Beggars of Life (1928)

Beggars of Life: Directed by William A. Wellman. With Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, Blue Washington. After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. 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.

“While she is known primarily for her work for G.W. Pabst in the German films Pandorau0026#39;s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, Louise Brooks is phenomenal in William Wellmanu0026#39;s movie of a young girl on the run after she murders her sexually abusive guardian. The opening scene, in which the murder takes place, is gorgeously imagistic and ranks (for me) as one of the most indelible moments in all of cinema. Richard Arlen and Wallace Beery are very good in their roles, but the movie belongs to Brooks, whose ability to underplay in the silent era — when mugging and exaggeration were more the rule than the exception — makes her seem ultra-contemporary. It is little wonder Brooks has such resonance with modern audiences.”