The Blackbird

By contrast, I was relatively satisfied with THE BLACK BIRD. The plot is somewhat derivative (particularly of THE PENALTY [1920]), but Chaney is in fine form here. The film goes a long way in simulating the Limehouse atmosphere, even where dialogue is concerned (which comes off as fairly hilarious if quite endearing).

The romantic leads, as played by Owen Moore and Renee' Adoree', are above average in this case; in fact, Moore (as a gentleman crook) is more of an anti-hero here and creates an interesting contrast to Chaney, who himself alternates between the villainous 'Black Bird' and the saintly 'Bishop' throughout.

For a Browning/Chaney effort, the film is fairly conventional and comes off as somewhat protracted (particularly the overly contrived ending) when compared to THE UNKNOWN (1927). Chaney's (deceptive) physical deformity of his 'Bishop' character is the sole weird element in evidence and, for once, here we get a chance to observe - on camera - the way Chaney accomplishes this amazing feat!

Caught this one at the Film Forum in NYC recently. I have not seen a great deal of Lon Chaney's work outside of 'Phantom' and 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' but I thought he was excellent in his dual role in 'The Blackbird'. In fact, he carried the picture and the rest of the cast in this fairly routine melodrama set in the Limehouse district of 1920's London.

Had not seen Owen Moore before but I felt he was very competent. A veteran of silents, he died prematurely in the late '30's. Renee Adoree was a perky ball of fluff and added her good looks to the proceedings.

I did think the premise of the story was a stretch, especially as he presumably hoodwinked his ex-wife as well as all others with his dual-existence duplicity. The sets and the extras seemed extremely authentic and added immeasurably to the production.

This was worth the price of admission, especially Chaney's virtuoso performance. I hope to see others in the future to determine if this was an exception or the norm.

Perhaps, one of the lesser known collaborations between Lon Chaney Sr. and director Tod Browning--"The BlackBird" has all the conventional trappings of a Chaney/Browning film; or any Chaney Sr. film now that I think about it. One of those trappings being the "love triangle" as it seems that Chaney spends a fair amount of time pining for a woman who ends up falling in love with another man.

This film also has Lon playing a double role--no elaborate makeups to disguise himself with--just the master craftsman contorting his body to play the part of the crippled "Bishop", and his nefarious brother "The Blackbird." Apparently, the Blackbird needed a cover to help hide his criminal activities and thus the part of the Bishop comes into play.

"The Blackbird" starts off a bit slow, as we the audience are introduced to all the principal characters, but picks up steam towards the end. Overall, I can see why this movie is not one of the more well-known Chaney/Browning collaborations--not that I'm saying it's bad, far from it. It's a good movie & if you're a fan of Chaney Sr. then you will definitely add this one to your collection. Now, if someone could only find a surviving print of "London After Midnight."

7 stars

Blackbird, The (1926)

*** (out of 4)

Lon Chaney plays duel roles in this crime melodrama from MGM. The Blackbird, a mastermind criminal and The Bishop, his crippled brother who is loved by everyone in the town. They're both the same person and the plan is to keep it that way but soon another criminal (Owen Moore) enters the picture as well as the love for a woman (Renee Adoree). I've know seen every Chaney feature that is currently not lost and I must say my appreciation of him as an actor has never been so high. I've always looked at him as one of the greatest actors in film history but after seeing this film I might go even further to call him the greatest actor in the silent era. It's really amazing at how brilliant this guy was and his acting abilities are on full display here. The viewer is the only one who knows that Chaney, playing both Blackbird and Bishop, are the same person yet like the characters in the film we forget because at how wonderful Chaney is. You could call this a Jekyll and Hyde type role as we're seeing good and evil and I'd probably say this is the greatest performance at that type of characters. How evil Chaney can come off and then how nice and holy is just amazing to watch and he really sells these characters perfectly. It's also rather amazing watching him play a cripple and deform his own body. Both Moore and Adoree add nice support but it's clear who this picture belongs to. Browning also should get a lot of credit because the screenplay here isn't too original nor is the love story that breaks out and controls most of the running time. While it's not original Browning does bring a lot of style to it and makes the movie flow like a stream. I've never been too fond of his sound features but I think his silents make him one of the most visual directors out there.

Lon Chaney's twisted performance as the eponymous Blackbird is much fun, as he literally bends himself all out of shape to pretend himself his good, crippled brother, the Bishop. The tortuous melodrama and love triangles of the rest of the film, however, leaves much to be desired. At least, with a Chaney and Tod Browning collaboration, one is bound to be treated to something at least a little offbeat, and such is the case in "The Blackbird," although it doesn't quite reach the level of their better films, such as "The Unholy Three" (1925) and "The Unknown" (1927), although its ironic twist of fate, or double deception, anticipates the latter.

Besides Chaney's physically-demanding dual roles, there are a couple things I appreciate about this one that reinforces his performance. One is the play-within-the-play puppetry. Blackbird's love interest played by Renée Adorée is a vaudeville performer whose face is superimposed over the pliable body of the puppet, the effect not only being actually a film-within-a-film with the multiple-exposure trick--a photographic technique rather than a theatrical one--but also to mirror Chaney's physical transformations. Adorée's stage performance being explicitly a trick calls attention to the doubled deception supposedly off-stage by Chaney--that of his fooling fellow characters and that of the few moments on screen where he doesn't share the deception with the spectator. Even though the photoplay spends too much time on Chaney and the rest lounging about at the club's bar doing not much of anything and even taking time out for Blackbird to intimidate an interracial couple and for a couple of intertitles to include a racial slur against Chinese characters, I do appreciate the reflexivity of the play-within-play, or film-within-film puppetry.

The other interesting aspect is Owen Moore's character. Whereas Chaney's Blackbird/Bishop continues a charade, including going in and out of his room to change personas as if anticipating Clark Kent going into phone booths to reveal his Superman costume, to maintain his "true identity" as a lowly thief by the protection of his respectable alter ego, Moore's "West End Bertie" has completely adopted his respectable persona as a dandy while still carrying out thefts--and, more than that, he exploits the character for the purpose of stealing from his upper-class acquaintances. The love triangle stuff is bland, especially when an old lover of Blackbird's is thrown in the mix, but the initial fascination and rivalry expressed by Chaney when Moore's character is fully revealed to him is compelling.

If one gets past some particularly bad pacing and overdone melodrama for this Browning-Chaney collaboration, or that Adorée's performer turns out to be disappointingly featherbrained and Moore's monocle-wearing dandy none too interesting, either, after his initial confrontation with Chaney's Blackbird, there's clever, reflexive play going on here. On stage in the puppetry and off-stage in the criminal deception and anchored by Chaney's unparalleled bodily versatility, it's a film about characters who pretend to be something else--actors playing actors--and about the malleability and illusory quality of cinema.