WEST OF ZANZIBAR (1928)

Enjoyable dark silent film about a magician (Lon Chaney) who, when he finds out that his wife is running off with Lionel Barrymore, gets in a fight with him and ends up paralyzed from the legs down.  Later on he hears that his wife has returned with a baby girl.  Chaney rushes to go see his wife, but she's dead.  So in an act of revenge he takes the baby and believing that it's Barrymore's child, has her raised in the "lowest dive in Zanzibar" while he himself has tracked down Barrymore who is now an ivory trader.  Chaney uses his magician skills to trick the local tribesmen and with their help he's been stealing ivory from Barrymore's men.  As planned this enrages Barrymore.  Chaney then reveals that he's behind the thefts and sets up a meeting to enact his final revenge.

For being made in 1928, WEST OF ZANZIBAR is pretty grim, especially the revenge on the child aspect.  When it was first mentioned I almost thought it was gonna go an OLDBOY way, but it ended up going the MANON OF THE SPRING direction instead.  If you are interested in silent cinema then you should definitely check it out.  It's not the greatest silent ever (or even in the Top 100), the pace is kinda slow and even though the mood is dark (and this was Pre-Code), really nothing too unacceptable happens onscreen, but it's still an enjoyable film and watching Chaney's sneering while he's dragging his legs around the joint is worth the price of admission alone.  The biggest problem I had with the film was believing that Lionel Barrymore could be evil.  He's made such a powerful impression in my handsome brain with his performances in films like GRAND HOTEL and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU that it's really difficult to take him seriously as the bad guy.

THE GREENE MURDER CASE (1929)

Detective Philo Vance's next case after THE CANARY MURDER CASE finds William Powell once again taking on a murder mystery that the police appear to be stumped on.  The scene of the crime is a mansion full of Greene family members and their servants.  During the night, two of the family members were shot, one fatally.  The police believe it's just a robbery gone bad, but Powell thinks there's more to it than meets the eye.

Although TGMC was made the same year as TCMC everything about it is an improvement.  The acting is better, the sets look nice, the pace is quick, the mystery is pretty light-weight, but still enjoyable enough.

I can't imagine that modern day audiences would have any interest whatsoever in something like THE GREENE MURDER CASE, but if you do then it's worth checking out if only to see an early talkie of William Powell, Jean Arthur and Eugene Pallette.

THE CANARY MURDER CASE (1929)

Very rough around the edges early talkie mystery starting a pre-THIN MAN William Powell as detective Philo Vance.  Apparently a stage performer by the name of the Canary has her hooks into the son of a wealthy banker.  She plans on blackmailing him and when his father goes to talk some sense into her she winds up very dead.  Around the same time a whole slew of wannabe Canary fuckers were hanging around her crib, so now it's up to Philo Vance to figure out who all was there and who did the killing.

Sounds exciting, but it's not in the least.  Powell might have been at the top of his game in the mid-30's, but here with this script he's pretty dull.  But not as dull as those around him!  My Satan, it was torture getting through this...and I love old movies.  If it hadn't been for my curiosity to see a young William Powell and Jean Arthur I probably would've never made it through.  And speaking of Jean Arthur: she has like one minute of screen time.  Louise Brooks doesn't have much more.

Watch it if you want, but I'll never watch it ever again.