Rating: 4/5
Hooptober 9.0 | 30/34 | Lon Chaney
Alonzo the Armless (Lon Chaney) is a circus freak in a Romani circus who throws knives and fires rifles using his feet. Nanon (Joan Crawford), his partner, receives unwanted advances from a fellow circus act, Malabar the strongman (Norman Kerry). She confides in Alonzo since he has no arms to hold her, but he also wants her.
He also carries secrets that only Cojo (John George) knows. That Alonzo is not armless but binds his arms to his body. Alonzo is a wanted criminal. Alonzo’s right hand has two thumbs.
Nanon’s father, Antonio, learns Alonzo’s secret. Alonzo strangles him to protect that secret.
Nanon witnesses the murder but only sees a two-thumbed hand.
Antonio performs extreme measures to protect his secret and become what Nanon trusts.
Little does he know that, despite Nanon’s fears, Nanon loves Malabar.
Paul Desmuke, a real-life man without arms, performed the foot and leg feats with Lon Chaney’s torso in the frame.
The person who fakes a physical deformity is the story’s antagonist.
Alonzo mistakenly believes that this deformity grants him access to a world he wouldn’t have otherwise, despite it being an alienated and marginalized place with superficial sympathy and limited life choices.
Lon Chaney doesn’t transform himself with makeup in this role. As a result, we get a much more expressive performance from him.
I could only find the 49-minute version. The full version only became available this year — nearly a century after its original release. The Cinémathèque Française had a copy for years without realizing it. They had hundreds of French film canisters labeled “Unknown.”