The Unholy Three (1925) DVD5 - Silent Movie [DDR]
The Unholy Three is a 1925 silent film melodrama involving a crime spree, directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney.
The film was remade in 1930 as a talkie. In both the 1925 and the 1930 version, the roles of Professor Echo and Tweedledee are played by Chaney and Harry Earles respectively.
Both were based on the novel of the same name by Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins.
CAST:-
Lon Chaney as Professor Echo, the ventriloquist, aka Mrs. 'Granny' O'Grady
Mae Busch as Rosie O'Grady
Matt Moore as Hector McDonald
Victor McLaglen as Hercules, the strongman, aka 'Son-in-Law'
Harry Earles as Tweedledee, the midget, aka Baby 'Little Willie'
Matthew Betz as Detective Regan
Edward Connelly as The Judge
William Humphrey as Defense Attorney (billed as William Humphreys)
E. Alyn Warren as Prosecuting Attorney (billed as A.E. Warren)
Directed by Tod Browning
Produced by Tod Browning, Irving Thalberg (uncredited)
Written by Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins and Waldemar Young
MOVIE REVIEW:- The Unholy Three (1925) Silent Film
Although Lon Chaney and director Tod Browning had made a couple of films together earlier in their careers, this unique melodrama marked the beginning of a string of chilling, macabre silent films, which included West of Zanzibar, The Unknown, and The Black Bird. Chaney is Echo, a sideshow ventriloquist. He cooks up a scam with two other members of the sideshow -- Hercules, the strong man (Victor McLaglen), and Tweedledee, a midget (Harry Earles). The three of them open up a bird store full of parrots that have impressive vocabularies -- but only when Echo, dressed as proprietress Granny O'Grady, is around. When the buyer takes the bird home and it won't talk, Granny comes around with a baby (Tweedledee in swaddling clothes). While "Granny" (using his powers of ventriloquism) coaxes the parrot into speaking, the midget cases the joint to see if there's anything worth robbing later. Trouble comes when they hire Hector, a simple soul (Matt Moore), as a clerk. Echo's pickpocket sweetheart, Rosie (Mae Busch) falls in love with him. Meanwhile, Hercules and Tweedledee murder a man while they're in the midst of one of their robberies. Hector is arrested for the crime while the others flee. To save Hector, Rosie finally agrees to give him up if Echo saves him. By throwing his voice, Echo makes Hector appear to give testimony which frees him. When Rosie goes to Echo, however, he sends her back to Hector, while he returns to the side show. His two cohorts meet their end when they run afoul of Echo's pet gorilla. This hugely successful film was remade as Chaney's first -- and last -- talkie. Harry Earles (who might also be remembered from his starring role in Freaks) reprises his role as Tweedledee.
PRODUCTION NOTES:-
During the scene where Echo and company are fleeing the pet store, Echo decides to take his pet ape with them. The "Ape" was actually a three-foot-tall chimpanzee who was made
to appear gigantic with camera trickery and perspective shots. When Echo removes the ape from his cage, the shot shows Echo (with his back turned to the camera) unlocking the cage and walking the ape to the truck. The ape appears to be roughly the same size as Echo. This effect was achieved by having midget actor Harry Earles (who played "Tweedledee" in the film) play Echo for these brief shots, and then cutting to the normal sized Lon Chaney, making it seem as though the Ape is gigantic. (In the 1930 remake the ape is played by a man in a costume.)
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 29.970
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: Silent Movie
RunTime 86 mins
Subtitles: None
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 86 mins
