Sunday October 15, 2006

Beggars of Life
A rare silent drama from 1928

Beggars of Life is the story of Nancy (Louise Brooks), a young woman on a farm who kills her foster father when he attempts to rape her. Afraid that her story will not be believed, she enlists the help of a passing hobo, Jim (Richard Arlen), and flees. Nancy disguises herself by dressing in rough men's clothing and together they elude the police. After hopping a freight train and being thrown off by the brakeman, they wander into a hobo camp. The leader of the camp, Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery) decides that he either wants Nancy for himself or he will turn her in for a reward. The encampment is broken up by detectives forcing Nancy and Jim take refuge with a seriously ill tramp in an abandoned shack. Oklahoma Red unexpectedly shows up. Will he turn her in for the reward or help her escape?

Directed by William Wellman, who also directed the Academy Award winning silent, Wings, Beggars of Life was filmed on the San Diego and Eastern Arizona Railroad in the mountains east of San Diego in the remote Carrizzo Gorge area. This rare film has only recently been made available.

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Sunday January 7, 2007

Wild and Woolly
A side-splitting, stunt filled western from 1917

Jeff Hillington (Douglas Fairbanks) is the extremely naive son of a prosperous New York businessman. Jeff longs for the adventure of the Wild West so much, he virtually lives it in his western themed room. The knocker on his door is a pistol and he has a dummy horse which he leaps on now and again. Of course, the Wild West of his imagination is long gone by 1917, but he hasn't figured that out yet. His father (Walter Bytell) sends him to Bitter Creek, Arizona on business, and Jeff expects it to be the place he read about in dime-store novels. The modern townsfolk of Bitter Creek hope to impress Jeff and improve their town by transforming it back to the way it was in the 1880's. But two bad guys, Steve (Sam deGrasse) and Pedro (Charles Stevens) decide to take advantage of the situation by staging a real bank robbery. And because no Western is complete without a girl in peril, they also kidnap the aptly named Nell (Eileen Percy). No one knows what to do except Jeff, who uses every western cliché in the book (quite hilariously) to capture the bandits and save the girl.

Hillington is the type of character Fairbanks played to perfection throughout his career - a go-getting, fun-loving, athletic charmer who could do just about anything. Wild and Woolly packs in more stunts and action than many of today's special effects laden 'action' films.

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Sunday April 29, 2007

Nevada
Gary Cooper saves the day in this Western from 1927

Gary Cooper plays a once notorious gunfighter who tries to escape his reputation by taking a respectable job on a ranch. Cooper's "Nevada" is charged with protecting the ranch owner's pretty daughter (Thelma Todd). This causes friction with the ranch foreman (William Powell), who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman leaks a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again. He quickly discovers a gang of cattle rustlers led by -- surprise -- the dastardly ranch foreman! It's up to Nevada to single-handedly bring the gang to justice and win the heart of the rancher's daughter.

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