The Unknown

The Unknown (1927)

Don't miss this startling spectacle!

On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder—a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.

Date of release
1927-05-29
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (221)
Runtime
1h 8m
Genres
Thriller, Romance, Horror
Director
Tod Browning

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $217K

The Unknown is a 1927 American silent horror film directed by Tod Browning, and starring Lon Chaney as carnival knife thrower "Alonzo the Armless" and Joan Crawford as his beloved carnival girl Nanon. Originally titled Alonzo the Armless, filming took place from February 7 to March 18, 1927 on a $217,000 budget.

Production

The genesis of the story lies in Browning’s reflections on an individual who suffers multiple amputations and the dramatic personal repercussions. Browning describes this process as beginning with the spectacle of traumatic disfigurement, rather than plot:

“The story writes itself after I have conceived the characters. The Unknown came to me after I had the idea of a man [Alonzo] without arms. I then asked myself what are the most amazing situations and actions that a man thus reduced could be involved...”

Actor and collaborator Chaney developed his characterization of Alonzo on the same premise: “I contrived to make myself look like an armless man, not simply to shock and horrify you but merely to bring to the screen a dramatic story of an armless man.”

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer originally sought to pair new Swedish property Greta Garbo with Chaney, “the man of a thousand faces”, who was emerging as the studio’s top box office draw in 1927, but the female lead went to MGM starlet Joan Crawford.

Chaney collaborated with real-life armless double Paul Desmuke (sometimes credited as Peter Dismuki), who used his legs and feet to manipulate objects such as knives and cigarettes in frame with Chaney's upper body and face.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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