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==Reception==
==Reception==
The motion picture trade journal ''[[Harrison's Reports]]'' warned its readers: "If you run ''West of Zanzibar'', you will run it at the peril of alienating many of your regular customers. What mother will allow her young daughter to set foot into your theatre again?.... The stupidity of producers seems to be unbounded. They know that 95 per cent of the people of the United States do not want such trash as they have been putting out. And yet they insist on putting it out....How any normal person could have thought this horrible syphilitic play could have made an entertaining picture, even with Lon Chaney, who appears in gruesome and repulsive stories, is beyond comprehension. Demand that it be taken off your contract!"<ref name=SFSFF>{{cite web |url=http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/west-of-zanzibar-1928 |title=West of Zanzibar (1928) |author=Brian Darr |publisher=[[San Francisco Silent Film Festival]]}}</ref> Despite this, the film proved to be a success, both domestically and internationally, although it had censorship problems in the Britomprehension."ish colony of [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]] for its portrayal of Africa.<ref name=SFSFF/>
The motion picture trade journal ''[[Harrison's Reports]]'' warned its readers: "If you run ''West of Zanzibar'', you will run it at the peril of alienating many of your regular customers. What mother will allow her young daughter to set foot into your theatre again?.... The stupidity of producers seems to be unbounded. They know that 95 per cent of the people of the United States do not want such trash as they have been putting out. And yet they insist on putting it out....How any normal person could have thought this horrible syphilitic play could have made an entertaining picture, even with Lon Chaney, who appears in gruesome and repulsive stories, is beyond comprehension. Demand that it be taken off your contract!"<ref name=SFSFF>{{cite web |url=http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/west-of-zanzibar-1928 |title=West of Zanzibar (1928) |author=Brian Darr |publisher=[[San Francisco Silent Film Festival]]}}</ref> Despite this, the film proved to be a success, both domestically and internationally, although it had censorship problems in the British colony of [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]] for its portrayal of Africans.<ref name=SFSFF/>


After the film's premiere, the trade journal ''[[Motion Picture News]]'' advised: "If you do not have a Standing Room Only sign in your theatre, you had better order one immediately before playing this picture."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/west-of-zanzibar |title=West of Zanzibar |author=Dennis Harvey |publisher=San Francisco Silent Film Festival}}</ref>
After the film's premiere, the trade journal ''[[Motion Picture News]]'' advised: "If you do not have a Standing Room Only sign in your theatre, you had better order one immediately before playing this picture."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/west-of-zanzibar |title=West of Zanzibar |author=Dennis Harvey |publisher=San Francisco Silent Film Festival}}</ref>
Line 63: Line 63:
"Lon Chaney is back at his old gruesome habits. This time he's a thing that crawls, dragging himself around on the palms of his hands with his useless legs behind him. And very convincing too...This is a mad, weird grotesque and completely nutty melodrama."---Motion Picture Magazine
"Lon Chaney is back at his old gruesome habits. This time he's a thing that crawls, dragging himself around on the palms of his hands with his useless legs behind him. And very convincing too...This is a mad, weird grotesque and completely nutty melodrama."---Motion Picture Magazine


"With Lon Chaney in the principal role the picture is certain to be a box office drawing card, but there is nothing about the film itself that will cause anyone to go out and rave about it." ---Motion Picture News

"WEST OF ZANZIBAR indicates an over-worked Chaney. The star is there, but the rush of getting his quota on the release schedule is taking its toll in the most important phase of production--preparation. In this respect Chaney's latest impresses as having exhausted the property men and the casting director and allowing Tod Browning to follow religiously one of those cuff scripts...Musical score is regular. Attempts at sound effects are worse, the chanting of savages reproducing like a college boy chorus." ---Variety<ref>http://lonchaney.org/filmography/153.html</ref>

"In a grim, ingenious, but somewhat artificial tale, with a background of an African swamp festooned with cannibals, Lon Chaney once again returns to the impersonation of a cripple...It is a well concocted narrative and Mr. Chaney gives one of his most able and effective portrayals as he drags himself through scene after scene without using his legs." ---New York Times


In a much more recent review, Dennis Schwartz described it as a "strangely curious relic", but praised the "virtuoso performance of Chaney".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/westofzanzibar.htm |title=West of Zanzibar |author=Dennis Schwartz |publisher=Ozus' World Movie Reviews}}</ref>
In a much more recent review, Dennis Schwartz described it as a "strangely curious relic", but praised the "virtuoso performance of Chaney".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/westofzanzibar.htm |title=West of Zanzibar |author=Dennis Schwartz |publisher=Ozus' World Movie Reviews}}</ref>

Revision as of 20:28, 14 July 2022

West of Zanzibar
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTod Browning
Written byElliott J. Clawson (screenplay)
Joseph Farnham (intertitles)
Produced byIrving G. Thalberg
StarringLon Chaney
Lionel Barrymore
Mary Nolan
Warner Baxter
Kalla Pasha
CinematographyPercy Hilburn (*French)
Edited byHarry Reynolds
Distributed byMGM
Jury-Metro-Goldwyn (England)
Release date
  • November 24, 1928 (1928-11-24)
Running time
65 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent film (English intertitles)

West of Zanzibar is a 1928 American silent film directed by Tod Browning. The screenplay concerns a vengeful stage magician named Phroso (Lon Chaney) who becomes paralyzed in a brawl with a rival (Lionel Barrymore). The supporting cast includes Mary Nolan and Warner Baxter. The screenplay was written by Elliott Clawson, based on a play named Konga by Charles de Vonde and Kilbourn Gordon.[1] Walter Huston starred in the stage play and later played Phroso again in the 1932 sound film remake of the same story which was also called Kongo.

West of Zanzibar is intriguing to Lon Chaney fans because of the lost or excised sequences that Browning shot for the film that no longer exist; in particular, Phroso (Chaney) as The Human Duck in a freak show act and scenes showing Phroso and his troupe when they first arrive in Africa. The film was in production from June 25, 1928 to July 31, 1928, and cost $249,000 to produce. Its worldwide box office gross was $921,000. The film was released both silent and with sound effects and a synchronized music score. Owen Moore was originally set to play Doc, but the role went to Warner Baxter instead.

The film is today readily available on DVD. MGM Home Video released it with the synchronized music score on laser disc in 1993. The film also turns up frequently on the Turner Classics Movies cable TV channel and on PBS stations.

Plot

Anna (Jacqueline Gadsden) cannot bring herself to tell her professional magician husband, Phroso (Lon Chaney), that she is leaving him. Her lover, an ivory trader named Crane (Lionel Barrymore), informs Phroso that he is taking Anna away with him to Africa, and when an argument ensues, Crane pushes the distraught husband away from him so forcefully that he falls over a railing and is crippled, losing the use of his legs.

Phroso learns to get around the neighborhood by propelling himself on a small wooden platform. After a year, he learns that Anna has returned from Africa because Crane tired of her and threw her out. He finds his wife dead in a church, with a baby beside her. He swears to avenge himself on both Crane and the child. He adopts the child and moves to Africa with her.

Eighteen years later, Phroso (nicknamed "Dead-Legs") rules over a small outpost inhabited by "Doc" (Warner Baxter), Babe (Kalla Pasha), Tiny (Tiny Ward) and a native named Bumbu (Curtis Nero) in the depths of the African jungle. Through his magic tricks, Phroso dominates the local natives who call him the "White Voodoo". He has his men steal ivory repeatedly from Crane by having Tiny dress up as an evil voodoo spirit to frighten away Crane's black porters. Meanwhile, Phroso sends Babe to bring back a blonde prostitue named Maizie (Mary Nolan) from the "lowest dive in Zanzibar", where for years Phroso has had her raised. She is told only that she will finally get to meet her father.

When she arrives, Phroso denies being Maisie's father (to her great relief), but refuses to tell her why she has been brought there and treats her with undisguised hatred. The first night, she witnesses a gruesome tribal custom: when a man dies, his wife or daughter is burned alive on the same funeral pyre. As the days go by, Maizie gradually wins the perpetually drunk Doc's heart. However, Phroso purposely turns her into an alcoholic.

Phroso then sends word to Crane where he can find the people who are robbing his ivory. When Crane shows up and sees Maizie, Phroso tells him that Maizie is his daughter. To Phroso's surprise, Crane breaks out in laughter. He informs Phroso that Anna never went with him to Africa because she hated him for paralyzing her husband. Maizie is actually Phroso's child! Before he can absorb the news, the next step of his plan unfolds; the natives shoot and kill Crane. Now that Crane has been killed, custom demands that his daughter Maisie be burned with him on his funeral pyre.

Realizing now that she is actually his daughter, Phroso uses a magic trick to try to save Maisie from being burned alive. With the natives watching, he puts her in an upright wooden coffin with a secret exit in the back and closes the lid. When he reopens it, there is nothing but a skeleton inside. Meanwhile, Doc, Maizie and the others flee down to the river and escape by boat. However, the natives do not believe Phroso's claim that an evil spirit has taken Maizie; they realize he has tricked them. The screen fades to black as the natives close in on Phroso. Later, a native fishes a medallion out of the ashes of the funeral pyre, the same medallion that had hung around Phroso's neck.

Cast

Reception

The motion picture trade journal Harrison's Reports warned its readers: "If you run West of Zanzibar, you will run it at the peril of alienating many of your regular customers. What mother will allow her young daughter to set foot into your theatre again?.... The stupidity of producers seems to be unbounded. They know that 95 per cent of the people of the United States do not want such trash as they have been putting out. And yet they insist on putting it out....How any normal person could have thought this horrible syphilitic play could have made an entertaining picture, even with Lon Chaney, who appears in gruesome and repulsive stories, is beyond comprehension. Demand that it be taken off your contract!"[1] Despite this, the film proved to be a success, both domestically and internationally, although it had censorship problems in the British colony of Tanganyika for its portrayal of Africans.[1]

After the film's premiere, the trade journal Motion Picture News advised: "If you do not have a Standing Room Only sign in your theatre, you had better order one immediately before playing this picture."[2]

"Lon Chaney has gone cripple again for the sake of the public, but not for art's sake.....it seems a great pity that such a good actor should indulge in charlatan tricks." ---Photoplay

"Lon Chaney is back at his old gruesome habits. This time he's a thing that crawls, dragging himself around on the palms of his hands with his useless legs behind him. And very convincing too...This is a mad, weird grotesque and completely nutty melodrama."---Motion Picture Magazine

"With Lon Chaney in the principal role the picture is certain to be a box office drawing card, but there is nothing about the film itself that will cause anyone to go out and rave about it." ---Motion Picture News

"WEST OF ZANZIBAR indicates an over-worked Chaney. The star is there, but the rush of getting his quota on the release schedule is taking its toll in the most important phase of production--preparation. In this respect Chaney's latest impresses as having exhausted the property men and the casting director and allowing Tod Browning to follow religiously one of those cuff scripts...Musical score is regular. Attempts at sound effects are worse, the chanting of savages reproducing like a college boy chorus." ---Variety[3]

"In a grim, ingenious, but somewhat artificial tale, with a background of an African swamp festooned with cannibals, Lon Chaney once again returns to the impersonation of a cripple...It is a well concocted narrative and Mr. Chaney gives one of his most able and effective portrayals as he drags himself through scene after scene without using his legs." ---New York Times

In a much more recent review, Dennis Schwartz described it as a "strangely curious relic", but praised the "virtuoso performance of Chaney".[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Brian Darr. "West of Zanzibar (1928)". San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
  2. ^ Dennis Harvey. "West of Zanzibar". San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
  3. ^ http://lonchaney.org/filmography/153.html
  4. ^ Dennis Schwartz. "West of Zanzibar". Ozus' World Movie Reviews.
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