| Beggars of Life | |
|---|---|
1928 lobby card
| |
| Directed by | William A. Wellman |
| Written by | Jim Tully (autobiography) Maxwell Anderson (play) |
| Produced by | Jesse L. Lasky Adolph Zukor |
| Starring | Wallace Beery Louise Brooks Richard Arlen |
| Cinematography | Henry W. Gerrard |
| Edited by | Alyson Shaffer |
| Music by | Karl Hajos |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 74 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Sound (Part-Talkie) English Intertitles |
Beggars of Life is an 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]
The film features a theme song entitled "Beggars of Life" which was composed by J. Keirn Brennan and Karl Hajos.
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.
