TRIBUTE TO LOUISE BROOKS

"One of the most remarkable personalities to be associated with films" --- Kevin Brownlow

"An astonishing actress endowed with an intelligence beyond compare" --- Lottie Eisner

"She was the most seductive, sexual image of woman ever committed to celluloid" --- Kenneth Tynan

Welcome to my Tribute to Louise Brooks. This remarkable silent film star is my favorite actress. I have seen some of her movies (Pandora's Box is my favorite), and read her book, Lulu in Hollywood. I have also read the biography by Barry Paris, and visited all the Louise Brooks sites on the internet. One day, I hope to visit Kansas to see the places where the actress grew-up. I would also like to go to Rochester, New York to visit the George Eastman House in order to see more of her films. Rochester is also the place where Brooks lived the last few decades of her life. This webpage and this website brings together some of the things I have collected about the actress. Here is a short essay about Louise Brooks.

Louise Brooks is a 20th century icon, and her hair is her trademark. Her distinct bob hair-style framed a face of remarkable beauty. Fair skinned, Brooks appeared on film as something almost luminous. Her sleek dark hair - the famous "black helmet" - defined a face both inviting and enigmatic. Her's was a "face that the camera loved." In 1956, the famous French film curator Henri Langlois said, "Those who have seen her can never forget her. She is the modern actress par excellence because, like the statues of antiquity, she is outside of time."

A great beauty, a remarkable personality - Louise Brooks is perhaps least remembered for what she was - a gifted actress. Between 1925 and 1938, she appeared in 24 films. Early on, she worked with directors like Herbert Brenon, Malcom St. Clair, Eddie Sutherland, William Wellman and Howard Hawks in films such as It's the Old Army Game (with W.C. Fields, 1926), The Show-off (with Ford Sterling & Lois Wilson, 1926), Love Em & Leave Em (with Evelyn Brent, 1926), Beggars of Life (with Wallace Beery & Richard Arlen, 1928), A Girl in Every Port (with Victor McLaglen & Robert Armstrong, 1928), and The Canary Murder Case (with William Powell & Jean Arthur, 1929). Unfortunately, her four films from 1927 are all lost.

Brooks' accomplishments, talents and personality did not go unnoticed. During the late 1920's, the one-time Ziegfeld Follies show-girl inspired both the long running comic strip "Dixie Dugan," as well as the stage play "Show Girl." In 1927, according to biographer Barry Paris, Louise Brooks was the fourth most written about actress (in terms of major magazine articles) after Clara Bow, Joan Crawford and Colleen Moore.

The actress's career in Hollywood is overshadowed by what is certainly her best-known role, as "Lulu" in the German film by G. W. Pabst entitled Pandora's Box (1929). [ The film is based on the play by Frank Wedekind. ] Under the direction of Pabst, Brooks' subtle, erotically charged style of acting emerged. Upon its release, however, Pandora's Box largely failed in Germany and was barely even reviewed in the United States. Brooks' style was so natural that critics complained she either couldn't or didn't act. Today, Pandora's Box is considered a cinematic landmark - one of the last great silent films.

Brooks made two other films in Europe - Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), again with Pabst, and Prix de Beaute (1930), an early French sound film (based on a story by Pabst & Rene Clair). With the promise of work in Europe, Brooks had quit Paramount in an act of defiance. Upon her return to America, she found herself relegated to supporting roles in B-grade films. Her keen intelligence, rebellious nature and self-destructive streak all contributed to her exile from Hollywood - and what might have been one of the great careers in film history. She appeared in a few lesser sound films, including ones directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Michael Curtiz, and Robert Florey. Brooks' last movie was Overland Stage Raiders (1938), a western with John Wayne.

After years of obscurity and near poverty, a new Louise Brooks began to emerge - that of author. Throughout the 50's, 60's and '70's, her essays appeared in magazines like Sight and Sound, Film Culture, and Focus on Film. Once derided as a brainy show-girl, Brooks' second career as an insightful writer took shape. In 1982, a bestselling and widely reviewed collection of her work appeared under the title Lulu in Hollywood.

In the years since her death, Brooks' reputation has come full circle. There has been a biography and many articles written about her. There have been documentaries and television shows devoted to the actress. There are numerous webpages devoted to Louise Brooks, and a fan club based on the internet. And there have even been many homages in movies and novels and poems and music given to the actress. Slowly, as well, some of her films have been restored and re-released. Louise Brooks has become a 20th century icon.

Scroll down below for articles and essays about Louise Brooks. Or, visit my FILMS page or the FUN STUFF page for more about Louise Brooks.

I also want to include links to some of the other Louise Brooks websites and webpages on the internet. There are a lot of them - so I will just feature the best of the best, the ones that contain unique or original material. To visit these other sites, please check out my LINKS page.

Also, you can SIGN MY GUESTBOOK or VIEW MY GUESTBOOK. Thanx for visiting my Tribute to Louise Brooks.

Here are some other articles and essays about Louise Brooks which I found in different magazines and books at the library. I think they help draw a fuller portrait of the actress. Some of them are older and hard-to-find.