Review #1,200: 'The Unholy Three' (1925)

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.


Directed by: Tod Browning
Starring: Lon Chaney, Mae Busch, Matt Moore, Victor McLaglen, Harry Earles
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie