The meeting of two deeply enigmatic characters like Tod Browning (the cursed director of Freaks) and Lon Chaney (‘the man of a thousand faces’ capable of prodigious transformations) gave birth to numerous films (for instance the extraordinary The Unknown, 1927), some of which are probably lost forever. Among those that have survived is the 1919 romantic melodrama The Wicked Darling (the final title came after numerous other releases, from The Rose of the Night to The Gutter Bride), which centres on a complicated affair in which pearls are passed from hand to hand among the film’s characters, including Chaney himself as ‘Stoop’ Connors.
actors: Lon Chaney – ‘Stoop’ Connors, Priscilla Dean – Mary Stevens, Gertrude Astor – Adele Hoyt, Wellington Playter – Kent Mortimer
script: Harvey Gates
photography: Alfred Gosden
music by: Eric Beheim
other titles: The Wicked Darling, Fleur sans tâche, La Bestia nera
color: Bianco & Nero
taken from: Short storie "The Moth" by Evelyn Campbell
production company: Universal Studios
script: Harvey Gates
photography: Alfred Gosden
music by: Eric Beheim
other titles: The Wicked Darling, Fleur sans tâche, La Bestia nera
color: Bianco & Nero
taken from: Short storie "The Moth" by Evelyn Campbell
production company: Universal Studios