Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen (center).     Photo: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, courtesy     San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Cast: Wallace Beery [‘Oklahoma Red’], Louise Brooks [Nancy], Richard Arlen [Jim], Robert Perry [‘Arkansas Snake’], Roscoe Karns [‘Lame Hoppy’], Edgar ‘Blue’ Washington [‘Black Mose’]; Mike Donlin [Bill], Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, H.A. Morgan, Andy Clark, Johnnie Morris, George Kotsonaros, Jacque Chapin (Jack Chapin), Robert Brower, Frank Brownlee, Harvey Parry

Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation production; distributed by Paramount Pictures Corporation. / Produced by William A. Wellman. Screenplay by Benjamin Glazer and Jim Tully, from the novel Beggars of Life by Jim Tully. Assistant director Charles Barton. Cinematography by Henry Gerrard. Intertitles by Julian Johnson. Edited by Alyson Shaffer. Presented by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. / Released 22 September 1928. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. Western Electric Movietone sound-on-film sound system. / The production was shot on 18 May through 18 June 1928. The film’s soundtrack may have been restricted to music, sound effects and a song by Beery. / Silent film, with talking sequences, synchronized music and sound effects.

Drama.

Review: [Photoplay, April 1929, p. 8] : The low-down on hoboes. Good entertainment. And hear Wallace Beery sing a song!

Survival Status: Print exists in the International Museum of Photography and Film at George Eastman House film archive [16mm preservation positive, 35mm preservation positive (from the 16mm print)]; sound sequences soundtracks are presumed lost.

Keywords: Railroads - Synchronized sound film - Tramps - Transportation: Trains

Listing updated: 10 June 2007.

References: Film credits, film viewing : Brownlow-Parade pp. 166, 169, 172, 432; Edelman-Baseball p. 29; Everson-American pp. 310s, 330; Geduld-Birth p. 242; Paris-Brooks pp. 558-559 : Photoplay-192904 p. 8.

Home Video: DVD.