Tuesday, December 16 at 6:00 PM – Gene Siskel Film Center — 164 N State Street
Tickets: $13 at the door or purchase in advance
THE UNHOLY THREE
Directed by Jack Conway • 1930
When sound cinema arrived, nobody in Hollywood had a clear picture of how it would develop as a technology or as a business. Studios were forced to experiment with production strategies and often tailored projects to talent unaccustomed to having their speech recorded. For M-G-M, experienced vaudeville player Lon Chaney was one of the surest bets they had for weathering this transition. The studio decided to play it safe for Chaney’s talking debut with a remake of one of the actor’s biggest pre-sound hits, the Tod Browning-directed The Unholy Three (1925). Chaney was enlisted to reprise the role of malevolent ventriloquist and disguise artist Dr. Echo (a perfect showcase for the actor’s impressively malleable voice). While traveling with an itinerant sideshow, Dr. Echo recruits meathead strongman Hercules (Ivan Linow) and belligerent little person Tweedledee (Harry Earles, also returning from the 1925 film) in a criminal enterprise involving the trio posing as a family of pet shop proprietors. Echo leads the business in old-lady drag as “Grandma” O’Grady, while Hercules poses as his son-in-law and Tweedledee pretends to be The Baby, grotesquely puling for visitors and calling his toy elephant “my cow.” Things spin out of control for the Unholy Three after a botched Christmas Eve robbery draws the attention of the authorities, spurring Echo to hole up in a remote cabin with his partners in crime, his girlfriend, and his pet gorilla, all to the significant detriment of the group’s sanity. Chaney died of throat cancer a month after The Unholy Three was released, leaving it as the only speaking role of his career. (CW)
72 min • M-G-M • 35mm from Park Circus
Preceded by: “Let’s All Go to the Circus” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1949) – 8 min – 16mm
NEXT UP: A Whole New CFS Season starts this February! Full Schedule Coming Soon.