In the past, information — even something as straightforward as film credits, could be hard-to-come by. Long before there were websites like IMDb and the AFI (American Film Institute), detailed movie credits might only be found in dusty reference books and obscure film magazines. More often than not, such credits were compiled by researchers or obsessive fans who poured through old publications or whatever studio records they could access. Old movie credits were sometimes incomplete, while some replicated the errors found in other, earlier credits.
In the 1960s, Louise Brooks compiled or helped compile two checklists of her own film work. The first, “Checklist 27 — Louise Brooks,” appeared in an English publication, the Monthly Film Bulletin, in July 1965. Published by the British Film Institute (BFI), this checklist also contains Brooks’ stage credits and writing credits, until that time. The only error in the filmography is the listing of The Canary Murder Case under the year 1928. That was the year it was made. The film itself was released in February, 1929.
As this checklist notes, earlier reference works had noted the actress appearing in The Public Enemy and The Steel Highway (two films directed by William Wellman), as well as Hollywood Boulevard (directed by Robert Florey). She did not appear in either. Brooks confirmed the fact she did not have a role in either, and supplied a note: “What happened was that William Wellman had offered me a part in Public Enemy that I turned down to go to New York. But the advance publicity had gone out with my name in the cast (the part Wellman then gave to Jean Harlow), so when people see an extra girl walk through a scene with a black bob and bangs, they say ‘There is Brooks.’ How I am listed as having been in Steel Highway or Hollywood Boulevard must be some like mix-up with Wellman and Florey. But I appeared in neither film.”
The second film checklist was included in a letter to John Hampton, a Los Angeles theater owner, in May, 1967. Although it describes itself as “Correctly compiled by Louise Brooks,” the list does contain an omission. Left off is the 1937 film, When You’re in Love, starring Grace Moore. Brooks had only an uncredited bit part in the film, but she is in it. The other film listed for 1937 is King of Gamblers. Brooks’ role in that film was in fact cut, though she lists her part as “(Bit).”
Brooks knew who was who in film history. It is also interesting to note that among the films listed in this second checklist, the only one to list a script credit and a camera man is Prix de beauté, which notes “script by René Clair, camers(sic) by Rudoph Maté.” Each are very important figures in world film history, and Brooks, perhaps hoping to gild the lily, has added them to the credits to her one and only French production — a film long n the shadows of film history when compared to Pandora’s Box or Diary of a Lost Girl.
A detailed Louise Brooks filmography can be found on the Louise Brooks Society at “Films of Louise Brooks.”