crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...
melodrama film involving a trio of circus conmen, directed by
Tod Browning
Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of vari ...
and starring
Lon Chaney
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...
. The supporting cast features Mae Busch, Matt Moore, Victor McLaglen, and Harry Earles. ''The Unholy Three'' marks the establishment of the notable artistic alliance between director Browning and actor Chaney that would deliver eight outstanding films to M-G-M studios during the late silent film era.
Principal photography went from December 1924 through January 20, 1925. The film had a premiere on May 30, 1925 in San Francisco. It went into release in New York at the Capitol Theatre on August 16, 1925. The film's budget was $114,000, and the worldwide box office gross was $704,000. Stills exist showing Chaney's two makeups in the film, his ventiloquist act, as well as a group shot of the Unholy Three plotting together.
The film was remade in 1930 as a
talkie
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
directed by Jack Conway. Chaney and Earles repeated their performances as Professor Echo and Tweedledee. Chaney died shortly after filming the 930 remake..the only film to feature the actor’s voice.
Plot
Three performers leave a
sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten ...
after Tweedledee ( Harry Earles), a midget performer, assaults a young heckler and sparks a melee. The three join together in an "unholy" plan to become wealthy. Prof. Echo, the
ventriloquist
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...
, assumes the role of Mrs. O'Grady, a kindly old grandmother, who runs a pet shop, while Tweedledee plays her grandchild. Hercules ( Victor McLaglen), the strongman, works in the shop along with the unsuspecting Hector McDonald ( Matt Moore). Echo's girlfriend, pickpocket Rosie O'Grady ( Mae Busch), pretends to be his granddaughter.
Using what they learn from delivering pets, the trio later commit burglaries, with their wealthy buyers as victims. On Christmas Eve, John Arlington (an uncredited Charles Wellesley) telephones to complain that the "talking" parrot (aided by Echo's ventriloquism) he bought will not speak. When Madame O'Grady (Chaney's aka) is trying to sell ordinary parrots as talking parrots, she throws her voice to fool the customers.
When "Granny" O'Grady visits Mr. Arlington to coax the bird into performing, "she" takes along grandson "Little Willie" in a baby carriage (to case the place). While there, they learn that a valuable ruby necklace is in the house. They decide to steal it that night. As Echo is too busy, Hercules and Tweedledee grow impatient and decide to go ahead without him.
The next day, Echo is furious to read in the newspaper that Mr. Arlington was killed (by Hercules) and his three-year-old daughter badly injured in the robbery (choked into unconsciousness by Tweedledee, although the violence in the robbery sequence was edited out of the final print). Hercules shows no remorse whatsoever, relating how Arlington pleaded for his life. When a police investigator shows up at the shop, the trio become fearful and decide to frame Hector, hiding the stolen jewelry in his room.
Meanwhile, Hector proposes to Rosie. She turns him down, but he overhears her crying after he leaves. He goes back into her room and, to his joy, she confesses she loves him but is ashamed of her shady past. When the police arrest him, Rosie tells the trio that she will testify in his defense, forcing them to abduct her and they all flee to a mountain cabin. Echo takes along his large pet ape, who terrifies Hercules.
In the spring, Hector is brought to trial. Rosie pleads with Echo to save Hector, promising to stay with him if he does. After Echo leaves for the city, Tweedledee overhears Hercules asking Rosie to run away with him and the loot. Tweedledee releases the ape from his cage. Hercules strangles Tweedledee to death just before the ape kills him.
At the trial, Echo agonizes over what to do, but finally rushes forward and confesses all. Both he and Hector are set free. When Rosie goes to Echo to keep her promise of marrying him, he lies and says he was only kidding. He tells her to go to Hector. Echo returns to the sideshow, and the last scene shows him on stage, giving his spiel to the customers: "That's all there is to life, friends, ... a little laughter ... a little tear."
Cast
*
Lon Chaney
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...
Dual role as Prof. Echo and Mrs. O'Grady
* Mae Busch as Rosie O'Grady
* Matt Moore as Hector McDonald
* Victor McLaglen as Hercules, the "son-in-law"
* Harry Earles as Tweedledee, the "baby"
*
Matthew Betz
Matthew Betz (September 13, 1881 – January 26, 1938) was an American film actor. Betz was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1881. Following an extended career in the U.S. Cavalry, Betz spent eight years in Vaudeville. His first stage play w ...
as Detective Regan
* Edward Connelly as the Judge
* William Humphrey as Defense Attorney
* E. Alyn Warren as Prosecuting Attorney
* John Merkyl as the jeweler
* Percy Williams as the butler
* Charles Wellesley as John Arlington
* Walter Perry as Carnival announcer
* Alice Julian as the Fat Lady
* Lou Morrison as Police Commissioner
* Walter P. Cole as the Human Skeleton
* Peter Kortos and Delmo Fritz as the Sword Swallowers
* Mickey McBan as the boy watching Hercules' act
* Violet Crane as the Arlington baby (cut from print)
* Vera Vance as Carnival dancer
* John Millerta as the Wild Man
* Carrie Daumery as Pet Shop Customer
* Margie and Mary Angus as the Twins
Production
In 1924,
Universal
Universal is the adjective for universe.
Universal may also refer to:
Companies
* NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company
** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal
** Universal TV, a t ...
’s vice-president
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...
departed to join Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios as production manager. Director Tod Browning followed him to M-G-M after producing a number of unimpressive independent films.
At M-G-M he proposed adapting author Tod Robbins’ ''The Unholy Three'' and Thalberg accommodated Browning by purchasing the rights and enlisting Lon Chaney to play the lead; Chaney may have requested that Browning direct, having worked with him effectively in 1921 on Universal’s '' Outside the Law'' starring Priscilla Dean.
With ''The Unholy Three'', Thalberg, Browning and Chaney established a highly creative and profitable collaborative trio that produced seven more films at M-G-M, marking the zenith of both Browning’s and Chaney’s careers.
Browning arrived at M-G-M well-versed in the techniques of “trick photography.” The "ape" that dispatches the strongman Hector (Victor McLaglen) was actually a three-foot-tall chimpanzee who was made to appear gigantic with camera trickery and perspective shots. When Echo removes the ape from his cage, the shot shows Echo (with his back turned to the camera) unlocking the cage and walking the ape to the truck. The ape appears to be roughly the same size as Echo. This effect was achieved by having Harry Earles (who played "Tweedledee" in the film) play Echo for these brief shots, and then cutting to Chaney, making it seem as though the ape is gigantic. (In the 1930 remake, the ape was played by Charles Gemora.)
Critical comments
''The Unholy Three'' enjoyed tremendous success, adding luster to Chaney’s reputation as "The Man of a Thousand Faces" and revealing Browning as a remarkable film stylist. The film was named as one of ''The New York Times'' 10 Best Films of 1925.
On August 15, 1925 ''The Billboard'' published a list of five short reviews for the movie. This featured such critics as
Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.New York Capitol Theater, it maintained a strong audience attendance for at least two weeks. Major Edward Bowes, who was the managing director at the time, took steps to ensure everyone who did not get to see the movie the first week of its viewing would get to by extending the movie's stay. An article written about this event noted the movie as "acclaimed as the best crook drama on the screen and one of the most entertaining motion pictures ever made", which speaks, along with its apparent popularity, for the movie’s quality.
Sherwood of ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
'' magazine praised the movie for its photography and providing a more psychological horror film rather than relying on movie effects to scare its audience. Noted by Sherwood is how the film was shot great attention given to scenes as individual pieces rather than as parts of one greater project, causing continuity errors. This is explained by the writer as an acceptable outcome considering the overall quality. The review is concluded with Sherwood declaring ''The Unholy Three'' to be "the best picture of its kind since ''The Miracle Man''."
"Here is about the best bet from a box office standpoint that has come along in a while...It is a wow of a story in the first place...And there's another thing about this picture, and that is that Lon Chaney stands out like a million dollars. He'd done that before, but always with a more or less grotesque make-up. No make-up this time. He isn't all hunched up, he isn't legless, he isn't this, that or the other thing in deformities. He's just Lon Chaney, and he's great." ---Variety
"From the main title to the final fadeout...THE UNHOLY THREE is one of the most unusual and powerfully gripping stores ever unfolded on the screen... Then too, there is that master artist, Lon Chaney, in one of his finest interpretations." ---Moving Picture World
"Not often does one see so powerful a photodrama as THE UNHOLY THREE... Mr Chaney gives a brilliant, restrained and earnest performance." ---The New York Times
"If you really enjoy good crook melodramas, be sure to see this. One of the finest pictures ever made due to the able and clever direction of Tod Browning. Lon Chaney gives a perfect performance as the ventriloquist.... one of the best picks of the month" ---Photoplay
"It was President Wilson who used to read detective stories to ease his mind. He would have liked ''The Unholy Three''" ---Time
"A powerful story as unique as it is big.... gripping all the way, a great picture. Chaney again proves himself a master of pantomime..... A really great charactrerization to add to his already large list." ---Film Daily
Release
''The Unholy Three'' was released for the first time on DVD by Warner Bros. Digital Distribution on October 26, 2010. The company would later re-release the film as a part of its 6-disc ''Lon Chaney: The Warner Archive Classics Collection'' on November 22, 2011, and on June 23, 2015.
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on , with a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 6.8/10. Author and film critic
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
gave the film two and a half out of four stars. Although Maltin noted that the film contained aspects that were less satisfactory, he commended its strong basic idea and Chaney's performance.
Themes
As is common in a Tod Browning film, circus life and unusual bodies play a central role in this movie along with great use of ''
trompe-l'œil
''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
'' optical illusion.Thomas, Randal Kerry. "Symbolic Structure of the Circus in the Films of Tod Browning." June 1977. ''ProQuest.'' Retrieved October 24, 2018. Trompe-l'œil is exercised and played with as the illusion of Dr. Echo as "Mrs. O’Grady" and Tweedledee as "Little Willie". The main plot of the movie revolves around the character’s abilities to pass themselves off convincingly as something they are not, an illusion the movie peels back and reasserts for both the other characters and for the audience themselves. Contrary to the usual use of this effect, Browning makes it a point to disillusion the audience and display the workings of the illusion to create a different sort of viewing stimulation.Rosenthal, 1975 p. 14; “The ability to assume control of another being is vital to ''The Unholy Three''. Echo the ventriloquist delivers testimony in court through the mouth of Hector....as the words pour from the witness stand, Browning repeatedly dissolves Echo onto Hector and vice-versa, establishing the performers complete responsibility for what is being said.” Manon, Hugh S. "Seeing Through Seeing Through: The "Trompe l'Oeil" Effect and Bodily Difference in the Cinema of Tod Browning." 2006. ''ProQuest.'' Retrieved October 24, 2018.
In most Browning films, his opinion of the deformed and different becomes evident. ''The Unholy Three''s plot plays directly with another of Browning’s favorite topics, dealing with identity, doubles, dual roles, and deformity. This film is unique in that the character Tweedledee is the only one of this group of that is played by a deformed character and is malicious in nature. (In the original novel, Tweedledee was the "brains" of the gang, not Echo.)
Notes
Footnotes
References
*Blyn, Robin. 2006. "Between Silence and Sound: Ventriloquism and the Advent of the Voice in The Unholy Three in The Films of Tod Browning", in ''The Films of Tod Browning'', ed. Bernd Herzogenrath, 2006 Black Dog Publishing. London. pp. 117–127
*Eaker, Alfred. 2016. ''Tod Browning Retrospective' TOD BROWNING: DIRECTOR RETROSPECTIVE Retrieved 26 February 2021.
*Herzogenrath, Bernd. 2006. ''The Films of Tod Browning''. Black Dog Publishing. London.
* Sobchack, Vivian. 2006. "The Films of Tod Browning: An Overview Long Past in The Films of Tod Browning" in ''The Films of Tod Browning'', editor Bernd Herzogenrath, 2006 Black Dog Publishing. London. pp. 21–39.
*Rosenthal, Stuart. 1975. ''Tod Browning: The Hollywood Professionals'', Volume 4. The Tantivy Press.