Love Em and Leave Em, a fast-paced romantic comedy featuring Louise Brooks, will be shown in the Dryden Theater at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York on Tuesday, November 16th at 8:00 pm.
For fans of this much loved silent film star, it’s a rare 16mm screening of one of the actress’ best American silent films. Philip C. Carli will accompany the film at the piano.
This Frank Tuttle-directed feature tells the story of two sisters - one good (the sultry Evelyn Brent) and one bad (the devilish Brooks) - who share a boyfriend (Lawrence Gray) while all are employed at a big-city department store. Also in the cast in a supporting role as a literally foul-mouthed Romeo is Osgood Perkins, the father of actor Anthony Perkins.
Love Em and Leave Em is a charming slice-of-life portrayal of the loves and misadventures of typical young people in the 1920s. There is much about it to recommend.
The film was adapted from the stage play by John Van Alstyne Weaver and George Abbott. The film’s screenplay is by Townsend Martin, a silent era scenario writer whose credits include another Brooks’ film, The American Venus (1926). Martin, a college friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald and a well-to-do writer of some talent, specialized in light, quick-paced films. In Love 'Em and Leave 'Em, Martin delivers.
The film showcases Brooks in a made-to-order role as an attractive bad girl, a Flapper on the make for any male that crosses her path. Though in a supporting role, Brooks steals both the picture and her older sister’s boyfriend, even though Brent puts up a fight on both fronts.
The movie was a hit pretty much wherever it showed. The Chicago Tribune named it one of the six best movies of the month. Critic Mae Tinee wrote, “Love 'Em and Leave 'Em is one of the snappiest little comedy dramas of the season. Full of human interest. Splendidly directed. Acted beautifully.” Rob Reel, the also curiously named critic of the rival Chicago Evening American, noted “It's an example of a little idea that was made into a great deal.”
Dorothy Herzog, the film critic for the New York Daily Mirror (and Brent’s later romantic partner) described the film as “. . . a featherweight comedy drama that should register with the public because of the fine work done by the principals and its amusing gags. . . . Louise Brooks gives the best performance of her flicker career as the selfish, snappily dressed, alive number - Janie. Miss Brooks sizzles through this celluloider, a flapper lurer with a Ziegfeld figure and come-on eyes.”
Herzog wasn’t the only critic – either female or male – who couldn’t take their eyes off the bobbed actress – or at least parts of her. Ella H. McCormick noted in the Detroit Free Press that “There are some excellent close-ups of Louise Brooks' famous dancing legs.” While Hake Herbert echoed the sentiment in the St. Louis Times.“Louise Brooks, the sister who is responsible for all of her [Brent’s] sorrow, personifies the popular conception of a modern flapper with faultless accuracy. Her so-called 'million dollar' legs contribute materially to this portrayal.”
The critic for the Cincinnati Enquirer took a somewhat broader view. “The characterization, though, is excellent, made all the more so by the painstaking work of Evelyn Brent and Louise Brooks as the sisters. The former retains sympathy without being superhumanly saintly; the later, besides being a ravishing beauty, gives a deft portrayal of an utterly selfish and superficial creature.”
Variety expressed something of a consensus opinion. “The cast has three featured members - Evelyn Brent, Lawrence Gray and Louise Brooks. It would have been just as well to have reversed the order of the names, for Louise Brooks, playing an entirely unsympathetic role . . . runs away with the picture.”
For more info: The Dryden Theatre (where once Brooks herself used to watch films) is located at George Eastman House (900 East Avenue) in Rochester, New York. For further information, call 585.271.4090 or visit the Museum’s website at http://dryden.eastmanhouse.org/films/2010/10/love-em-and-leave-em/.
Thomas Gladysz is a longtime fan of Louise Brooks, so much so that in 1995 he founded the Louise Brooks Society, an internet-based archive and fan club devoted to the silent film star. Gladysz has contributed to books on the actress, organized exhibits, appeared on television, and introduced her films around the country. Recently, he edited and wrote the introduction to the “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Bohme’s The Diary of a Lost Girl.Gladysz will speak about this new book at the San Francisco Public Library on November 14.
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