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.
Image of the day, 7/23/11
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“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.
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.
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.
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.