Evelyn Brent

[Findcandor]

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The last image is a collectible colorized tobacco card, from the 'Film Favourites'
series, published 1934 by Godfrey Phillips Ltd Cigarettes, depicting famed actors.

Working on a post featuring an actress with a similar name led to references for Evelyn Brent, and I figured I'd whip this up.

I was not familiar with Ms. Brent, but she did not fail to impress. The actress was born in 1899, and broke into cinema as a teenager, then kept going with a slew of silent pictures. Her IMDb bio has this telling line: "At the height of her career in silent films, the dark-haired, aquiline Evelyn became a matinee idol with performances as exotic temptresses and vamps."


With Boris Karloff in 1925's Forbidden Cargo; a Secret Service agent is assigned to
stop the illegal rum-running business our lady is in charge of, but the two fall in love
and first mate Boris becomes jealous, turning nasty. The film is, alas, lost.

When talkies arrived, the quality of her voice allowed her to continue (remember Singin' in the Rain?), but along the way, it appears her star quality came to be eroded — to the point of appearing in cheapies from studios such as Monogram. To her credit, she kept going until 1950 (not that she was old in that year; presumably, the roles weren't coming in), and the bio further informs she began working as an agent. Ten years later, she had one last hurrah, appearing in an episode of the TV series, Wagon Train. She died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-six.



I gathered the materials I felt were most interesting (and whatever passed for sexy), after doing my best to make sure they did not appear on the thread. What struck me about this actress was that she had plenty of attitude! I even wondered at one point if she ever smiled. (The references I found included a shot or two where she barely registered the corners of her mouth moving in an upward direction, but I bypassed them, in order to preserve her "mystique.")


With Thomas E. Jackson in Broadway (1929), a talking film remarkable for the
camera crane the director invented in order to allow for fluidity, in stark contrast
to movies from the period where the shots needed to be static. The two lines of
dialogue at bottom of the lobby card read, "Billie, you know I love you," and
"Come on baby — spill it out, who did the shooting?".

I had an appreciation for Member "Berigan"'s Post #4 from 2010, featuring frame grabs from one of her talkies, allowing for us to get a better sense of the lady:

Originally Posted by berigan

Here's Evelyn in a couple of nice dresses in the 1932 film, Attorney for the Defense(A pretty good film that is almost completely unknown)

Most references focus on her silent films or early talkies, but I see she also appeared in the respected Val Lewton horror film, The Seventh Victim (1943).


In Lewton's movie about devil-worshippers in Greenwich
Village, our lady played a satanist with one arm.

She looks relatively "modern" in these publicity poses below, and allows for the gentlemen of the 21st century to relate a bit better with her sexiness.



A film fan has nicely written, "She has that smoldering look in her eye, and just the face of perfection," and then laments, "But, aside from us silent movie loving fans, she is all but forgotten." (In order for that last link to work, you need to combine the words "blog" and "spot" into one word, and substitute for "INSERT" in the link.) Further revelations: "She was known as Betty for most of her life, which is kinda hard to picture because we know her as sexy Evelyn Brent...not 'Betty.' But, there ya have it."


Evelyn is the Daughter of the Tong, a Chinese crime boss up against an undercover FBI agent; this is a film that reportedly
has much action. It is a 1939 cheapie from a minor studio, but at least our lady received star billing. The second lobby
card is from 1942's Wrecking Crew, with the odd setting of those who tear down buildings. Evelyn's part is minor, as the
widow of a crew member who was killed. (She's at right; others are Jean Parker and Richard Arlen.) The last image is
beautiful; this is 1932's comedic High Pressure, where William Powell plays a shifty promoter and Evelyn is the girlfriend
who is beginning to lose interest in him.

"In 1922, she moved to Hollywood and the next year got nominated for a big honor at the time...WAMPAS Baby Star." (I don't know what that is, but apparently was a pretty big deal. I guess they didn't mean "baby" literally, since she was twenty-four when she received this prize.) Her first talkie was from 1928 (many of us are aware the one that came first was The Jazz Singer, from 1927.) She was apparently also in vaudeville.


In 1924's The Lone Chance, Evelyn kills in self-defense, and John Gilbert pretends
to be the murderer in exchange for $20,000 and a year in jail, which he breaks out
of when the deal is welched upon. Gilbert's star famously faded after the silent period,
and lover Greta Garbo lent a hand at times. This is another lost film, alas. The second
image, pictured with Ralf Harolde, depicts Evelyn as a tough-as-nails daughter of a
racketeering father who vows revenge on the cop she blames for dad's death in a shoot-
out. The film is 1930's Framed.

She had three husbands, and she stayed married to the last one until he died in 1959. (Harry Fox, for whom the Fox Trot was apparently named after.) The writer speculates that she might have had an appreciation for her same sex ("in great company with other supposed lesbians Garbo, Nazimova..."), and many of us can identify, since we also have an appreciation for that particular sex. Gossip-lovers among us are privy to the possibility that Evelyn may have gotten it on with Gary Cooper. Another tidbit: she liked creating hand carved furniture.


Posing with her collection of perfumes
from around the world.

You'll have to admit, this woman had a very special quality.










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[tsunamiSD]

... with Emil Jannings - I started with the 1st one then started searching

I only included the alamy one because it is quite striking.

[Spargel]

Photoplay, October 1928



Photoplay, May 1928



https://www.imagebam.com/view/GACEH8