The Wicked Darling

A solid melodrama in itself, "The Wicked Darling" is most noteworthy now for the supporting performance of Lon Chaney, in the kind of villainous role that he performed as well as any actor of his time (or just about any other time, for that matter). The movie has recently been restored from one badly damaged print and a few scraps of information, and the restorers have done an impressive job indeed piecing together almost all of the original feature.

Priscilla Dean has the lead role, as a good-natured pickpocket caught up in a bad crowd, among them being Chaney's vicious character. A chain of events leads Mary (Dean's character) to develop a friendship with an upper class gentleman (played by Wellington Playter) who has recently lost both his fortune and his fiancée. The two of them go on to face a series of crises, tests, and menaces, many of them instigated by Chaney's character.

It's a story like many others of its era, but Tod Browning's direction keeps it from being ordinary, adding some good touches and details, and getting good performances from most of the cast. Chaney, though, is the one that stands out. He has no disguises or detailed make-up this time, but he makes full use of every opportunity to portray a cold-hearted crook who forms a formidable obstacle to the happiness of the heroine and the man she loves. As a result, it's quite a bit more interesting and memorable than most movies of its kind.

Having seen "Outside the Law", the second Browning-Chaney-Dean feature, I can say "The Wicked Darling" feels almost like a prelude to that film. When you watch this film it looks like some of the sets were used in "Outside the Law". Browning seems to want to finish in "Outside the Law" what he started in this film. There's even a gruesome fight scene (two in fact) with Chaney & the hero here(Wellington Playter) as there would be between Chaney & Wheeler Oakman in "Outside the Law". Priscilla Dean is one of the best actresses of the silent era & I look forward to checking out her other silent films like Browning's "The Virgin of Stamboul" (unfortunately minus Chaney). The version of this film comes from the remaining 35mm print in the Nederlands Filmmuseum and it has tremendous beginning stages of nitrate decomposition. Fortunately this film was rescued in the knick of time. Dean's character at the opening of the film comes off as a thief in cahoots with Chaney but its insinuated that she also moonlights as a prostitute with Chaney her pimp. Browning seemingly sets up the viewers imagination on Dean's activity while early in the film showing Gertrude Astor as a 'kept woman' for Wellington Playter. Astor leaves Playter after he goes broke. With good chunks of the film lost and this being an abridged foreign release anyway, more imagination is still left to the viewer. But Browning's customary last act of redemption for the crooked Priscilla Dean is identical in Outside the Law.

1919 was a pivotal year for Lon Chaney. His appearance in THE MIRACLE MAN (now lost) was the turning point in his career. It was also the year that he made the two films showcased on this release from Flicker Alley (originally released by Image Entertainment). These movies feature two of the silent era's greatest directors in Maurice Tourneur and Tod Browning. Chaney's longtime collaboration with Browning would really bear fruit in the late 1920's but THE WICKED DARLING marked the first time that they worked together. Browning's vivid directorial touch is readily apparent in the realistic lowlife settings and the colorful characters who populate them. The film was originally made as a vehicle for Priscilla Dean, Universal's big female star at the time. She was perky, resourceful, and surprisingly modern in her movements and expressions. Virtually all of her films are lost which is why she's forgotten today. This film was long thought lost until a single print turned up in Holland. Although missing some frames and scarred by mildew in places, the surviving 35mm footage looks remarkably good.

The second feature, VICTORY, looks close to how it must have looked when it was first released with a crisp, clear picture and color tints although I wonder if some footage is missing as the film seems rather abrupt in places. Based on a lesser Joseph Conrad novel, the film was directed by Maurice Tourneur who was one of the great visual stylists of the silent era. His use of light and shadow in the scene with Chaney and Wallace Beery anticipates film noir by 20 years (his son Jacques Tourneur would make several notable film noirs in the 1940's). He began his career as a painter in France and created several painting like effects in his movies. Check out his 1920 version of LAST OF THE MOHICANS and you'll see what I mean. Lon gives two very different performances in these movies that really showcase his genius. While both are criminals they are as different in characterization as the make-ups Chaney created for them. DARLING's "Stoop" Connors is a humorless street bully while VICTORY's Ricardo is a deadly killer with a sense of humor. Actress Seena Owen was in D. W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE three years before VICTORY and would be in Erich von Stroheim's QUEEN KELLY in 1928.... For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Wicked Darling, The (1919)

*** (out of 4)

Mary Stevens (Priscilla Dean) is a lifelong criminal now making her living by serving as a pickpocket for "Stoop" Connors (Lon Chaney). Mary meets a guy named Kent (Wellington Playter) and decides to turn her life around but her last gig she stole some priceless necklace and Coonors won't leave her alone until he has them. This is a very sweet romantic drama with a strong morality side to it. Director Tod Browning adds all sorts of class to the film, which is very fast paced and contains a wonderful visual style. Chaney is good as usual but it's Playter who really steals the film.

At its heart a cheap melodrama of the time. Lon Chaney as the thief forcing the poor heroine Priscilla Dean into crime is very Lon Chaney.

The reconstructed print was made from material in fair to poor condition and is missing perhaps 15 percent of the original.