Beggars of Life
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.
| 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 | September 22, 1928 |
Running time | 74 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Sound (Part-Talkie) English Intertitles |
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. The film is regarded as Brooks's best American movie.