themonster

Gather 'round the campfire kiddies , and let Uncle Jeck tell you a story. We're going back aways for this one , way back to 1925. Todays feature ... the Lon Chaney silent film The Monster.

Our story opens as the grotesque and shrouded Rigo ( George Austin , who looks like the Wicked Witch Of The West's younger, less attractive brother ) sets a less than ingenious trap for a hapless motorist. When the motorists car is discovered and he turns up missing , we're introduced to many of the equally hapless townsfolk. We're also introduced to Johnny Goodlittle ( Johnny Arthur ) , a would-be Sherlock Holmes who reads from How to Become a Detective , and is waiting for his mail order detective diploma ( complete with badge, cuffs and revolver , swear to God) before jumping on the case. It's no big surprise however that ol' Johnny's a putz , and the townsfolk spend the first twenty minutes of the film messing with his head.

When Goodlittle thwarts the attempt by a harmless but cooky Daffy Dan (Knute Erickson) to capture Johnny's typically already spoken for love interest Betty Watson ( Gertrude Olmstead ) , all hell breaks loose. Johnny , Betty , and Betty's obviously soon to be ex-boyfriend Amos Rugg ( Hallam Cooley) find themselves in an abandoned sanitarium that's not quite abandoned. Meet Dr. Ziska ( Lon Chaney) , the sanitarium's current resident doctor who's ( now get this ) just a little nutty. The Hugh Heffner style smoking jacket and oiled , shirtless manservant Caliban (Walter James) would give the impression that Ziska's just a harmless old fruit , right? Wrong !!! This guy's got issues , and we're about to find out just what they are.

The gang get locked in the sanitarium , and in typical Scooby Doo fashion split up to look for clues. Johnny discovers a secret laboratory that would make Victor Frankenstein envious , while Ziska tries to get Betty and Amos drunk ( that devil ... tryin' to get Amos all to himself ) . It's Johnny who ends up drunk and Amos semi-drugged , allowing Betty to be abducted ( huh , go figure , Ziska digs the dames after all ) . It turns out Doc Ziska's a famous surgeon who fell off his rocker a while back , but the madman's got a mad plan . In the grand style of mad scientists such as Frankenstein , Jeckyl , and Kervorkian , Ziska wants to learn the secret of life . With the aid of his patented 'Death Chair' , his plan is to transfer the soul from one body to another.

Without getting into great detail , I don't think it's spoiling the film to reveal that in the end Ziska is thwarted , and Johnny gets the girl. Here's an interesting note for those of you into odd yet unimportant facts. Several years after this film was completed , director Roland West was involved in a real life murder mystery when his girlfriend , starlet Thelma 'Hot Toddy' Todd was found murdered. West was among the prime suspects in the case , but a murderer was never found. The rumour is that West's involvement in the murder was covered up thanks to Hollywood payoffs , but that was never proven to be fact.

I know for some of us watching a silent film is hard to do , but this flick is definitely worth a look. It's an early entry into the sub-sub genre of mad scientist films , and one that works because it does not take itself seriously. There are a few great one liners here and there ( "Stop with all your blood and thunder ! Can't you see you're scaring her pink ?") , and the characterisations are over the top ( Daffy Dan rolls his own imaginary cigarettes , while Caliban strolls around the house in a genie outfit ... musta been the only costume left in wardrobe that day). There's definitely more laughs than scares , but if you're looking for a good 86 minutes of fun in the old-school style, look no further.