The Unholy Three (1925)

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is quite the entertaining movie but to say the characters and events in the story defy credibility is probably an understatement. Which might lead you to wonder whether this was a crime story, a suspense story or just one with a bunch of oddball characters in it. Directed by Tod Browning in his first collaboration with MGM, the film is somewhat of a precursor to his 1932 film 'Freaks', which has more fantastic characters on display in an even more bizarre tale.Browning sets up the action with a quick view of circus performers to whet the viewer's appetite for strangeness; there's an immense fat lady, a tattooed woman, a sword swallower and Siamese twins, all to get us ready for Professor Echo (Lon Chaney), an otherwise normal looking ventriloquist, Hercules the strongman (Victor McLaglen), and midget performer Tweedledee (Harry Earles). I got a kick out of a circus patron's remark to her young son to refrain from smoking cigarettes if he ever wants to grow up to be a strong man like Hercules. Hercules responds by lighting up a cigarette as the customers walk away.Professor Echo uses his ventriloquism gimmick in more ways than one; as part of his newly established criminal enterprise, pet shop customers are enticed to buy talking parrots that seem to clam up once they're brought to their new home. Disguised as a sweet old lady with a young baby in tow, Echo cases the premises of his customers, and his partners rob whatever money or jewelry they can get their hands on. When one of their victims wind up murdered, they abandon the shop and head off to a remote cabin to wait out the authorities. Complicating this entire scenario however is a love triangle of sorts. Not only does the Professor fall for pretty Rosie O'Grady (Mae Busch), so does shop employee Hector McDonald (Matt Moore).Though there are some suspenseful scenes throughout the story, others will leave you rather perplexed and scratching your head. The courtroom scene requires major suspension of disbelief, and you'll wind up wondering how and why the chimp from the pet shop seems to transform into a vicious ape at the hideout cabin. I guess you have to take it on faith that the snarling monkey settled the score with Hercules and Little Willie because they don't make it to the end of the picture.But you know, through it all the story is an entertaining one, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how the individual players reminded me of more current movie actors. Depending on the way the camera presented Rosie O'Grady, Miss Busch resembled Terri Garr quite a bit, while Victor McLaglen and Lon Chaney both brought to mind first, a middle aged, and then a slightly older Tommy Lee Jones.

Murderous anomalies from the circus sideshow were "old hat" by the time director Tod Browning Helmed the infamous FREAKS picture in 1932, which almost single-handedly brought on 81 years of film censorship in America (and counting). In 1925, Browning put out this silent--THE UNHOLY THREE--in which one thing leads to another, potentially posing a very sticky wicket for what an Intertitle card here labels "the grim machinery of the law." Sure, you can modify an American snuff chamber with his and her electric chairs (complete with a "cry room" for the young children, as in the Rosenberg Case). But how the dickens do you construct a triple-hanging scaffold for a strong man, a ventriloquist, and a 20-inch midget? The former's neck strength and the latter's lack of weight probably would leave both dangling and thrashing about indefinitely, while the man in the middle's dummy would be screaming bloody murder! Many spectators would die laughing--just the opposite of the desired outcome! Browning solves this conundrum by having a gorilla kill the strongman and the midget (off-screen, of course). Since the voice thrower sings for the court, he gets off with a song.

Say what you will about the plot or with music or not, I enjoyed the hell outta this thing (Without music), and just Loved Lon Chaney in it. He was such a shady-lookin' character, with such an ugly, creased, fascinating face. One that had both light and darkness in it. And the man could act. It's not hard to see why he was the top box-office draw at one time. Also, I gotta give a shout out to big man Victor McLaglen, future Gypo Nolan from John Ford's "The Informer". Here he's not as drunk or beefed-out yet, but he's lean and mean and does just fine.And Super-Props to the biggest little man Harry Earles, future avenged cuckold in "Freaks" (Awesome!) and yes, one of those damned annoying munchkins from Oz. But here, he's one dastardly little fake-baby criminal. In his first scene, what he does to the kid in the crowd? So Bad. And smoking a cigar and talking' some smack from his high-chair, like he was imitating Pacino from "Scarface"? Even Better. (Special Request for the Cinema- Gods: More midget characters like this in movies, please.) But far and away the Best is still Lon Chaney, as Professor Echo, the Ventriloquist. Performing in a silent movie as somebody who "throws his voice" for a living, he carries the crazy plot, lights up the screen, and just does such an amazing job.My favorite thing in the movie is toward the very end. When the girl comes back to him at the sideshow because he's fulfilled his end of the bargain, but then he does the decent thing and lets her go back to the man she loves, and she's walked away after he's said goodbye through his dummy, and she's turned and waved and left, there's a moment where Chaney rests the dummy's head on his shoulder and "they both" sigh and watch her walk away. The look on his face... It's just so sad and beautiful. One of the greatest images in film ever.Thank You, Lon Chaney, wherever you are.

"The Unholy Three" has the thinnest plot imaginable. Professor Echo's plan, which he claims will make them a million, revolves around selling parrots to rich people. Prof. Echo, a ventriloquist, throws his voice to make the purchasers believe the parrots are great talkers. When they complain that their birds are not talking any more he visits them at their homes with a baby in a pram ("Tweedledum" the midget) and checks what they have to steal. Luckily rich people seem to spend their time openly admiring their gems with the safe open.And that's the plot in a nutshell. A very dull film indeed. Not even Tod Browning's direction can get around the numbing limitations of the plot.