. The label of these recordings describe it as “Theme Song of the Motion Picture production.”

— Edgar Washington (1898 – 1970) was a prizefighter and noted semi-pro baseball player (in the Negro Leagues) before entering films in the late Teens. He was a pioneer among African-American actors, and was given the nickname “Blue” by friend Frank Capra. Also in the film in a bit part was Michael Donlin, an outfielder whose Major League career spanned from 1899 to 1914.

— In 1965, director William Wellman wanted to bring Louise Brooks to San Francisco and screen Beggars of Life as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, but it never came to be. Instead, he screened Wings for a packed house at the local Masonic auditorium.

— According to Mark Kermode’s book, The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex (2012), The Dodge Brothers accompanied Beggars of Life at the inaugural New Forest Film Festival in 2010, where in accordance wth the Festival theme of sustainability, the film projector was powered by a bicycle. The musical group, which includes Kermode (a popular British film critic), also accompanied Beggars of Life at a screening at the Glastonbury Music Festival in 2014.