Image of the day, 7/23/11

A version of pastoral in Jack Conway's 1930 all-talking version of The Unholy Three. In the foreground, Lila Lee and Lon Chaney; in the background, Ivan Linow and, in the gorilla suit, Charles Gemora. 

Comments

[Oliver_C]

"The Unholy Three"? And a guy in a gorilla suit?

Aha, so *that's* where Marvel Comics got the idea...

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=768597&gsub=27878

[David Ehrenstein]

I've seen it and it's quite good.

[Kiss Me, Son of God]

Hey, it's Bryan Cranston!

[Shawn Stone]

"I don't trust that midge!"

On the whole, the deep malice of the Browning version (1925) gets swapped out for something more superficial, but there's nothing superficial about Chaney's commitment.

[Glenn Kenny]

It's true, this is dime-store stuff next to the original, but still, so much to love: Chaney, Lila, Harry Earles saying "Pretty beads, pretty beads," and so on. My favorite thing about this shot in its non-still version is the casual, unconscious surrealism it achieves; these two characters fretting over their "relationship" outside their cabin in the woods while a gorilla jumps around behind them.

[AeC]

I saw the original at Film Forum's Tod Browning retrospective a couple years ago, which simultaneously showed me just how more twisted Browning could get than Dracula and Freaks and made me a lifelong Chaney, Sr. fan. This one's been sitting on my shelf for a while after I picked up a Chaney six-pack from Warner Archive a few months back. It just moved closer to the head of the "To Watch" list.

[haice]

Laurel & Hardy fled the circus around that same time with the estimable Charles Gemora as "Ethel" in THE CHIMP. Hilarious scene with the three of them in a motel room as L & H plot to ditch the monkey.