Louise Brooks was born in the small town of Cherryvale, Kansas in 1906. Her mother was a progressive thinker, who supported women's right to vote and educated her children in the arts. Brooks discovered dance at an early age and at fifteen left Kansas for New York to study with a company. Here, as would happen time and time again, Brooks' tempestuous nature got the better of her - she was dismissed from the company for "having a superior attitude." She rebounded quickly, appearing in George White's Scandals of 1924 where she had a flirtation with George Gershwin and in the Ziegfeld Follies where she worked with W.C. Fields and had an affair with Charlie Chaplin. Acting was never something Brooks aspired to. It would be another boyfriend, producer Walter Wanger, who would turn her in that direction.
Wanger convinced Brooks to make a screen test in 1925. Both MGM and Paramount showed interest. Brooks chose to sign with Paramount, and her first film appearance came in 1925's The Street of Forgotten Men. While a number of Brooks' early films were lost, The Street of Forgotten Men was preserved and the documentary features a clip. Other clips include It's the Old Army Game (1926), with former co-star and friend W.C. Fields, The Show Off (1926) and Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (1926).
Brooks' first serious dramatic role came in Beggars of Life (1928) co-starring Wallace Beery and directed by William Wellman. She also appeared opposite William Powell in The Canary Murder Case (1929). An early entry in the detective genre, The Canary Murder Case seemed an inauspicious enough little picture but it would almost single-handedly end Brooks' career. The trouble began when the studio decided to convert The Canary Murder Case from a silent to a talkie. Brooks' contract was also up for renewal and apparently the negotiations did not go well. Brooks quit on the spot and refused retakes for the picture. The documentary features a 1976 interview with Brooks discussing the incident. According to the actress, she was handed a cable on her way out of the studio. It was an invitation to shoot a film in Germany; with nothing to lose, she accepted.
The movie was Pandora's Box (1929) and the director G.W. Pabst. In Pandora's Box, Brooks played Lulu, a temptress who destroys all the men she attracts and ends up becoming a streetwalker. It has been said that Brooks played herself in Pandora's Box, thanks largely to Pabst who knew better than most directors how to harness Brooks' natural style. The film was well enough received in Europe at the time and has since come to be considered a classic of silent cinema. Brooks made two more films in Europe before returning to the States: The Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), also with Pabst, and Prix de Beauty (1930), which was filmed as a silent and then re-released as a sound film dubbed into French.
On coming home, Brooks found that life in Hollywood hadn't changed. Paramount still wanted her for retakes on The Canary Murder Case and she still wasn't interested. The film ended up being dubbed by another actress, Margaret Livingston, whose voice was used for Brooks' scenes. While the studio moved on with the picture, the incident was not forgotten. Paramount reportedly spread the rumor that Brooks didn't record well and soon she was no longer employable in Hollywood.
Brooks did manage to land a few small roles in the films, Windy Riley Goes Hollywood (1931), directed by Fatty Arbuckle, and the Buck Jones B-Western Empty Saddles (1936). Her last film would be Overland Stage Raiders (1938) with John Wayne. For two weeks work on this low budget cowboy flick Brooks earned $300.
After Overland Stage Raiders Louise Brooks disappeared from the public eye. Her films were largely forgotten. She lived in New York in complete anonymity for years. French film critics rediscovered her work in the 1950s and helped restore Brooks to her proper place in Hollywood history, introducing her to new generations of film lovers.
Producer: Elaina Archer
Director: Hugh Munro Neely
Screenplay: Barry Paris
Cast: Shirley MacLaine (narrator), Louise Brooks, Dana Delany, Francis Lederer, Roddy McDowall.
BW&C-60m. Closed captioning.
by Stephanie Thames
