First released in 1927, The Unknown tells the story of circus performer Alonzo the Armless (Lon Chaney, Sr.).  As you might guess from his name, everyone thinks that Alonzo is armless.  Of course, he’s not.  He’s just a contortionist who pretends to have no arms.  People thinking that he has no arms gives him the perfect alibi whenever he has to strangle someone.

However, Alonzo has fallen in love with Nanon (Joan Crawford), his beautiful circus assistant.  Unfortunately, Malabar the Mighty (Norman Kerry) is also in love with her and there’s no way that Alonzo could allow her to get too close because then she might discover that he not only has arms but that his hand has an unusual deformity that would identify Alonzo as the man who strangled Nanon’s father.

Alonzo’s solution?  Maybe he could just get someone to amputate his arms for real!  But will that be enough for him to win Nanon away from Malbar?  Or will he pursue an even more macabre plan to get Malabar out of the picture?

The Unknown was, for years, considered to be a lost film.  In 1968, a 49-minute print of the film was found in France.  That’s the version that I’m sharing here.  Reportedly, several early scenes were missing but those scenes were not important to the overall story.  Even in truncucated form, The Unknown is a wonderfully surreal and atmospheric film and it’s widely considered to be the best of Tod Browning and Lon Chaney’s collaborations.  Since this film was made in the age before CGI, whenever Alonzo hides his arms, Chaney was having to do the same thing.  This is one of Chaney’s best performances.  Alonzo is both frightening and rather sad in his way.  Having won the role over Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford was 18 when she played Nanon.

Enjoy!