BEGGARS OF LIFE (1928)

Wildly entertaining late silent makes a perfect entry point to the form for anyone who enjoys the great silent comedians and wants to keep exploring.  (Look for the shorter 84 minute version, in pristine condition from KINO, edited down for the original 1928 music & effects synch soundtrack release, rather than the optional 100 minute unaccompanied silent cut currently available only in subfusc prints.)  William Wellman, in one of his best efforts, working especially well with cinematographer Henry Gerrard, shows imagination & narrative economy on made-in-the-camera dissolves & double-exposures in the opening reel to aid exposition as handsome, likeable tramp Richard Arlen offers work in exchange for breakfast to a dead man.  Yikes!  Hadn’t realized the guy was shot, killed by pretty young ward Louise Brooks when he tried to rape her.  Top that meet-cute!  Soon the pair are on the run, hoping to hop a freight to Canada before someone recognizes Brooks from those Wanted Posters already going up.  With Brooks dressed as a boy to avoid detection*, they try joining a hobo circle but are soon found out only to be rescued by Wallace Berry, something of a King of the Tramps thanks to his toughness and a small barrel of hooch.  He’s no pushover, merely trying to have Brooks for himself.  But with the police out in force to nab Brooks on that murder charge, the whole little hobo army hops the next train west.  More adventures and grand escapes ahead, along with consistently superb location work, dangerous stunting, train wrecks, tunnel escapes and growing complications in the relationships of our three leads.  Berry a towering presence here, with surprisingly delicate effects lifting his usual gruff, but sympathetic bad guy up a level or two.  With Arlen & Brooks an enchanting couple on screen.*

READ ALL ABOUT IT: *But not so happy off set, according to Brooks in her classic LULU IN HOLLYWOOD memoir which devotes a chapter to the film.  Fascinating stuff.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Maxwell Anderson made the same Jim Tully novel into an unrelated play (OUTSIDE LOOKING IN) on B’way in 1925 with Charles Bickford in the lead and James Cagney in a bit.

DOUBLE-BILL: Author Tully’s only other Hollywood credit a fascinating chain-gang prison meller with Pat O’Brien, LAUGHTER IN HELL/’33, made in the wake of I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG/’32.  OR: *Wellman must have liked Brooks’ look disguised as a boy, repeating it on future wife Dorothy Coonan in WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD/’33.