The Monster

This 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney and Johnny Arthur and directed by Roland West ("The Bat", "The Bat Whispers") is a harmless little horror-comedy about two men and a woman who get trapped in an old dark house with a mad scientist (the always excellent Chaney) and go through a series of perilous events caused by the scientist and his never ending supply of creepy servants. The acting is good and the production values are superb. Most of the comedy is funny and the creepy parts still hold up reasonably well. All in all, "The Monster" is no classic and certainly one of Lon Chaney's less remarkable films but it's still a decent, harmless film.

A meek clerk (Johnny Arthur) who doubles as an amateur detective investigates some very strange goings-on at a remote mental sanitarium.

Director Roland West did not make a great many films (he seems to have been more of a stage director), but he did do a few with Lon Chaney. This is one of those few.

The movie probably is not well known, but it has the reputation of being one of the first "mad scientist" movies, and has the distinction of being an "old dark house" movie, actually beating "The Old Dark House" (1932) to the punch.

And while the horror elements are here (the scientist and the monster), this also works great as a comedy. There are some funny intertitles with some racy humor (including a milkman joke), and the humorous bannister / storm gag is worthy of Buster Keaton.

Lastly, a special shout-out to Gertrude Olmstead, one of the "victims" of the talkies. Olmstead had a strong career in the silent era and has an excellent presence, but she never made the transition to sound and is now almost completely forgotten. A shame.

Lightweight but enjoyable romp about a lunatic asylum taken over by its star inmate, played by Chaney. This one is played entirely for laughs, but Chaney has to play it straight, in a pretty lame role for the great star. West brings some of his nice effects to bear, in the slick sequence where the milquetoast hero flies through a window on a telephone cord, slides down four stairwells and ends up knocking his assailant out cold! I also especially enjoyed the scenes where the inmates lowered a huge mirror onto the road to divert traffic into a ditch -- it was like something come to life out of a scooby doo cartoon! Great fun in the light gothic style.

... from director Roland West. After noted citizen Luke Watson goes missing following a mysterious car crash, his plucky daughter Betty (Gertrude Olmstead) and two of Watson's clerks (Hallam Cooley and Johnny Arthur) decide to investigate at the scary mental hospital nearby. They find the devilish Dr. Ziska (Lon Chaney) who plans on using living human subjects in his surgical experiments. Our heroes bumble and stumble their way around the hospital's many corridors and secret rooms in hopes of escape. Also featuring Charles Sellon, Walter James, Frank Austin, Edward McWade, and Knute Erickson as Daffy Dan.

Johnny Arthur, a longtime character actor in the years after this, is amusing as the meek clerk who is also a would-be detective. Chaney gets to act with less makeup than usual, and he also gets to ham it up with glee. Olmstead also makes for a fetching heroine. If you've seen many of the "Old Dark House" types of films that came after this, you won't really find anything too unexpected here, but I found it enjoyable despite its familiarity.

A meek store clerk (and aspiring detective) investigating a man's disappearance winds up at a creepy old sanitarium with the girl he loves and his rival. They find the supposedly abandoned place is inhabited by weird Dr. Ziska (Lon Chaney) and his cronies. After the strong opening, I was really expecting this to be a great one. While it is good and I did like it, I couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed by it. For starters, it's part horror-mystery and part comedy. The horror-mystery parts are good; a precursor to the many mad scientist and old dark house movies to come. But the comedy is pretty weak. The lead character appears to be a rip-off of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr, which was released a year prior. Still, the comedy is the minor part of the movie. Most of it is old dark house/mad scientist craziness with Lon Chaney. That's pretty cool, no matter how you slice it. Also love the sets, gadgets, and special effects.