Beggars of Life

Before and during the Great Depression, William A. Wellman directed some of his most interesting films about people struggling. His1928 silent drama Beggars of Life—made after his World War I epic Wings won the first Academy Award for Best Film—is best known today for Louise Brooks, the petite dancer turned actress with an iconic bob haircut who became a cult figure. Brooks stars as Nancy, a young woman who kills her violent stepfather in self-defense (presented as a flashback). Richard Arlen is Jim, the boyish beggar who stumbles across the body and dresses Nancy in men's clothes to run off with the tramps on the road. Wallace Beery costars as Oklahoma Red, the king of the hobos, who claims Nancy as his property and puts the couple through a kangaroo court in a scene that straddles comedy and horror. Beery delivers a big, blustery performance as he eventually transforms from predator to protector and Brooks is incandescent in her best role in an American film. Based on the titular 1924 memoir by "hobo author" Jim Tully, who rode the rails, the film is also notable for featuring an integrated cast. Presented with a new restoration of Wellman's original cut, the film features a musical score performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, as well as separate audio commentary tracks by William Wellman, Jr., and by film historian and Louise Brooks Society founder Thomas Gladysz, plus a booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)