English text below

«Ein ungewöhnlich realistisches Drama um ‹Hoboes›, Obdachlose, die auf Güterzüge aufspringen und so durch das Land reisen, um auf den Feldern zu jobben. Um sich in dieser Männergesellschaft behaupten zu können und um der Polizei zu entkommen, die sie wegen eines Mordes sucht, schlüpft Louise Brooks in Männerkleidung. William Wellman inszenierte on location einen der besten amerikanischen Stummfilme, in dem Louise Brooks den bereits etablierten Stars Wallace Beery und Richard Arlen die Schau stiehlt.» (Programm Bonner Sommerkino 2009)
«Obwohl Wallace Beery hervorragend ist, sind alle Augen auf die 22-jährige Louise Brooks gerichtet. (…) Die Kamera liebt sie – und wird dafür mit einer Darbietung belohnt, die ein reiches Innenleben ausstrahlt.» (Tony Rayns, Time Out Film Guide)

"From the moody, impressionistic opening scene to the bitterly ironic finale, Beggars of Life creates a world made of part brutal realism and part brutal melodrama—always, it’s the brutality that’s crucial. Based loosely on a popular hardboiled autobiography by Jim Tully about his young life as a hobo, the film seems out to dispel the romanticism of the hobo life, or at least prove that it’s clearly not a life for a woman. More than that, the film dispels any romantic notions about life itself, sneering that freedom is impossible and homecoming is just a dream. Words like 'solitary', 'poor', 'nasty', 'brutish', and 'short' kept occurring to me as I watched the various drifters slink around onscreen trailed by endless bad luck. This was Louise Brooks’ last American film, and it’s her performance that really sells it for me —definitely more so than Wallace Beery, who at the time was a bigger star, but frankly comes off as a bit of a scenery-chewer. But Brooks is an incredible presence. She spends most of the film dressed up as a boy, glowering fearfully at the world from under her cap, letting the power of her performance comes from its subtlety. Her character tries to pass through the world invisibly, but Brooks is far too mesmerizing for that to ever be really possible." (Megan Weireter, notcoming.com, 2009)

Drehbuch: Benjamin Glazer, Jim Tully, nach dem Buch von Jim Tully, und dem Roman «Apache Rising» von Julian Johnson
Kamera: Henry Gerrard
Schnitt: Allyson Shaffer

Mit: Louise Brooks (Nancy, das junge Mädchen), Wallace Beery (Oklahoma Red), Richard Arlen (Jim), Edgar Washington (Black Mose), Kewpie Morgan (Skinny), Andy Clark (Skelly), Mike Donlin (Bill), Roscoe Karns (Lame Hoppy), Bob Perry (The Arkansaw Snake), Johnnie Morris (Rubin), George Kotsonaros (Baldy), Jacques Chapin (Ukie)

81 Min., sw, Digital HD, Stummfilm, e Zw'titel