The Unholy Three – Silent (1925)

Description

The Unholy Three is a 1925 American silent film involving a crime spree, directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney. The supporting cast features Mae Busch, Matt Moore, Victor McLaglen, and Harry Earles.

The film was remade in 1930 as a talkie. In both the 1925 and the 1930 versions, the roles of Professor Echo and Tweedledee are played by Chaney and Earles respectively. The films were based on the novel of the same name by Tod Robbins.

Plot
Three performers leave a sideshow after Tweedledee (Harry Earles), a midget performer, assaults a young heckler and sparks a melee. The three join together in an “unholy” plan to become wealthy. Prof. Echo, the ventriloquist, assumes the role of Mrs. O’Grady, a kindly old grandmother, who runs a pet shop, while Tweedledee plays her grandchild. Hercules (Victor McLaglen), the strongman, works in the shop along with the unsuspecting Hector McDonald (Matt Moore). Echo’s girlfriend, pickpocket Rosie O’Grady (Mae Busch), pretends to be his granddaughter.

Using what they learn from delivering pets, the trio later commit burglaries, with their wealthy buyers as victims. On Christmas Eve, John Arlington (an uncredited Charles Wellesley) telephones to complain that the “talking” parrot (aided by Echo’s ventriloquism) he bought will not speak. When “Granny” O’Grady visits him to coax the bird into performing, “she” takes along grandson “Little Willie”. While there, they learn that a valuable ruby necklace is in the house. They decide to steal it that night. As Echo is too busy, the other two grow impatient and decide to go ahead without him.

The next day, Echo is furious to read in the newspaper that Arlington was killed and his three-year-old daughter badly injured in the robbery. Hercules shows no remorse whatsoever, relating to how Arlington pleaded for his life. When a police investigator shows up at the shop, the trio becomes fearful and decides to frame Hector, hiding the jewelry in his room.

Meanwhile, Hector proposes to Rosie. She turns him down, but he overhears her crying after he leaves. To his joy, she confesses she loves him, but was ashamed of her shady past. When the police take him away, Rosie tells the trio that she will exonerate him, forcing them to abduct her and flee to a mountain cabin. Echo takes along his large pet ape (who terrifies Hercules).

In the spring, Hector is brought to trial. Rosie pleads with Echo to save Hector, promising to stay with him if he does. After Echo leaves for the city, Tweedledee overhears Hercules asking Rosie to run away with him (and the loot). Tweedledee releases the ape. Hercules kills Tweedledee right before the ape gets him.

At the trial, Echo agonizes over what to do, but finally rushes forward and confesses all. Both he and Hector are set free. When Rosie goes to Echo to keep her promise, he lies and says he is only kidding. He tells her to go to Hector. Echo returns to the sideshow, giving his spiel to the customers: “That’s all there is to life, friends, … a little laughter … a little tear.”

Themes
As is common in a Tod Browning film, circus life and unusual bodies play a central role in this movie along with great use of trompe-l’œil optical illusion. Trompe-l’œil is exercised and played with as the illusion of Dr. Echo as “Mrs. O’Grady” and Tweedledee as “Little Willie”. The main plot of the movie revolves around the character’s abilities to pass themselves off convincingly as something they are not, an illusion the movie peels back and reasserts for both the other characters and the audience themselves. Contrary to the usual use of this effect, Browning makes it a point to disillusion the audience and display the workings of the illusion to create a different sort of viewing stimulation.

In most of Browning’s films, his opinion of the deformed and different becomes evident. The three’s plot plays directly with another of Browning’s favorite topics, dealing with identity, doubles, dual roles, and deformity. This film is unique in that the character Tweedledee is the only one of this group who is played by a deformed character and is malicious.

Cast:

• Lon Chaney as Prof. Echo, a.k.a. Mrs. O’Grady or “Granny”
• Mae Busch as Rosie O’Grady
• Matt Moore as Hector McDonald
• Victor McLaglen as Hercules, a.k.a. “Son-in-Law”
• Harry Earles as Tweedledee, a.k.a. Baby “Little Willie”
• Matthew Betz as Detective Regan
• Edward Connelly as the Judge
• William Humphrey as Defense Attorney
• E. Alyn Warren as Prosecuting Attorney