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.
Showing posts with label Silent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silent. Show all posts
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Sunday, October 17, 2010
FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1926)
I liked the idea for the story, but the movie is too long and the narrative too lumpy and some of the acting (by supporting characters) is way too over dramatic. None of that really matters though cause when Garbo is on the screen I'm in absolute Heaven. At this stage in her career they could have made a three hour movie about her grocery shopping and I'd be glued to the screen the entire time.
Enjoyable silent film, but mainly just to see Garbo and Gilbert gettin' steamy.
Monday, July 13, 2009
JAPANESE GIRLS AT THE HARBOR (1933)

Two teenage school girls are best frinds until one gets involved with a wannabe gangster. He leads her on while, at the same time, he's messing around with another older woman, so the school girl gets mad and attacks the woman. Shunned by the community she is run out of town. Time passes and now the school girl is a prostitute. Her once best friend is now married to the wannabe gangster guy who has settled down. Tons of thick melodrama follow. Shimizu is very good with the camera, but the story just cannot hold up even for 72 minutes. You could say "Hey, it's fuckin' 1933. Give this guy a break!" but in 1933 Yasujiro Ozu was already knocking out the good stuff like A STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS.
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