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Tod Browning, MGM, 1927. Lon Chaney is Alonzo, a circus knife-thrower who hides his arms because the police want a man with two thumbs on one hand. Joan Crawford is Nanon, who cannot bear to be touched by a man’s hands. He has a surgeon do the obvious, irreversible thing so he can marry her. The AFI lists sixty-eight minutes. Chaney throws with his feet. Crawford, not yet the MGM mask, plays disgust as a bodily fact. The title is the name on the wagon. The last reel is about what he gave away.
In two programmes
Alonzo hides his arms because the police want a man with two thumbs, then has them removed for a woman who has already changed her mind. Chaney throws knives with his feet. Crawford, not yet the MGM mask, flinches like she means it. The last reel is the hardest thing in the catalog to watch, and it is sixty-eight minutes in.
Lon Chaney: The Man of a Thousand Faces
Alonzo hides his arms because of a thumb, then gives them away for a woman who has stopped minding hands. Chaney throws knives with his feet and lights a cigarette the same way. The last reel is a man learning what he paid for. He plays it without asking for anything.
Cast & crew
Further reading
- WebsiteBob Dylan on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
- EssayMovies Silently Review ★★★½ (opens in a new tab)
- EssayTod Browning’s Ballyhoo Art (opens in a new tab)
- EssayThe Unknown (opens in a new tab)
- EssayThe Unknown (1927) | San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens in a new tab)
- EssayThe Unknown (1927): Silent Cinema Out on The Big Top — 4 Star Films (opens in a new tab)
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