| The Unknown (1927) is one of those essential films that dedicated movie nuts must see in order to feel complete. I first heard about this astonishing melodrama many years ago, and when I finally saw it, I was amazed to find it exceeded my heightened expectations.
Lon Chaney plays Alonzo, a double amputee who has no arms, yet performs in a travelling circus as a knife thrower. His act is astonishing – while perched on a revolving plank, he hurls knives at his lovely young assistant Nanon (Joan Crawford!) with his feet, and shoots bits of her clothing off with a rifle held between his toes!
Between shows, we see Alonzo use his feet to play guitar, smoke cigarettes and pour himself a cup of tea. This act was inspired by real-life armless knife-thrower Peter Dismuki, who doubled for Chaney in several scenes, but you won’t see how they did it – in fact, you’ll be convinced that Chaney is doing everything himself. You also won’t recognize Crawford, who is impressively sexy here, wearing a surprisingly skimpy halter-top. (Those of you who think of Crawford as the aging monster from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and such are just going to have to trust me on this.)
The circus is run by Nanon’s cruel father, Zanzi (Nick De Ruiz), who beats Alonzo whenever the knife-thrower turns a longing eye in Nanon’s direction. Also in love with Nanon is the circus strongman, Malabar (Norman Kerry), but Nanon shrinks in terror from his enthusiastic embrace. When Zanzi is murdered in the night by a mysterious two-thumbed strangler, the circus drifts away, leaving Alonzo, Nanon and Malabar behind to bring closure to their peculiar love triangle.
There is nothing subtle about a good melodrama like this. What we’ve got here is plenty of heavy eye-rolling and hyper-emotional performances in service of one of the most lurid plotlines imaginable. "Low key" has no place here. We get fabulous soft-focus close-ups of Chaney’s highly expressive face as he chokes back tears in light of unimaginable tragedy and betrayal. Great stuff!
This movie is available on Turner Classic Movies’ excellent box set The Lon Chaney Collection, which would be worth the purchase price even if it only contained The Unknown. Also in the set is The Ace of Hearts (1921), Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), the new documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000), and a "reconstruction" of the lost film London After Midnight (1927) pieced together out of production stills and title cards as a loose approximation of the unavailable vampire flick. The films come with fine new musical scores and optional audio commentaries from film historian Michael F. Blake. The set is an outstanding bargain, and gives film lovers a rare chance to appreciate Chaney’s amazing talent in films other than the monster movies (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera) for which he was most famous.
Folks, they really don’t make ‘em like this any more. |
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