The Unholy Three (1925) & The Unholy Three (1930)

Carnies! Transvestites! Ventriloquists! Dwarves! Pickpockets!

 The Two Unholy Threes: Silent vs. Sound Versions.  Part of our Silents, Please! series of silent films with live music.  Sunday, May 31st at 2:00pm.  Live theater organ accompaniment by Jay Spencer from the Canton Palace Theatre!  And at 4:00pm we'll roll the sound version.  One price for both!

See Professor Echo (played by the “Man of a Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney Sr.) lead his gang of misfits in their grotesque quest for fortune – TWICE! First in the 1925 silent film version of The Unholy Three directed legendary filmmaker Tod Browning (Dracula, Frankenstein), and the second time in the 1930 sound version directed by Jack .

In 1925 legendary film director Tod Browning directed Lon Chaney in the silent film The Unholy Three. Together, Chaney and Browning were known as “the purveyors of the tragic and the bizarre.” Chaney plays circus sideshow ventriloquist Professor Echo, who teams up with a strongman and a little person to form an unholy underworld trio.

Lon Chaney’s first talkie was the second version of The Unholy Three (1930), directed this time by Jack Conway. The sound version allowed Chaney to demonstrate his vocal abilities that easily matched his physical performances. MGM played on Chaney’s trademark promoting the film with the phrase “The Man of a Thousand Voices.” Unfortunately, the remake was also Chaney’s final film. Stricken with lung cancer, Chaney died at the end of August, two months after the premiere of his only talking picture.

Come see which version you like best!