The Unholy Three (1930)
One of my favorite actors is Lon Chaney, Sr. He’s often remembered for his ability to create terrifying images with makeup, which appropriately gave him the nickname, “The Man of a Thousand Faces.” For me, though, it was his ability to act through that makeup that made him so great. Chaney was one of the first actors to really give the villain depth; there are some films where he makes you feel bad enough to the point that you sort of want him to succeed. That is the genius of Lon Chaney, and he didn’t have to use many words to do so. Chaney did make one talkie, The Unholy Three, which is a remake of one of my favorite Chaney silent films, and he probably would have continued to make more if it weren’t for his death a few months later. The question: is Chaney’s acting style just as effective with words as it was silent?
Echo (Chaney), Tweedle Dee (Harry Earles), and Hercules (Ivan Linow) are three circus performers who, after the circus is shut down, decide to go on a crime spree as “The Unholy Three.” They do this while Echo disguises himself as Mrs. O’Grady, the owner of a bird shop. When Echo discovers his girlfriend Rosie (Lila Lee) is falling in love with store employee Hector (Elliott Nugent), he decides to let Hector take the fall for the work of “The Unholy Three.”
The film is pretty faithful to the silent version for the most part. In addition to Chaney, Harry Earles also reprises his role as Tweedle Dee. The rest of the cast is...alright. Compared to the silent version they do come across as slightly weaker, as is often the case with remakes. Hercules isn’t quite as intimidating as in the original and Rosie isn’t quite as emotional. They’re not necessarily bad, but when you already have such a great version in the first place, comparisons are inevitable.
Chaney himself is just as great as he was in many of his silent classics. His natural voice is easy to understand and definitely fits the face and personality he was accustomed to. This really was the perfect choice for his first sound film, as it allows him to demonstrate his versatility with his voice, and he does a good job with it. At times, like when he’s using the ventriloquist dummy, he’s a bit hard to understand, though that’s often expected with ventriloquists, and the subpar sound quality is just as much to blame for this.
Being an early sound film does have its problems. There really isn’t any background music and the camera is more static than usual. Of course, the sound novelty was used to death in many of these early sound films and this one is technically no exception, especially given how many voices Chaney does (they were trying to promote him as “The Man of a Thousand Voices,” a title that’s since gone to several cartoon voice actors). However, it is very important to the plot, much as it was in the original, and the visuals still match the original for the most part, including the killer gorilla, so it does seem to have a better idea of itself than most early sound films.
The one major difference between this and the silent version is the ending. Without giving too much away, I will say that this ending is more realistic, although not quite as emotional. The original was once again a way to show off Chaney’s ability to play with his audience’s emotions, while this one tries to have Lila Lee do it by herself. She does fine with it, though she did already have several moments earlier in the film and I do feel this would have once again been more effective with Chaney (apparently they did shoot an ending like the original, but it was discarded).
As far as early sound films go, this one does hold up quite well for the most part, mainly due to Chaney, who really could carry a film all by himself. It’s still not as good as the silent version, though that really is quite a task and I really didn’t expect it to. It’s a shame he didn’t live longer, as I would have loved to have seen what else he had to offer in the silent era. However, Chaney did leave behind an impressive library of classics and I’m glad that we at least got as much as we did, and we’re lucky we even got to hear his voice at all.
8 out of 10
Echo (Chaney), Tweedle Dee (Harry Earles), and Hercules (Ivan Linow) are three circus performers who, after the circus is shut down, decide to go on a crime spree as “The Unholy Three.” They do this while Echo disguises himself as Mrs. O’Grady, the owner of a bird shop. When Echo discovers his girlfriend Rosie (Lila Lee) is falling in love with store employee Hector (Elliott Nugent), he decides to let Hector take the fall for the work of “The Unholy Three.”
The film is pretty faithful to the silent version for the most part. In addition to Chaney, Harry Earles also reprises his role as Tweedle Dee. The rest of the cast is...alright. Compared to the silent version they do come across as slightly weaker, as is often the case with remakes. Hercules isn’t quite as intimidating as in the original and Rosie isn’t quite as emotional. They’re not necessarily bad, but when you already have such a great version in the first place, comparisons are inevitable.
Chaney himself is just as great as he was in many of his silent classics. His natural voice is easy to understand and definitely fits the face and personality he was accustomed to. This really was the perfect choice for his first sound film, as it allows him to demonstrate his versatility with his voice, and he does a good job with it. At times, like when he’s using the ventriloquist dummy, he’s a bit hard to understand, though that’s often expected with ventriloquists, and the subpar sound quality is just as much to blame for this.
Being an early sound film does have its problems. There really isn’t any background music and the camera is more static than usual. Of course, the sound novelty was used to death in many of these early sound films and this one is technically no exception, especially given how many voices Chaney does (they were trying to promote him as “The Man of a Thousand Voices,” a title that’s since gone to several cartoon voice actors). However, it is very important to the plot, much as it was in the original, and the visuals still match the original for the most part, including the killer gorilla, so it does seem to have a better idea of itself than most early sound films.
The one major difference between this and the silent version is the ending. Without giving too much away, I will say that this ending is more realistic, although not quite as emotional. The original was once again a way to show off Chaney’s ability to play with his audience’s emotions, while this one tries to have Lila Lee do it by herself. She does fine with it, though she did already have several moments earlier in the film and I do feel this would have once again been more effective with Chaney (apparently they did shoot an ending like the original, but it was discarded).
As far as early sound films go, this one does hold up quite well for the most part, mainly due to Chaney, who really could carry a film all by himself. It’s still not as good as the silent version, though that really is quite a task and I really didn’t expect it to. It’s a shame he didn’t live longer, as I would have loved to have seen what else he had to offer in the silent era. However, Chaney did leave behind an impressive library of classics and I’m glad that we at least got as much as we did, and we’re lucky we even got to hear his voice at all.
8 out of 10
Comments
Post a Comment