West of Zanzibar

Tod Browning, MGM, 1928, from the play Kongo. Lon Chaney is Phroso, a magician lamed by a rival, who sets up as Dead-Legs in an African trading post and raises the rival’s daughter (Mary Nolan) for a revenge he has already misread. Lionel Barrymore is the other man. Seventy minutes, synchronized score. Chaney’s crawl is another physical contract. The jungle is the lot and the usual extras. Browning and Chaney’s cruelty is domestic this time: a house, a lie about a mother, a man waiting too long. The last reel corrects the facts.