1927
This short movie was really grotesque and weird but really, what do you expect from a circus movie? Lon Chaney, who played the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, and Joan Crawford are the stars in this incredibly strange horror film so you know it is going to be freaky. I think any movie with Joan Crawford is kind of horror flick, which may have something to do with the fact that I only know her from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Mommie Dearest.
This film is about an armless knife thrower who falls in love with another circus performer, Joan Crawford! She is afraid of men's touch because she has had such a tough life. The armless guy, though, really isn't armless, he just made it look like he was to escape from the law! He murders her father (whoops!) and has to am-scray. He then decides that he has to have her and some messed up shit happens. The book classifies this film as horror. This movie isn't scary, just a little bit disturbing (though nowhere near as disturbing as Strike was).
Okay, time to make a point because I am just kind of rambling here. I liked it! We have seen some good movies lately, but the plots have all been pretty simplistic. This film, however, has some interesting, unpredictable twists. It is only about an hour but that is really all the time it needed. Lon Chaney is a lot better in this than he was in The Phantom of the Opera. Definitely go see it!
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
This was loosely based on a real event when a man pretended to be an acrobat to escape the police.
Joan Crawford freaks me the hell out!
I am sorry that I was all over the place with this review; I have been really busy today.
Available on YouTube. First out of five parts:
How freaky is Lon Chaney here! This movie is so weird it is just facinating.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was magnificent. I'd definitely class it as a horror.
ReplyDeleteI want to watch this again!
ReplyDelete