Siffblog: The Unknown (1927)

June 14, 2006

The Unknown (1927)

David Jeffers

USA, 1927 (63 minutes)

Friday June 16, 9:00pm The Moore

"Hands! Men’s hands! How I hate them!"

In the final years of the silent era as feature films reached their zenith, few actor/director teams achieved the success and notoriety of Tod Browning and Lon Chaney. Beginning with The Wicked Darling in 1919 and ending with Where East Is East in 1929, their collaborations typically involved a character seen at first as sympathetic. In the course of the story he would reveal his true monstrous nature, only to once again be seen with some sympathetic qualities in the end. Chaney himself commented, "Tod Browning and I have worked so much together he’s called the Chaney director." Released in 1927, The Unknown was the sixth of their ten collaborations and is considered by many to be their best.

"This is a story they tell in old Madrid ….."

Alonzo the Armless (Chaney) is the knife thrower in a traveling Spanish circus. He hurls razor sharp blades with his feet at beautiful Nanon (Joan Crawford) in their act. The Circus Strongman, Malabar the Mighty (Norman Kerry) makes no secret of his deep desire for Nanon, who responds with revulsion to his slightest touch. "Alonzo, all my life men have tried to put their beastly hands on me … to paw over me." Alonzo is a friend to her and the one man Nanon knows will never hold her in his grasp. "You are the one man I can come to without fear." She is unaware of Alonzo’s true feelings and his obsessive longing for her. " ... no one is going to have her! No one but me!" One fantastic secret stands in the way of Alonzo's plans. His bizarre and macabre attempts to win Nanon later on become even more grotesquely shocking and horrific.

It has been said that Chaney’s exquisite talent for physical expression came from growing up in a home with deaf parents. His gesture and movement remains unmistakable, even when concealed by the costumes and makeup of his many characters. Much of his performance in The Unknown is remarkably conveyed using his facial expressions alone. Chaney’s biographer Michael Blake recounts an interview with Burt Lancaster, who described the climactic scene of The Unknown as "The most emotionally compelling scene he’d ever seen an actor do." It is a moment of realization, both gripping and overwrought, as Alonzo teeters on the brink of insanity.

What a tomato!

A very young Joan Crawford appears opposite Chaney in The Unknown, one of her earliest starring roles. Better known for her later work in the sound era when her appearance was significantly different, Crawford was a stunning beauty with piercing eyes in her twenties and appeared in several films often overlooked today.

The Moore …

Sadly, we never ever, ever get to see films at the birthplace of SIFF (God bless Darryl & Dan) anymore. This is a great opportunity to do that very thing! And, it also happens to be a pretty damn good picture! Wild horses …. Well, you’ll want to remember that later. Which leads to a favorite subject …

Context is everything…

Silent film buffs are an odd and persnickety lot. We all have different tastes. Many, like myself, consider the context in which a film is seen as critically important. In other words, the best way to watch and appreciate a period film is within its original viewing context. In the case of The Unknown, which was released in 1927, a theater opened in or prior to that year is ideal. This explains why viewing a silent masterpiece at the Paramount is such a splendiferous experience compared to somewhere with a plywood floor and exposed plumbing.
The other significant element of context is the musical accompaniment, THE MUSIC! Anyone who has ever seen the Giorgio Moroder version of Metropolis should understand precisely what I am referring to. Period instruments (theater organ, piano, orchestra, ensemble, whatever. None of this electronic nonsense), music composed and or distributed specifically for the film, or from the period, provides the proper context. I am reserving my opinion of Friday night’s show until after the performance. A silent film at the Moore has far greater significance than whether or not the music is appropriate. I will bring my earplugs just in case.

See it!

This virtual tour of the Moore will blow your mind!

Posted by David Jeffers at June 14, 2006 12:40 AM

Comments

David: you're assuming too much knowledge on the part of the reader. Tell us about the accompaniment you so dread.

Posted by: mike at June 14, 2006 10:19 PM

Of course! The version of Metropolis to which I referred is an example of musical accompaniment not in the original viewing context.
Ever since they opened, I've wanted to see a show at the Triple Door so I could see what they'd done to the old Embassy Theater. Last year I went down to see Murnau's Nosferatu, which was accompanied by a dreadful trio of electric bass, drums and electric keyboards, with effects. I have chosen to forget the name of this group, but they did an excellent job of destroying a great film.
The first silent film series at the Paramount in 1985 used a forty-piece ensemble from the Seattle Symphony with Dennis James at the house organ. At least one of the films, Douglas Fairbanks’s Robin Hood, used an original score distributed with the film in 1922. It was an absolutely amazing series! I saw women with tears running down their faces during the intermission for Orphans of the Storm! Granted, the film is one of Griffith’s best, but the right musical accompaniment can create a powerfully emotional environment for the images on the screen. I have seen films with a relatively modest piano accompaniment that were quite good. This was typical in smaller towns. I have also seen films with various combinations of acoustic instruments from saxophone and banjo to violin and wind instruments.
There are a few composers creating new scores for silent films today I admire. They keep their work within an appropriate context that does not intentionally alter the original mood or tone of the film. Anything available with a musical score by Carl Davis is guaranteed to be wonderful. Chaplin also wrote beautiful scores for some of his films years after they were made.
Every once in a while I will come across a modern score that I like, but more often than not they are bad and distracting. When SIFF screened two silent films at the Egyptian last month the accompaniment was provided by Donald Sosin on an electric Hammond keyboard and he was excellent. A jazz ensemble next month will accompany one of the films at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I am hoping it will be brilliant!
The musical accompnimrnt for Friday’s show will be Portastatic, a group that plays a more contemporary style of music (yechhhh!). I have been told I will not like it, which is probably true, but I’m going with an open mind. I wouldn’t consider missing this film in this theater simply because the music might be loud and obnoxious.

Posted by: David Jeffers at June 14, 2006 11:45 PM

Trust me, David, you'll hate the accompaniment. I do prefer classic, of the period accompaniments, but anytime you get to see a silent film in the theater it is worth doing regardless of the music. Sometimes the modern live accompaniments can be surprisi ngly good. The Ozu festival last year at the Northwest Film Forum had an interesting variety of styles-a different small combo played for each film. Some of the composers had a real grasp on how to score a film; even though the style of music wasn't the usual silent film fare the composers understood how to use music to underscore the emotion and action of the film.
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Posted by: Anne M. Hockens at June 15, 2006 8:38 PM

I liked the accompaniment for the Ozu silents, too. I wish Portastatic's score had been as subtle. As music, it was fine, but too loud and rock-oriented to work with Browning's expressionistic visuals. The full drum kit was especially distracting; brushes and quieter forms of percussion would've worked better. Also, the film is set in a carnival, which calls for a more Nino Rota-esque approach (hey, it worked for Fellini...).

Posted by: Kathy Fennessy at June 18, 2006 1:05 AM