The Monster (1925)

     So, here’s an interesting one. A movie called “The Monster” starring Lon Chaney, that doesn’t really have a “monster” in it per say, and Chaney, though he has top billing, really isn’t the lead of anyway. 1925’s silent comedy, yes, it’s a comedy… I mean...kinda, The Monster involves a young amateur detective- Johnny (Johnny Arthur), his dapper co-worker in a local shop- Amos, and the girl they both have eyes for- Betty- (Gertrude Olmstead). When a mysterious car crash is discovered but nobody is found an insurance detective comes to town to help find the missing man. The Sheriff and the Detective won’t listen to Johnny when he presents evidence, he found at the scene of the accident that points to a nearby asylum that has been closed for a couple of years. So, he goes to investigate. At the same time, Amos and Betty are headed out on a date when they are also forced into an accident and see lights on at the asylum. They go there in hopes of using their phone and are greeted by a creepy smiley guy who calls himself Dr. Ziska (Lon Chaney). Johnny arrives around the same time. There is a terrible storm outside so the Dr. strongly suggests they stay the night and sets them up in a room. After some stumbling around creepy areas of the house they are captured by the doctor, and his minions, and Betty and Amos are prepared as part of a scientific experiment. Now Johnny has to foil the minions and save his companions.

     If you think that description doesn’t sound like a comedy, you’re more or less right, though since 1925 we’ve seen a lot of horror comedies. This is just an example of an early one. It may be the first “trapped in a creepy house with a mad scientist” movie. The first 15-20 minutes play like a traditional comedy. Johnny could have been played by Harold Lloyd, or maybe Charlie Chaplin in another reality. Here it’s Johnny Arthur and while he’s not bad, he doesn’t have the comic ability or timing of those two geniuses. This was his first lead role in a movie and wouldn’t really get another shot like it in a feature again but did star in a series of shorts as the scrawny timid guy who gets the girl. His performance is serviceable and at times even funny, though there is a sequence where he accidentally gets drunk that had to be derivative, even in 1925. The other performers are fine too. Chaney, who would star in The Phantom of the Opera and the silent version of The Unholy Three the same year, swings wildly between WAY over acting, to comic effect, to playing the mad scientist pretty straight. His mad scientist is “The Monster” the title refers to. I get the feeling this was one for the studio and not something Chaney picked himself.

     Director Roland West did some interesting things with the camera, especially for 1925. Positioning the camera and taking the camera to unusual places to capture the action. There is a scene where Johnny is walking a telephone line like a tightrope and West has the camera right up there with him. Whether they used some sort of crane or scaffolding I don’t know, but it made for an interesting point of view. Roland West was an interesting guy himself. He worked as a director from about 1916 to 1931 and then retired from directing to open a restaurant with his then girlfriend Thelma Todd. Word is that they somehow got tangled up with gangsters who wanted to use their business as a place to take advantage of the wealthy Hollywood crowd. She and West didn’t want to go along with it. In 1935 she was found dead in her car. It was ruled suicide-by-carbon-monoxide-poisoning. There were also rumors that West himself murdered her. And another story that he admitted to it on his death bed. This is all speculation, to this day her death is controversial.

     My observations of this movie are tainted by nearly 100 years of horror, comedy, and horror/comedy films. Most so much better than this one, but they, I’m sure, owe a debt to this film for laying some groundwork for others to improve upon. The comedy can be funny, but I never laughed out loud, wait, I take that back, near the end there is a moment that was set up toward the beginning about hanging a man by his heals that I didn’t expect to have a payoff and I laughed out loud when it did. So… one laugh out loud moment. There are a few moments, pretty much toward the end, with actual tension and a real sense of peril. If this movie was helping to invent the horror comedy, it definitely left room for improvement, but, as I said, those audiences in 1925 were seeing this stuff for the first time and there is no way for me to get the same experience they had. If you’re a fan of silent horror or comedy it may be worth your time to check out. Otherwise, I’m sure you can find a better way to pass 90 minutes.

     I watched The Monster streamed on Amazon Prime. 1925’s The Monster is available on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection for around $10. Or you can do what I did, if you have Amazon Prime, and stream it for no extra money.