The Unknown is a 1927 American silent horror film directed by Tod Browning, and starring Lon Chaney as carnival knife thrower "Alonzo the Armless" and Joan Crawford as his beloved carnival girl Nanon. Originally titled Alonzo the Armless, filming took place from February 7 to March 18, 1927 on a $217,000 budget.
The film carried the tagline: "A superb mystery thriller, unusual and startling even for a Chaney film. Lon as "The Unknown" eats, drinks, shoots a rifle and dresses with his feet. Don't miss this startling spectacle!" Stills exist showing Chaney made up as Alonzo the Armless.Image lonchaney.orgImage lonchaney.org
Plot
"Alonzo the Armless" is a circus freak who uses his feet to toss knives and fire a rifle at Nanon, the daughter of the circus's owner. Alonzo actually has arms, but keeps them tightly strapped to his torso. This secret is known only to his friend Cojo the dwarf. Alonzo's left hand has a double thumb, which would readily identify him as the perpetrator of various crimes.
Alonzo is secretly in love with Nanon. Malabar, the circus strongman, is devoted to her as well, but she has a phobia of men's hands and cannot stand being pawed by them, so she shuns him. She only feels comfortable around the armless Alonzo, because she doesn't feel threatened by him. When she embraces and kisses him one day, he is given hope, but Cojo warns him that he cannot let it happen again. If she holds him too tightly, she might feel his arms.
When Nanon's father, Antonio Zanzi, discovers Alonzo's secret, Alonzo strangles him with his bare hands outside of his circus wagon. Nanon witnesses this through a window, but her view is partially blocked. A flash of lightning reveals that her father's killer has a double thumb on his left hand, but she cannot see the killer's face. Since Alonzo is believed to be armless, he is not a suspect. When the circus leaves town, Alonzo has Nanon remain behind with him.
Cojo points out to Alonzo that if Alonzo and Nanon were to marry, he could not hide his arms from her forever, and she would recognize him as her father's killer because of his double thumb. Consequently, Alonzo blackmails a surgeon into amputating his arms. While he is recovering, however, Malabar's persistent love finally enables Nanon to overcome her phobia of hands, and she agrees to marry him.
When Alonzo (now truly armless) returns to Nanon, she excitedly tells him that she and Malabar are getting married. Alonzo is shocked and horrified, first laughing hysterically, then crying, as he realizes he has cut off his arms for nothing. His emotional outburst confuses the couple, but then Nanon tells Malabar "Look! Alonzo is crying because he is so happy for us."
Alonzo then learns that Malabar and Nanon have been practicing a new act, where the strongman's arms seem to be pulled in opposite directions by two horses who are actually running on hidden treadmills. During the first performance, Alonzo stops one treadmill, hoping the horses will tear the strongman's arms from his body. When Nanon starts to intervene, Alonzo threatens her with a knife, telling her to stay back. However, she rushes to calm one of the horses down. Alonzo tries to save her from injury by pushing her out of the way. The horse knocks Alonzo down and stomps on his chest, killing him. The machine is turned off, and Malabar is saved from mutilation.
Cast
Lon Chaney as Alonzo the Armless Norman Kerry as Malabar the Mighty Joan Crawford as Nanon Zanzi (Estrellita in the original script) Nick De Ruiz as Antonio Zanzi (Nanon's father) John George as Cojo the dwarf Frank Lanning as Costra Polly Moran as Landlady (scenes deleted) Bobbie Mack as Gypsy (scenes deleted) Louise Emmons as Gypsy Woman (uncredited) Julian Rivero as Man in Audience (uncredited) Billy Seay as The Little Wolf (uncredited) John St. Polis (John Sainpolis) as Surgeon (uncredited) Italia and Venetia Frandi as undetermined Tom Amandares as Gypsy Paul Desmuke as Alonzo Body Double (uncredited)
Production
The genesis of the story lies in Browning’s reflections on an individual who suffers multiple amputations and the dramatic personal repercussions. Browning describes this process as beginning with the spectacle of traumatic disfigurement, rather than plot:Diekmann and Knörer, 2006 p. 69: “The Browning universe presents itself very much as a world of spectacles [among these] The Unknown (1927)...”Conterio, 2018: Browning's “emotionally complicated interest in human abnormality and the severely disabled.”
Actor and collaborator Chaney developed his characterization of Alonzo on the same premise: “I contrived to make myself look like an armless man, not simply to shock and horrify you but merely to bring to the screen a dramatic story of an armless man.”Brogan, 2019: “As The Unknown proves, Chaney didn’t need to rely on heavy make-up to transform himself for a role.” And see here for quote.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer originally sought to pair new Swedish property Greta Garbo with Chaney, “the man of a thousand faces”, who was emerging as the studio’s top box office draw in 1927, but the female lead went to MGM starlet Joan Crawford.Brogan, year: “: “Chaney was already “The Man of a Thousand Faces” when he appeared in The Unknown.” And: “Chaney was voted the number-one box office star of 1928 and 1929.” And: “Joan Crawford was a starlet...striving for recognition... The Unknown gave it to her.”Sobchack, 2006 p. 26: “Originally conceived as a vehicle for Chaney and Greta Garbo [to suit] their special and unique talents…”Eaker, 2016: “Nanon, (an 18 year old Joan Crawford).”
Chaney collaborated with real-life armless double Paul Desmuke (sometimes credited as Peter Dismuki), who used his legs and feet to manipulate objects such as knives and cigarettes in frame with Chaney's upper body and face.Stafford, 2003 TCM: “It was widely believed at the time that Chaney really had learned to throw knives with his feet and light cigarettes with his toes for The Unknown. In some wide-angle scenes, he does use his own feet but for medium and close-up shots Browning used a double named Dismuki who was born without arms. Later, Dismuki went on to tour with the Al G. Barnes Circus and Sideshow where he was billed as "The Man Who Doubled for Lon Chaney's Legs in The Unknown."
In the original screenplay, Alonzo murders both the doctor and Cojo to eliminate them as witnesses before he returns to claim Nanon, but these scenes never made it to the final print.
Critical appraisal
The Unknown is widely regarded as a masterpiece of the late silent film era and the most outstanding of the ten Browning-Chaney collaborations,Brogan, 2008:“When they made The Unknown in 1927, star Lon Chaney and director Tod Browning were among the biggest names in Hollywood...The Unknown is now considered by many to be the best of the Chaney/Browning collaborations...the sixth of ten collaborations between Chaney and director Tod Browning.”Conterio, 2018: “Generally considered to be the pair’s best film together, and Browning’s masterpiece..."Eaker, 2016: “The Unknown (1927) is one of the final masterpieces of the silent film era...the one film in which the artists’ obsessions perfectly crystallized.”Stafford, 2003 TCM: “the character of Alonzo in The Unknown is one of his most disturbing creations and the most twisted film in his ten-year association with director Tod Browning.”Hanke, Ken. 1991. A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series. New York: Garland Pub. p. 9. . eight of them at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.Conterio, 2018: “Generally considered to be the pair’s best film together, and Browning’s masterpiece..."Eaker, 2016: “The Unknown (1927) is one of the final masterpieces of the silent film era...the one film in which the artists’ obsessions perfectly crystallized.”Brogan, year: “The Unknown is quite possibly the most unusual...among the Browning-Chaney film collaborations. Browning's rendering of Alonzo and the horrific self-mutilation he endures to win the love of Nanon is reminiscent of the theatre of the Grand Guignol.Diekmann and Knörer, 2006 p. 73: “As far as plots are concerned, the proximity of Browning's cinema to the theatre of the Grand Guignol is evident...” and Diedmann and Knorer (quoting Mel Gordon “Both in silent and sound films, Tod Browning created the films that borrowed most heavily from the Theatre of the Grand Guignol...”Brenez,. 2006 p. 100: “...The Unknown, the most drastic film in regard” to “the defects and excess” of dismemberment. In 2018, critic Scott Brogan observed that of all the films in that collaboration, The Unknown is most worthy of cult status.Brogan, 2019: “The Unknown is quite possibly the most unusual, and the most deserving of ‘cult film’ status” among the Browning-Chaney film collaborations.Eaker, 2016: “The Unknown is...an entirely idiosyncratic work of art, which has never been remotely mimicked, nor could it be.”
Actor Burt Lancaster said that Chaney's portrayal in The Unknown featured “one of the most compelling and emotionally exhausting scenes I have ever seen an actor do.” (referring to the scene where Chaney realizes he has cut off his arms in vain.)"Lon Chaney: The Man of a Thousand Faces", American Masters, pbs.org. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
It is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which says, "Drawing a remarkable and haunting performance from Chaney and filling the plot with twists and unforgettable characters, Browning here creates a chilling masterpiece of psychological (and psychosexual) drama."
"There is no gainsaying the fact that this story is exceptionally tense melodrama that grips the interest and fascinates the spectator, but it is decidedly gruesome. Chaney's large following, however, has been educated to expect him in such roles, and certainly he has never given a finer performance. The manner in which he is shown using his feet as normal persons do their hands is remarkably well done and his facial expressions are wonderful--he uses no eccentric make-up in this role." ---Moving Picture World
"Although it has strength and undoubtedly sustains the interest, THE UNKNOWN...is anything but a pleasant story. It is gruesome and at times shocking, and the principal character deteriorates from a more or less sympathetic individual to an arch-fiend...Mr. Chaney really gives a marvelous idea of the Armless Wonder, for to act in this film he has learned to use his feet as hands when eating, drinking and smoking. He even scratches his head with his toe when meditating." ---The New York Times
"A good Chaney film that might have been great. Chaney and his characterizations invite stories that have power behind them. Every time Browning thinks of Chaney he probably looks around for a typewriter and says 'let's get gruesome.'" ---Variety
"(The Chaney) picture fascinates us, but then they make it so short that it left us bewildered and unsatisfied. But there is nothing that one can say of Mr. Chaney. His performances are always perfect." ---New York Herald Tribune
"Like other Chaney pictures directed by Tod Browning, this has a macabre atmosphere. If you wince at a touch or two of horror, don't go to The Unknown....It has a finely sinister plot, some moments with a real shock and Lon Chaney." ---Photoplay
"A gruesome and unpleasant picture....it is artistically acted and skillfully directed. But those facts do not atone for the offence given by the feature to every normal-minded movie-goer. Of Mr. Chaney's acting, it is enough to say it is excellent of its kind. Similar praise might be given the work of a skilled surgeon engaged in ripping open the abdomen of a patient. But who wants to see it??" ---Harrison's Reports
Themes