the unholy three [1925]

 

even before i dared to call myself a film buff, a lover of cinema, a rabid moviegoer, infatuated with horror/exploitation/drive-in movies, i'd read an essay that argued talkies killed the motion picture as an arti form.  movies are visual medium & silent films are its best expression.  i was nearly persuaded by that argument.  i don't remember the author of the essay or where i read it.  but it always struck me because movies are a visual medium.  & to watch some of the greats of the silent era, harold lloyd & buster keaton, for example, you can understand why these great film artists are more in tune with a silent medium.

& yet, we are a storytelling animal.  & we have language for it.  even our memories are edited over time like an obsessive filmmaker who is trying to create the ultimate director's cut of a movie.  so it was with great delight i shared with anna when she suggested we see this movie, in the city cemetery.  lon chaney, another great artist of the early 20th C, directed by tod browning, who would later introduce the world to bela lugosi as the eponymous vampire in Dracula [1931], & the creepy black humor masterpiece Freaks [1932].  say no more.  i'm in!

now, i must confess that i lack the bona fides to argue this or that in re silent movies.  i've seen my share.  i think harold lloyd is a fucking genius.  but i've never studied silent movies or watched them in great abundance, like i have sound movies.  i've never seen this flick before tonight.  it goes like this.  chaney is a ventriloquist, dr. echo, in a sideshow.  he's great at his craft.  he can project his voice across a room full of people.  he works with tweedledie, a dwarf played by harry earles, & a strong man, hercules, played by victor mclaglen.  they are fed up with the crap they flung at them by their audience.  echo also has a moll, rosie, played by the lovely mae busch, who helps roll unsuspecting rubes from their cash & other valuables.  when tweedleedie loses his shit & kicks the teeth out of a child who was making fun of our erstwhile sport, echo decides to create an alliance, an unholy three, hercules, echo & tweedleedie, of criminals to starts a more elaborate scheme of thievery.  rosie is also in on the score too.  so why not the unholy four?  i dunno.  it's too late to ask tod browning.

thievery is good business until rose falls in love with the guy that helps run the trio's bird shop, hector, played by matt moore.  a bird shop?  makes no sense.  but let it ride.  otherwise, this movie would have no engine to run the plot.  rosie & hector's romance gets in the way of even more thievery.  tweedledee is a sadistic & conniving SOB.  hercules is a big dude but he is essentially a dumbshit.  & echo grows a conscious when confronted by rosie & her pure love of hector.  still, browning keeps all this shit together.  

chaney is a delight to watch.  what a mug.  hollywood a hundred years ago didn't give two shits about teeth or dental hygiene for everyone onscreen had some crooked, discolored, choppers.  the actors' makeup was also thru the roof & the style of acting was, of course, very influenced by stage acting.  oversized emotion & exaggerated expressions & movements.  the fashions was pretty cool.  nearly all the men wore straw hats.  & busch in her bob hairstyle & flapper wardrobe was, at least to this dude, more than sexy.  we think we've seen some wild technological changes.  but the changes a over a hundred years ago were just as profound.  the language of cinema was pretty early established.  it would be just four or five years when talkies became standard for movies.  & the style of acting became more intimate to the medium as film.  

all's well that ends well.  for this is a crime melodrama with a happy ending.  browning keeps our interest in nearly every frame of this film.  chaney is his usual marvelous self.  so are the supporting players.  so when we got to the last reel, & we could see where this ship would land, it was fairly chilly in the cemetery.  a strong breeze developed.  it was quite dark.  we gathered up our things & made our way to our car.  walking thru the graves, headstones & mausoleums.  the silence, in the middle of the city, was invigorating.  i felt my batteries charge.  whether it was because of the location, or the movie, or the fact that i was with my girl, anna, i can't say for sure.  what i can say is that it was a good night for a movie.