33. The Unknown (1927)

Directed by Tod Browning

Synopsis

Man has no arms, in fact he has arms. He hides arms not be be murder suspect. Girl has armophopia, man fancies his chances. Girl also chased by strong-man, who has arms. So Armless-man can consumate his prospective marriage he gets his arms removed surgically. When he comes back he discovers that armophobia has been cured and girl can't get enough of strong-man's arms. Armless man is sad. Tries to kill strong-man by having horses remove his arms forcibly, gets killed trying to save girl from horse stampede.

Review

This is one of those rare cases where the filme is so bad that it's good. The story is insanely grotesque but then that's what Browning and Chaney are good at, so no problem there. My only problem is that the film is in fact too tame, if it was taken to it's logical gruesome conclusion (arms ripped out etc.) it would have been a much better film.

Of course this is the 20's we are talking about here, and with all the mutilation fantasies of Chaney and Browning it is still pretty racy. Another interesting thing here is seeing a very young Joan Crawford in her first starring role.

So, how those this measure compared to the other Lon Chaney film reviewed here (Phantom Of The Opera)? It is infinitely better. Is it a masterpiece of cinema? Hell no. And neither is any Browning film (Dracula, Freaks etc..) but they do make for great entertainment. Chaney's acting is pretty amazing here as well, his hysteria attack when he finds out that his girlfriend is now going to marry Malabar is pretty cool.

So, definitely a film to watch, as it is also a pretty short one, but not much to write home about. Maybe if it was gorier. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wiki:

The Unknown is by far the most intense and demented of director Tod Browning's films (which include Dracula and Freaks). Joan Crawford always said that she learned more about acting from working with Chaney in this movie than from everything else in her long career put together, and critics often cite Chaney's performance as one of the greatest ever captured on film. Burt Lancaster always maintained that Chaney in The Unknown offered the greatest acting he ever saw, and there is indeed nothing else remotely like it in the annals of film.