Film Details

Before he directed such horror classics as Dracula and Freaks, Tod Browning made an unparalleled series of lurid, twisted silent thrillers starring the peerless “man of a thousand faces,” Lon Chaney. (One of them, 1927’s vampire movie London After Midnight, is one of the most coveted of lost films.) Tonight we show the best two Browning/Chaney movies that survive, both with live musical accompaniment by New Hampshire silent film pianist Jeff Rapsis (see 3/3 at 7:30). The Unknown (pictured above) is a creepy, unforgettable circus drama in which an “armless” knife thrower (Chaney) falls for a beautiful bareback rider (Joan Crawford) who doesn’t like to be touched. The Time Out Film Guide calls it “one of the great silent movies, astonishing in its intensity” and “by far the best of the remarkable series of Browning/Chaney collaborations.” In the sleazy, Africa-set West of Zanzibar, Chaney plays an evil magician, paralyzed from the waist down and known as “Dead Legs,” who vows revenge on the ivory trader (Lionel Barrymore) who caused his injury and stole his wife. Total approx. 120 min.