West of Zanzibar

Silent film of crippled Lon Chaney Sr. who blames a man (Lionel Barrymore) for causing it. He tortures and turns his young daughter (Mary Nolan) into a drug addict to punish him.

Very strange but absolutely fascinating movie. The story is strong (but not overly gruesome like its remake "Kongo") with great acting. Nolan is very good at playing innocent and drugged out. Barrymore isn't in it much, but he's very good when he is. Chaney is just great in his role--quite possibly one of the best performances I've ever seen on film, and I've seen hundreds of them.

Quite simply, this is one of the best silent films ever. A definite must-see.

Very interesting and unusual silent film starring Lon Chaney as Phrosos the Magician, a stage show performer who has a wife he really loves - but she informs him she is planning to leave him for a man named Crane (Lionel Barrymore). When Crane tells Phrosos he is taking her away to Africa - he fights with Phrosos sending him falling over the railing of a second floor landing. His legs now paralyzed, Phrosos goes around riding a cart or pulls himself around by his arms, with his lifeless legs dragging behind. When the wife comes back with a baby, he finds the wife dead - so Phrosos, bitter and full of hate, sets out for Africa to seek his revenge on Crane and the baby daughter. Eighteen years pass - Phrosos, now known as "Dead-Legs", uses his magic to trick the natives with fake "voodoo" so he can steal elephant tusks from Crane, now a trader. Meanwhile, he has the daughter being raised in a Zanzibar brothel and he sends for her to come to him - all part of his evil plan. He now holds the poor girl captive and treats her like dirt - doing such things to her as making her eat on the floor and giving all her clothes to the natives. Twists and turns to follow.

This is an absorbing, well done film - odd, creepy, and sad too. Chaney is really excellent in this - he gets such a look of evil and hate on his expressive face and is just SO good at making his legs look completely lifeless. Mary Nolan, who plays the daughter, spends most of the film looking around her with a complete look of disgust (and who can blame her!) - but her facial expressions are slightly over the top sometimes. Warner Baxter is handsome here playing Doc, Chaney's sidekick in Africa who falls in love with the girl. Very good.

What would appear on the outset to be another insane horror feature along the lines of Freaks (at least from the definitely deceptive publicity picture with Lon Chaney as a chicken or other, which never happens in the film), West of Zanzibar is just another melodrama. Actually, that's a lie. West of Zanzibar is one of the finest examples of the wild, over-the-top melodrama in the silent era. This is a filmmaker who understands what makes a melodrama tick and tickle, and in this film it's about the details of its plot unfolding at a quick clip but with enough characterization to make it never less than fascinating. At worst, it is painfully dated (the stereotypes of tribes people on screen seem a little flagrant), but at best its an example of what could be possible when a director could get his cast to convey all necessary through pantomime and gesture, of grandiosity loaded with little details stitched in there.

It helps that Lon Chaney is starring, however. This is probably what makes it a must-see for me; between just seeing two of his films, this and Phantom of the Opera, he appears to be one of the giants of his time. Maybe even more-so in the case of Zanzibar, one sees Chaney's skills without make-up, with the only gimmick of his "Dead-Legs" not obfuscating what is most interesting about him which is his face and eyes. This man conveys so much without ever, for a second, going too far over the top, at least to how far Browning's melodrama commands. Lionel Barrymore, for the supporting-role time he's on camera, doesn't disappoint either, and character players Mary Nolan and Warner Baxter don't do bad at all, but Chaney just hits it so far out of the park it's without compare in this case.

Playing especially this character, a man with a revenge plot that he has 18 years in the making (sound like that guy in 2009 Star Trek to you?), is a leap of faith, but its one the audience will make since this actor is so determined in this character, invested to the point where we believe how he's a jaded guy, as Doc describes him as despicable and very human at the same time. It's far more complex a character than I would have ever expected going in; the casket he has isn't too shabby, either.

As for Browning fans looking for mood, there's lots of it, especially of the voodoo kind (again, some of it is a little squirm-in-your-seat variety, just in terms of the faces not necessarily the rituals and fire-dances). It's never too laugh-out-loud funny, but it has its moments, like when Maizie's clothes are used for ritual purposes by the tribe-folk. There's also a very sublime touch near the end, perhaps expected in the bittersweet vein but still very satisfying, and I'm sure that was the filmmaker's sensibility all the way. It's a wonderful movie, for fans of the star and director, and if you can see it with a live piano by any chance it's highly recommended.

This film can be discounted as unacceptable by many modern audiences. It is filmed in black and white. It is silent and it shows African blacks in a stero-typic manner that would not be accepted today.

Saying all that, it is a must-see film for any serious student or fan of drama. Chaney gives in this film one of the most powerful and convincing acting performances of any actor in any film. Without a single spoken word he shows anger to the point of madness, sly intelligence and overwhelming remorse and sorrow.

There is no feel of "miming emotions " or "mugging for the camera" about this film. The emotions that Chaney display feel so authentic that at times this viewer feels a discomfort for intruding into the personal torment of the character.

The director has used the talents of Chaney and to a lesser extent those of the other actors to relay most of the story with minimal use of "Text Cards", which otherwise would have disrupted the flow of action.

Somewhere WEST OF ZANZIBAR, a crippled magician insanely plots revenge on the ivory hunter who ruined his life...

Lon Chaney dominates this fascinatingly bizarre little silent movie. More than just a ‘horror actor,' Chaney was a consummate craftsman who, here using a minimum of makeup, could sway an audience with the slightest facial twinge or glance from his haunted eyes. Completely convincing as a cripple, dragging his dead legs behind him across the floor, he becomes more a monstrous aberration than a human being.

Lionel Barrymore, Warner Baxter & lovely Mary Nolan all give excellent performances in supporting roles, but this is really Chaney's picture all the way. The fine production values , courtesy of MGM, only enhance its star's dominance of the medium.

With Tod Browning, Chaney's frequent collaborator, as director, it is fascinating to speculate how much Chaney's physical performance here later influenced Browning's vision in his masterwork, FREAKS (1932).