Beggars of Life
Oct 11, 2010
(William A. Wellman, USA, 1928, 100 min)
A year after picking up Hollywood's first Oscar for Wings, legendary director William Wellman turned to this rollicking saga of hobos on the lam. After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl (played here by the magnificent Louise Brooks in what was probably her finest Hollywood feature), tries to escape the country with the handsome but rag tag tramp, played by Wallace Beery. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada. From the moody, impressionistic opening scene to the bitterly ironic finale, Beggars of Life casts an unsentimental eye on society's lost souls.