The Unholy Three (1925 film)


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 version, 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, the midget, 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, the strongman, works in the shop along with the unsuspecting Hector McDonald. Echo's girlfriend, pickpocket Rosie O'Grady, 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 telephones to complain that the "talking" parrot 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 how Arlington pleaded for his life. When a police investigator shows up at the shop, the trio become fearful and decide 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.
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. The midget releases the ape. Hercules kills the midget 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 was 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 of a Tod Browning film, circus life and unusual bodies play a central role in this movie along with great use of trompe l’oeil. Trompe l’oeil is exercised and played with as the illusion of Dr. Echo as the ‘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 for 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 Browning 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 of that is played by a deformed character and is malicious in nature.

Cast

The "ape" was actually a three-foot-tall chimpanzee who was made to appear gigantic with camera trickery and perspective shots. When Echo removes the ape from his cage, the shot shows Echo unlocking the cage and walking the ape to the truck. The ape appears to be roughly the same size as Echo. This effect was achieved by having midget actor Harry Earles play Echo for these brief shots, and then cutting to Chaney, making it seem as though the ape is gigantic.

Release and reception

The Unholy Three was released for the first time on DVD by Warner Bros. Digital Distribution on October 26, 2010. The company would later re-release the film as a part of its 6-disc Lon Chaney: The Warner Archive Classics Collection on November 22, 2011, and on June 23, 2015.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on, with a weighted average rating of 6.8/10.
Author and film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film two and a half out of four stars. Although Maltin noted that the film contained aspects that were less satisfactory, he commended its strong basic idea and Chaney's performance.
On August 15, 1925  The Billboard published a list of five short reviews for the movie. This featured such critics as Mordaynt Hall, George Gerhard, Richard Watts Jr., and W.R..
The movie was such a success upon its debut that at its release at the New York Capitol Theater, it maintained a strong audience attendance for at least two weeks. Major Edward Bowes, who was the managing director at the time, took steps to ensure everyone who didn’t get to see the movie the first week of its viewing would get to by extending the movie’s stay. An article written about this event noted the movie as “acclaimed as the best crook drama on the screen and one of the most entertaining motion pictures ever made”, which speaks, along with its apparent popularity, for the movie’s quality.
Sherwood of Life magazine praised the movie for its photography and providing a more psychological horror film rather than relying on movie effects to scare its audience. Noted by Sherwood is how the film was shot great attention given to scenes as individual pieces rather than as parts of one greater project, causing continuity errors. This is explained by the writer as an acceptable outcome considering the overall quality. The review is concluded with Sherwood declaring The Unholy Three to be “the best picture of its kind since The Miracle Man.”