White Tiger

Welcome to the world of Tod Browning, a world of sideshows and thieves, vampires and murderers, where men cut off their arms for love and wear dresses for revenge, the world of Dracula and FREAKS. Browning was a true original. He had a long association with Lon Chaney that ended only with death. In Browning's world, people pretend to be other than they are, but they rarely know who they are until it is too late.

There are considerable problems with the story as told, probably due to the fact that the movie was shelved for a couple of years and then had the titles rewritten anonymously. I strongly suspect that the relationships between the three leads was a lot more sexual in Browning's script than they are here.

In short, this is a bizarre movie and the main actors in it -- Wallace Beery, Raymond Griffith and Priscilla Dean play bizarre characters manipulated by a bizarre fate. Perhaps you don't believe in fate. If not, you may find this movie a mess of wild coincidences. But if you accept Browning's vision, you will find yourself drawn along.

There is a happy ending tacked on, for those of you who like happy endings. The rest of us will ignore it.

I love silent films. Some of the best pictures ever made hail from the silent era, and even setting aside the classics, such works are a critical part of our cultural heritage that deserve to be appreciated and remembered. Not all such early titles are made equally, however. The chief trouble that I have with this one is its very weak start to the narrative; the first several minutes are written so poorly, and executed so messily, that it's a struggle to even take at face value. Sadly, much the same glaring issue rears its head again at the most inopportune time, during major revelations for the characters, at about T-12 minutes, that complement those earliest beats. Thankfully the storytelling is more mindful for the majority of the length (also recovering for the very end), with a disparity that only highlights how shoddy its most deficient points are - yet still it's distinctly uneven. The plot and its development, and the scene writing, occasionally proceed with an oversimplified brusqueness that not only in some measure quashes some of the desired tactfulness and subtlety, but also strips away connective tissue such that the screenplay at times feels like a mere outline, and not a finished product. Tod Browning's esteemed career in film-making was far better than not, though not flawless, and co-writer Charles Kenyon has plentiful credits to his name, but among their contributions to cinema I'm not fully convinced that 'White tiger' was a faultless gem in anyone's crown.

Mind you, while it has problems that dampen one's first and last impressions, it's hardly all bad. More than not, in fact, it's quite well done. It's in the details of the writing that the title is thusly troubled, but as the story advances, Browning and Kenyon do find their feet over time. The broad strokes of the tale are just fine, worthwhile and enjoyable despite familiar underpinnings in early cinema of crime, and people who are led into it. Meanwhile, the mechanical chess player is a novelty that helps a recognizable narrative thrust to feel a little more fresh. The production design and art direction are quite lovely, as is the costume design, and hair and makeup work. While surviving prints weren't wholly pristine before being digitally preserved, still there's sufficient quality in the image to admire the work that went into the picture from behind the scenes. And I should say in front of the camera, too, as the cast give solid performances - Matt Moore, Wallace Beery, Raymond Griffith, and especially Browning regular Priscilla Dean. It's a pleasure just to watch them all ply their trade. While the writing is imperfect, the man's direction isn't in question, and neither is the cinematography.

It feels strange to say for a silent movie, but there are times in the second half when 'White tiger' seems to lag a little bit, times when the compelling drama and excitement temporarily taper off. During such times the weaknesses in the writing again become more evident, and hearty suspension of disbelief is required to accept the tale as it presents. This is unfortunate, for when the feature is at its best it's reliably engaging and entertaining, and the strengths of everyone's contributions are apparent. Had the screenplay been tightened the end result would have been still more robust - why, if even just the early portions of the narrative weren't so thin, and specifically story beats revolving around the characters' identities and relationships, then this would have surely been elevated to another level. For all that, however, warts and all, the movie succeeds more than it doesn't. The crew's work, and the cast's, pair with technical craft to bolster the sturdier aspects of the writing, mostly outweighing the deficiencies. All things considered this might not be a must-see, and it won't do anything to change the minds of anyone who has a hard time engaging with early cinema. When all is said and done, however, 'White tiger' remains a classic, enjoyable early feature that's worth exploring, just so long as one is willing to abide its imperfections.

After their underworld father is shot down, children Raymond Griffith (as Roy Donovan) and Priscilla Dean (as Sylvia Donovan) are brought up believing each other is dead; they are separated, and raised, by other criminals. Wallace Beery (as Bill Hawkes), the "Stool Pidgeon" who played a part in her father's death, raises Ms. Dean to be an accomplished London pickpocket. Meanwhile, enterprising Mr. Griffith scams pawns as "The Mechanical Chess-player". Mr. Beery, who calls himself "Count Donelli" invites Griffith to join himself and Dean. Soon, the unholy trio travel to New York's Fifth Avenue; there, they plan their biggest heist.

Tod Browning's "White Tiger" is entertainingly performed, and directed. Later in the running time, Matt Moore (as Richard Longworth) makes the troupe a fine acting quartet. The story situation requires too great a suspension of disbelief, however. You'll may wonder why Griffith and Dean don't dope things out sooner (just for starters). The "White Tiger" referred to in the title is, by the way, the criminal element that lives in the heart of the unholy criminal: "Fawning and hating the strong, ready to ravage the weak, faithless…suspicious…cruel and savage, fearing no God…trusting no man…that's White Tiger in the heart of the crook!"

Fortunately this 1923 Universal film by Tod Browning survives for us to view and evaluate. Made right after Browning's OUTSIDE THE LAW this film has all the feel of "Outside the Law" even to the point of looking like it re-uses some of the "Outsidethe Law" sets. Browning's stars in this film are perhaps his favorite muse, Priscilla Dean who appeared in "Outside the Law" and many other Browning films, Wallace Beery, Raymond Griffith and Matt Moore. Even the same cameraman William Fildew is on hand. If you're familiar with Tod Browning's films you'll recognize that he's treading on territory that he would later use at MGM in such films as THE UNHOLY THREE, THE MYSTIC and THE SHOW. In fact Raymond Griffith has a mustache and is dressed wearing a familiar striped shirt almost identical to John Gilbert's in 1927's "The Show". So one gets the feeling that Browning is never really finished saying what he wants to say where as many of his films, such as "White Tiger", keep returning to the same theme. Sources state that "White Tiger" was made in 1921 but not edited and released until 1923 which is probably why it bears such a striking resemblance to "Outside the Law". As in "Outside the Law" and the later "Unholy Three", the story in "White Tiger" has three to four criminals on the run after a jewel robbery, held up in a claustrophobic environment, each having to deal with the other's foibles. In "Outside the Law" it was an apartment on Nob Hill in San Francisco and in "White Tiger" it's a log cabin in western New York. The sense of mistrust amongst the criminals is just as tense as it is in both the 1925 "The Unholy Three" and it's 1930 sound remake.

This silent drama marked the ninth and last collaboration between director Tod Browning, best remembered for such macabre classics as The Unknown and Freaks, and actress Priscilla Dean, who is hardly remembered at all. Miss Dean was quite the star in her day, and was even called the Queen of the Universal Lot in the early 1920s, but nowadays the only attention she receives is due largely to ongoing interest in some of her colleagues. Beginning in 1918 she and Browning collaborated on a series of crime melodramas, including Outside the Law (1920), a box office sensation that also featured Lon Chaney in a dual role and boosted his career considerably. Chaney would make some of his best known films with Browning in subsequent years, and although their work is generally assigned to the horror genre most of their movies belong to a niche category Browning essentially invented, and certainly favored throughout his career: "caper" flicks involving small-time criminals connected to the lower rungs of show business: circuses, carnivals, wax museums, etc.

White Tiger is one of these sagas, and although Chaney is not present -- unfortunately! -- Priscilla Dean plays opposite two interesting co-stars: Wallace Beery, who all but cornered the market in unsympathetic character roles during the silent era, and Raymond Griffith, who at this time had not yet launched his own series of wry, witty light comedies. The story concerns a trio of crooks who manage to get themselves invited into the homes of wealthy suckers by offering an unusual gimmick: a mechanical chess player that can challenge any human player and win. The automaton is, of course, bogus, operated by Griffith concealed within. Meanwhile, Beery impersonates a count (most unconvincingly) and passes off Dean as his daughter. After a demonstration of the machine, Griffith slips out and steals valuables, which are then hidden inside the robot chess player. If the plot sounds a wee bit far-fetched, it is. Perhaps this would have worked better as a comedy, but the actors play it straight and little that happens is believable, even "Hollywood" believable.

Eventually the crooks wind up in a remote cabin with their loot and struggle with a growing sense of paranoia regarding each other's intentions. (Browning would re-use this motif with his trio of crooks in The Unholy Three a couple of years later.) The true nature of the relationship between the three characters is ultimately revealed, and there is a modicum of violence before matters are resolved. The last section of the film suffers from "cabin fever" in the most literal sense of the phrase: we're supposed to be gripped by suspense as tensions rise between the three crooks, but instead things get draggy, and viewers could be forgiven for wishing they'd wrap up the story a little faster.

The print of White Tiger I've seen is somewhat abridged, but even granting the filmmakers leeway where missing footage is concerned the movie is not entirely coherent and, in the end, not very satisfying. (To put it another way, even if a pristine camera negative of the original release print were to be miraculously discovered, I doubt it would improve matters much, though I'd be happy to be proved wrong about that.) The biggest problem is a scenario damaged by too many credibility stretches and unmotivated actions. As mentioned earlier, this was the ninth crime drama Browning made with Priscilla Dean, and it would be fair to suggest that the formula was wearing thin by this point. Additionally, according to the biography of Browning by David J. Skaal and Elias Savada, at the time this film was made the writer/director was overwhelmed by personal difficulties and drinking heavily, which may explain the movie's shortcomings: the enterprise bears an unmistakable air of fatigue. Apparently the version Browning turned in to his bosses was a mess, and Universal shelved the film for over a year after its completion. Finally, anonymous studios hands were assigned to salvage the project with a fresh edit and newly written title cards. At this late date it's impossible to tell whether the film's deficiencies were present from the beginning or are the result of nitrate decomposition in surviving prints over the years, but in any case the film received poor reviews, and was not a success upon its release in 1923. Subsequently, the major players went their separate ways. Raymond Griffith became a star of sophisticated comedies of the late silent era; Wallace Beery became a character star of the '30s and '40s; and Tod Browning managed to pull himself together and produce the macabre classics for which he is remembered.

As for Priscilla Dean, her career went into a decline not long after White Tiger was released. By 1927 she was appearing in two-reel comedies under Hal Roach's "All-Star" banner, alongside such fellow fading names as Mabel Normand and Theda Bara. One of Dean's comedies, Slipping Wives, featured Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in one of their early appearances together, which serves to underscore the irony that the one-time Queen of the Universal Lot is today remembered primarily for the company she kept.