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Jim Tully was a popular author in the 1920s and 1930s. Earlier on, he also apparently worked for Charlie Chaplin.

Three films were made from his books, including Beggars of Life (1928), Way For a Sailor (1930), and Laughter In Hell (1933).

Beggars of Life is the only silent film among the four. This William Wellman directed feature starred Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks.

Way For a Sailor was John Gilbert's second talkie. It also featured Wallace Beery, and Tully himself.

I've posted a piece about Tully on Huffington Post. "A Jim Tully Revival: Hobo Author Back in Print" can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-gl ... 93512.html

A biography of Tully, featuring a forward by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, is due out next year. I am looking forward to it, and finding out more about his association with Chaplin and brawl with Gilbert. Brooks hated him.

Actually Way for a Sailor was Gilbert's third talkie following Redemption and His Glorious Night.

I can't seem to find it on the internet anymore, but Jim Tully wrote a great story about going with comedian Raymond Griffith to witness an execution at a prison in California. It is riveting reading if you can find it.

drednm wrote:Actually Way for a Sailor was Gilbert's third talkie following Redemption and His Glorious Night.

Has anyone here seen `Way for a Sailor'? The reviews I've seen are mixed, but based on the premise, it sounds like a decent enough early talkie (I'm always keen to give a Leila Hyams film a go).

Modern reviews of Gilbert's early sound films tend to spend so much time noting how perfectly adequate his voice was and placing on record the author's position on the `MGM Destroyed Gilbert' controversy that they rarely leave much space for actually discussing the film itself.

"Way For A Sailor" (1934), the movie, is a blustering bore...!

"Downstairs" is quite good with a bit of precode content. As the opening shot introduces Gilbert's character we see a nude female backside in the foreground- it's a little toddler being bathed in a washtub but still...

Personally, I like the Gilbert talkies, especially after MGM stopped casting him in "lover" or "ruritania" roles (like his first 2). With Way for a Sailor Gilbert launched into a new direction, and I think he does quite well. Wallace Beery is basically himself and Leila Hymans (underrated) is good as the wise girl. The titles has an odd meaning, in that on the waterfront, sea emn can say, "Way for a sailor!" and get through crowds, who push aside to let sailors pass. Wharf etiquette, I guess.

Gilbert's best talkies are probably The Phantom of Paris and Downstairs. I also like the snappy Fast Workers with Gilbert and Robert Armstrong as construction workers. Gentleman's Fate and West of Broadway are not very good.

silentfilm wrote:I can't seem to find it on the internet anymore, but Jim Tully wrote a great story about going with comedian Raymond Griffith to witness an execution at a prison in California. It is riveting reading if you can find it.

Here's the opening of that article, “A California Holiday,” published in the American Mercury, January 1928:

"San Quentin stretches drab and sun scorched along the blue waters of San Francisco Bay. Majestic clouds seem always to be riding the heavens on the watery horizon. Boats glide, far out on the bay, as if fearful of drawing too near the crowded castle of the doomed.

Originally built for less than two thousand prisoners, it now houses thirty-six hundred, about one hundred of whom are women. The roads are graveled. There is a detour sign two miles from the prison upon which is printed in large black letters beneath a hand pointing prisonward:

THIS IS THE RIGHT ROAD"

Kent State University has also reprinted Beggars of Life, along with several other Tully novels. They're available now, and the Tully biography comes out in May 2011. I just received the KSU 2011 book catalog, and the Tully biography and books sound fascinating.