This is Lon Chaney's only non-silent film, a remake of the 1925 The Unholy Three. He would die of lung cancer at the age of 47 after the filming of this movie.
What might interest me most about this version is Charles Gemora in the Gorilla suit. In the 1925 version, they just used a monkey, and sometimes they'd play with camera distortion to make the monkey appear bigger and more dangerous. In the 1930 version, it's just Gemora in a Gorilla suit. Convincing? Not really, but the brief bio on Gemora I read was interesting.
Gemora began his movie career just by hanging around the entrance of Universal Studios. According to IMDb, the Filipino Gemora was just 5' 5", and he would have a 30-year career in film, usually uncredited in the Gorilla suit. When he wasn't the Gorilla, he was worked as a make-up artist. The list of films he worked on is quite impressive, including: Island of Lost Souls (1932), Double indemnity (1944), and The Ten Commandments (1956) as a make-up artist, and The Island of Lost Souls as a Gorilla, and The War of the Worlds (1953) as a Martian.
For the most part, the 1930 version of The Unholy Three tells the same story as the 1925, but the ending is slightly different. In the 1925 version, Professor Echo gives a full confession in Court right before the Jury goes to deliberate Hector's fate. He does this for Rosie, and because his conscience won't let an innocent man go to the Chair for a crime he didn't commit. When he makes his confession, that's it. He's let go. The DA doesn't charge him with any crime. They are satisfied that the other two members of the Unholy Three were the guilty parties, and the Monkey had already been the agent of justice on them.
In the 1930 version, Professor Echo takes the stand as his alter ego, Grandma O'Grady. He's not there to confess, at least not until the DA pulls his wig off. Then he makes a full confession. This time, however, he's sentenced to prison for a 1-to-5-year term. Still a very light sentence, but at least he was punished.
Early talkies aren't that satisfying to watch in my experience. Yes, the actors can "talk," but the film is otherwise so "silent." It's like, "Well, the actors can talk, so we don't need the musical score anymore." But honestly, most movies benefit from a musical score, as filmmakers quickly realized. I'm sure the early talkies needed complete silence so that the microphones could pick up the dialogue, but this film was just "too quiet" to the point of being unnatural.
Harry Earles reprised his role as the World's Smallest Man (aka Tweedledee). His most famous role was probably Hans in Freaks (1932). He would also make his last movie appearance in The Wizard of Oz (1941) as an uncredited member of the Lollipop Guild (his three siblings were also Munchkins in the film).
In this version of The Unholy Three, Earles was 28 and could still "pass" for a baby. I'm guessing his acting career didn't last much longer because it became harder for him to "pass" for a baby. He would live to be 83 years old. He and his three siblings, who also had dwarfism, lived together in Florida, and according to the Wikipedia entry, he and his siblings were known as the Doll Family. Tiny, the youngest of the four, was born in 1914 and would be the last one living, spending the last 20 years of her life alone and dying in 2004.
Rating: 1.5/5 stars
Comments
Post a Comment