The Unholy Three (1925)

hyped garbage

From my favorite movies..

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Before he gifted the world of horror with two stone-cold classics (1931's Dracula and 1932's Freaks), director Tod Browning was an incredibly prolific film-maker, churning out melodramas, thrillers and horror pictures by the dozen. One of his best during the silent period was The Unholy Three, a rather twisted crime drama set around a group of ex-circus freaks who come up with a plan to steal their fortune. It's a premise that would have any cinephile salivating, especially with genre legend and 'Man of a Thousand Faces' Lon Chaney playing the lead and the film's relative obscurity. While it's no masterpiece like Freaks, it explores a different side to the circus performer: one that is dissatisfied, restless, and capable of going to extreme lengths to earn their riches.After getting kicked out of the side-show following a mass brawl, three disgruntled performers hatch a cunning plan to rob some rick folk blind. Ventriloquist Echo (Chaney) will assume the disguise of Granny O'Grady, a nice old lady who runs a pet store specialising in parrots. The animals do not talk, but Echo uses his ventriloquist skills to convince the moustache-twirling customers otherwise. When the unhappy purchaser later calls the store to complain, Granny O'Grady will snoop out the place, paving the way for horseshoe- bending strongman Hercules (Victor McLaglen) and short-tempered midget Tweedledee (Harry Earles) to sneak in and steal any spied valuables. There's also an escape plan in mild-mannered store manager Hector (Matt Moore), who the three will lay the blame on should the heat turn up. But when Echo's girlfriend Rosie (Mae Busch) falls for Hector, the plan quickly starts to fall apart.There are a lot of things about The Unholy Three that are utterly ridiculous, such as Echo's needlessly convoluted plan, and the idea that anyone would buy the cigar-chomping Earles as a baby in a cart. Yet the flaws are really the reason to love the film that much more. There is a morbid fascination to be had with watching these idiots repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot and quickly resort to cold- blood murder. Chaney really was the man of a thousand faces; effortlessly convincing as both a harmless old lady and a sympathetic anti-hero, and Earles - who would later appear in Freaks - is great fun, delivering what is undoubtedly the film's greatest line ("If you tip that boob off to who we are, I'll lay some lilies under your chin!"). The strange premise and macabre characters proved a hit with the audience, and catapulted Browning into the big leagues. It may lack the edge of his later movies, but The Unholy Three retains a ghoulish quality a whole 92 years after its release.

How can one not love a Lon Chaney movie. His mastery of roles and his way of putting himself in the most awful physical contortions is historical. The old, "Too many cooks spoil the broth," is at work here. While these people were pulling off small crimes and picking pockets, things were reasonable. As soon as the loose cannon gets in and steals a valuable ruby, killing a man and harming a little girl, things go sour. The pet store front allows for all kinds of great visual delights. A midget playing a baby is also pretty bizarre. And, of course, we have the innocent man, who must be as dense as it possible to be, ignoring that strangest group of felons imaginable. Going around dusting the displays and keeping tabs on a gorilla they just happened to have. The finale is quite interesting and Chaney is superb. Just don't think too much as you watch it.

This is quite the entertaining movie but to say the characters and events in the story defy credibility is probably an understatement. Which might lead you to wonder whether this was a crime story, a suspense story or just one with a bunch of oddball characters in it. Directed by Tod Browning in his first collaboration with MGM, the film is somewhat of a precursor to his 1932 film 'Freaks', which has more fantastic characters on display in an even more bizarre tale.Browning sets up the action with a quick view of circus performers to whet the viewer's appetite for strangeness; there's an immense fat lady, a tattooed woman, a sword swallower and Siamese twins, all to get us ready for Professor Echo (Lon Chaney), an otherwise normal looking ventriloquist, Hercules the strongman (Victor McLaglen), and midget performer Tweedledee (Harry Earles). I got a kick out of a circus patron's remark to her young son to refrain from smoking cigarettes if he ever wants to grow up to be a strong man like Hercules. Hercules responds by lighting up a cigarette as the customers walk away.Professor Echo uses his ventriloquism gimmick in more ways than one; as part of his newly established criminal enterprise, pet shop customers are enticed to buy talking parrots that seem to clam up once they're brought to their new home. Disguised as a sweet old lady with a young baby in tow, Echo cases the premises of his customers, and his partners rob whatever money or jewelry they can get their hands on. When one of their victims wind up murdered, they abandon the shop and head off to a remote cabin to wait out the authorities. Complicating this entire scenario however is a love triangle of sorts. Not only does the Professor fall for pretty Rosie O'Grady (Mae Busch), so does shop employee Hector McDonald (Matt Moore).Though there are some suspenseful scenes throughout the story, others will leave you rather perplexed and scratching your head. The courtroom scene requires major suspension of disbelief, and you'll wind up wondering how and why the chimp from the pet shop seems to transform into a vicious ape at the hideout cabin. I guess you have to take it on faith that the snarling monkey settled the score with Hercules and Little Willie because they don't make it to the end of the picture.But you know, through it all the story is an entertaining one, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how the individual players reminded me of more current movie actors. Depending on the way the camera presented Rosie O'Grady, Miss Busch resembled Terri Garr quite a bit, while Victor McLaglen and Lon Chaney both brought to mind first, a middle aged, and then a slightly older Tommy Lee Jones.

This was definitely a career highlight for Lon Chaney. It showed why he was a master of disguise and also why he was so beloved by the movie going public - no matter how bad the character was, he always kept a little humanity in his heart. With direction by Todd Browning and based on a novel by Tod Robbins (his story "Spurs" was turned into the film "Freaks"), "The Unholy Three" was an evocative and macabre thriller.Professor Echo (Lon Chaney) is a circus ventriloquist, who is in league with strongman Hercules (Victor McLaglen) and an evil midget Tweedledee(a sensational Harry Earles). They call themselves "The Unholy Three" and together with Rosie (Mae Busch) they work a pickpocketing sideline. But Echo has plans - in the disguise of sweet Granny O'Grady, he opens a pet shop full of talking parrots - strangely enough, once they are bought the parrots stop talking!!! This is Echo's big scheme - when Granny is called to the various homes to find out what is wrong with the birds, Tweedledee, disguised as a child, "Little Willie" cases the place and within a few days the house has been robbed and the police are baffled.John Arlington has bought a parrot and invites Granny O'Grady to his house to see if she can coax the bird to talk. At Arlington's home, Tweedledee is dazzled by some priceless jewelry and when, later that night Echo is waylaid into trimming a Christmas tree - Tweedledee, who is the real evil mastermind, convinces Hercules to do the job with him alone. They do but kill Arlington and leave a small child close to death - Echo shows by his reaction - "You....Filth", that he is not like the other two, that deep down he has feelings. The police close in - but the person they arrest is Hector (Matt Moore). He is completely innocent and has been hired to front the shop and be a "fall guy" in case the worst happens. Rosie and Hector, though, have fallen in love and she will do whatever it takes to free him - even sharing a loveless life with Echo.The plot is quite complex - there is even a giant monkey (actually a cleverly enlarged chimpanzee) that Echo keeps in a room, just in case the others "get out of line". The courtroom scene is a marvellous display of the emotions and expressions that Lon Chaney can create. He slips into court and because Hector only knows him as Granny, he doesn't recognise him. Echo then sends him a note with instructions - if Hector will go back on the stand then Echo will do the rest. There is a scene that shows Chaney's face displaying a myriad of emotions, from apprehension, fear, happiness and finally relief.Aside from Lon Chaney's acting brilliance, Harry Earles is a revelation as the depraved Tweedledee. A couple of his scenes were quite shocking. His introduction, at the beginning of the film as a carnival attraction shows his character in a few seconds. During a scene in which people taunt and make fun of him, he kicks a small child in the face and then has to be restrained. When he and Hercules come back from the robbery "gone wrong" - he is laughing as he recalls how the victims begged for mercy. Harry Earles found the role of a lifetime in "Tweedledee" the crazed and evil midget. It was quite extraordinary how he could convincingly switch from being an angry, cigar smoking crook to a little baby playing with his toys. In one nail biting scene when the police come to question them, the jewels are hastily put into a toy elephant and of course it is the toy the policeman picks up and starts to tinker with. Mae Busch is also very good as Rosie - she may not have the flapper prettiness of Lila Lee, who played Rosie in the 1930 remake, but she makes Rosie real.Apart from the "gaffe" of outdoor scenery being obviously a painted backdrop (when Echo and Rosie are talking in the woods, their shadows show) a few of the indoor scenes seem to be painted sets - it just adds to the illusion, mystery and moodiness of the film.Highly, Highly Recommended.