The Unholy Three (1925)

Professor Echo (Lon Chaney) is a ventriloquist at the Carnival. His life philosophy is simple: Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry.

His pickpocket partner is Rosie O'Grady (Mae Busch). He loves her, but she happens to love Hector (Matt Moore).

The Carnival doesn't make a lot of money for Professor Echo and the other "freaks," I'm guessing. So, Echo also dresses up as an old woman and runs a pet store on the side, as you do. Eventually, he gets together with the World's Strongest Man and the World's Smallest Man. They form a faction called the Unholy Three, and they case a rich person's house so they can still some rubies.

While Echo never wanted things to go violent, the other two men in the Unholy Three don't have the same scruples. The owner of the rubies dies, and the men decide to frame the murder on Hector.

But Echo is a good guy. He can't let Hector go to the chair for something the Unholy Three did, even if that would clear the way for him and Rosie to be together.

Meanwhile, the other two men keep trying to double-cross each other so that they can split more of the take among themselves. Eventually their unholiness will bite them in the butt.

Echo's pet shop had a monkey, and just in case they needed more animal muscle than the world's strongest man could offer, Echo takes it with them as they wait out Hector's trial at their hideaway in the mountains. It's funny because the monkey is sometimes shot in the movie as though it's a gorilla. I'm sure monkeys are strong and violent, but they're not gorillas.

In any event, the monkey gets lose and goes berserk on the tiny man and strong man. Echo's conscience steps in at Court, and he confesses his part in the crime. Apparently, the Court knows he has a good heart, and the deaths of the other two Unholy Three is enough. They don't even charge Professor Echo.

The ending is kind of weird. Rosie is willing to sacrifice herself for Echo, and Echo is willing to sacrifice himself for her. In the end, Echo still loves Rosie, but he releases her from her promise, and she goes off with Hector. Echo simply returns to the Carnival like nothing has happened. This time, he doesn't have a pickpocket working for him. He just has memories of the girl he loved who got away, and the good feeling of knowing that he let her live happily after with the man she loves.

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