The Unknown (1927 film)  

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"Hands! Men's hands! How I hate them!"--The Unknown (1927)

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The Unknown (1927) is an American 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.

The Unknown is considered the most unique and disturbing of the eight films that Tod Browning and Lon Chaney made together at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in the late silent era. Lon Chaney’s rendering of character Alfonzo and the horrific self-mutilation he endures to win the love of Nonan is reminiscent of the theatre of the Grand Guignol.

Plot

Alonzo the Armless is a circus freak who uses his feet to toss knives and fire a rifle at his partner, Nanon. However, he is an impostor and fugitive. He has arms, but keeps them tightly bound to his torso, a secret known only to his friend Cojo, a little person. Alonzo's left hand has a double thumb, which would identify him as the perpetrator of various crimes.

Alonzo is secretly in love with Nanon. Malabar, the circus strongman, is devoted to her as well, but she has a strong fear of men's arms and cannot stand being pawed by them, so she shuns him. She only feels comfortable around the armless Alonzo. When she embraces and kisses him, he is given hope, but Cojo warns him that he cannot let it happen again. If she holds him, she might feel his arms.

When Antonio Zanzi, the circus's owner and Nanon's father, discovers Alonzo's secret, Alonzo kills him with his bare hands. Nanon witnesses this through a window. A flash of lightning reveals that her father's killer has a double thumb on his left hand, but she does not see his face. Since Alonzo is believed to be armless, he is not a suspect.

When the circus leaves town, Alonzo has Nanon remain behind with him. He takes extreme measures to try to have the woman he loves. He blackmails a surgeon into amputating his arms. While he is away, however, Malabar's steadfast love finally enables Nanon to overcome her phobia, and she agrees to marry him.

When Alonzo (now truly armless) returns to Nanon, she excitedly tells him the news. Alonzo is shocked and horrified, first laughing, then crying, confusing the couple. He then learns that Malabar and Nanon have been practicing a new act, where the strongman's arms are seemingly pulled in opposite directions by two horses (who are actually on hidden treadmills). During the first performance, Alonzo stops one treadmill in an attempt to maim or kill his rival. When Nanon starts to intervene, Alonzo threatens her with a knife. However, she rushes to calm down one of the horses. Alonzo tries to save her from injury by pushing her out of the way. The horse knocks Alonzo down and fatally stomps on him.

In the original film script and some discarded filmed sequences, Alonzo murders both the doctor and Cojo, to eliminate them as witnesses before he returns to claim Nanon.

Cast

Titles

[Reconstructed titles]

1 This is a story they tell in old Madrid.... it's a story they say is true.

2 "You all know me.... Antonio Zanzi....and my gypsy circus...."

3 "...and now, the sensation of sensations! The wonder of wonders! ALONZO, THE ARMLESS!"

4 "Assisting Alonzo in this death-defying act, is my daughter....NANON!"

5 MALABAR THE MIGHTY.

6 "You are right, Alonzo... brute strength does not mean everything to all women."

7 "Alonzo, all my life men have tried to put their beastly hands on me... to paw over me."

8 "I have grown so that I shrink with fear when any man even touches me."

9 "You are wise, Nanon. Always fear them.... always hate them."

10 "And remember, I am always near you.... ready to help you."

11 "If it takes ten million years, Nanon, I will keep saying 'I love you'.... until you believe me."

12 "No one will get her.... no one but me!"

13 "See, Nanon! Eyes that adore you....hands that long to caress you...and strength to protect you!"

14 "Why do you always draw away from me?"

15 "Why isn't he different from other men! Why doesn't he keep his hands off me?"

16 "Hands! Men's hands! How I hate them!"

17 "Men! The beasts! God would show wisdom if he took the hands from all of them!"

18 "Forgive me, Alonzo.... I did not mean you."

19 "You are the one man I can come to without fear."

20 "She is with Alonzo again! Are you afraid to deal with him?"

21 "Putting crazy ideas in her head again! I'll settle this!"

22 "A thousand thanks, Malabar. I will try to repay you some day."

23 "You have Nanon in your heart, haven't you?"

24 "In my heart....in my soul.... in my blood!"

25 "You are fortunate. You have arms and strength that she loves."

26 "Go take her in your arms.... and let her listen to the song of your blood."

27 "Cojo....I said no one is going to have her! No one but me!"

28 "There is a time for fear, Nanon....and a time for hate....and a time for love."

29 "You worry, Alonzo, that sometime they will find out you have arms?"

30 "What would the police give to know I have hands.... and who I am?"

31 "There they are, Cojo.... and Zanzi may be another to find how I have them."

32 "I have been waiting for you.... to teach you that my orders are law!"

33 "Stop them! They've burned enough clothes to keep twenty gypsy souls out of hell!"

34 "The same hands that strangled Zanzi committed the robberies in other towns where this circus played! They're somewhere in this troupe!"

35 "Get your finger-prints taken!"

36 "What will happen, Alonzo.... if they sell the circus to pay my father's debts?"

37 "Do not worry, Nanon, I promised your father I would always take care of you."

38 "The circus has gone.... every caravan. Why did we not travel with them, Alonzo?"

39 "Because I want to take you away from the things you hate, Nanon."

40 "I could not go away without telling you again that I will love you always."

41 "I am so sorry Malabar put his hand on you again....so sorry."

42 "Cojo, did you see her? She kissed me!"

43 "You must never let her touch you that way again."

44 "She will feel that you have arms!"

45 "Cojo will never tell!"

46 "There is nothing I will not do to own her! Nothing.... do you understand? Nothing!"

47 "You are a riddle, Nanon. You shrink from me.... yet you kiss my flowers when I am gone."

48 "Then if you do care for me, why won't you ever let me hold you in my arms?"

49 "I know now what you fear."

50 "Some day that fear will die. You will find me near you always....waiting....loving.... hoping."

51 "Cojo, I've got to have her! She has got to marry me!"

52 "No, Alonzo! On your wedding night she would see your arms....and hate you!"

53 "No, Cojo....she would never hate me.... she would forgive me."

54 "But you forget....she saw her father strangled by a hand with two thumbs."

55 "You are forgetting that you have arms!"

56 "No, no, Alonzo! Not that! Never do that!"

57 "Why this letter.... and who are you?"

58 "You're here to blackmail me! It's money you want!"

59 "Well....what is the price of your silence about my past?"

60 "And be careful that I do not die in this operation.... because I left a letter telling who you are."

61 "I am not afraid any more, Malabar. All my foolish fears are gone."

62 "You're recovering rapidly. You'll be able to leave in a few weeks."

63 "But we must wait until Alonzo returns. I want him with us at our wedding."

64 "Perhaps the landlady knows where she is. Go ask, Cojo."

65 "But it's strange I've never heard from Alonzo....not one word since he went away."

66 "The landlady says she is at that theatre on the plaza."

67 "You are thinner, Alonzo! Have you been sick?"

68 "No not sick.... but I have lost some flesh."

69 "How is Cojo? You love him best of anyone, don't you?"

70 "No, Nanon....not best."

71 "I am happy you have returned Alonzo, now we can be married."

72 "Oh....I forgot. You have been away. I will call him."

73 "Has Nanon told you the good news, Alonzo?"

74 "Remember how I used to be afraid of his hands?"

75 "I am not any more. I love them now."

76 "Alonzo is laughing at the way everything has happened."

77 "I did what you told me, Alonzo. I took her in my arms...."

78 "I'm all right now."

79 "It was just something in here that stung like the lash of a whip."

80 "They said you were rehearsing. Is this your rigging!"

81 "See....I have a horse hitched to each hand and they pull in opposite directions."

82 "You see, when the horses are tugging he could not let go if he wanted to."

83 "It's very dangerous. Suppose the treadmills broke or stopped suddenly?"

84 "If that happens the horses would tear my arms from my body."

85 "Do not say that! You make Alonzo worry that something will happen to you."

86 "Do not worry, Alonzo.... Nothing will happen. We have been rehearsing for weeks."

87 "I couldn't reach Nanon's robe. Will you get it for me?"

88 So.... for Alonzo there was an end to Hate called Death.... and for Nanon, an end to Hate....called Love.

89 "Malabar, if I live ten million years, I'll always say, 'I love you'."

THE END




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