Loin vers l'Est

Many of Chaney's films had borderline verboten relationships, but this time the father/daughter bond is displayed in a way that is, in my mind anyway, a bit too "adult". At first, I thought the daughter was the wife! The mother character is a real (insert nasty word here), but every performance lacks real depth and emotion. Even Chaney seemed to be holding back. The story itself is textbook. If you just plain want to watch a late silent drama, then by all means watch this one, but it is far from the best of Lon Chaney's films. I'd like to know who designed the eye makeup for the actress who played the wife... the whole time I tried to figure out if the was really Asian or not!

WHERE EAST IS EAST is an enjoyable if fairly contrived adventure saga: Chaney is a scarred trapper of wild animals, and the very first scene shows him capturing a tiger for use in a circus. Chaney adores his young daughter (Lupe Velez) and she certainly returns his affections – indeed, relentlessly so, resulting in a somewhat overbearing performance! Lloyd Hughes is her naïve boyfriend, whose father conveniently owns a circus.

Gradually, we learn that Velez's mother had left her and Chaney when still a baby. He later meets up with her on a boat, and we realize that she is nothing but a vamp who has already set her eyes on a new patsy – Lloyd Hughes! Estelle Taylor's performance rivals Chaney's here (not to mention Velez for sex appeal) – though her character is irritatingly one-note, and is unfortunately saddled with some godawful lines of cornball romanticism! Taylor is accompanied by an enigmatic servant-woman who, for some unknown reason, constantly betrays her mistresses' moves to Chaney: she reminded me of Judith Anderson in Hitchcock's REBECCA (1940), and I cracked up a couple of times watching her creep up on Chaney, give him the lowdown on Taylor's seduction of Hughes, and vanish immediately afterwards – without giving Chaney barely a chance to register what she just said!

Tod Browning's hand is not much in evidence throughout the film and, while Chaney is quite good in what he has to do, the material on offer is somewhat below-par here. If anything, from his performances in this film and THE UNKNOWN (1927), we almost feel certain there's nobody who can illustrate a character's utter disgust and contempt (without bothering to cover it up in the face of his enemies!) like Chaney does!! The finale is a typical Browning/Chaney eccentricity, however: when Taylor is certain to take away her daughter's boyfriend for good, Chaney lets loose an ape – and which also, conveniently, hates Taylor's guts (!) – from one of the cages in his yard. It climbs up to Taylor's room and kills her in some vicious manner we can only imagine – as Browning typically shies away from showing us anything but, perhaps, understandably so in this case. Chaney almost regrets having done this, and is himself wounded struggling with the gorilla.

Lon Chaney hunts the jungles of French Indo-China for ferocious animals to sell to zoos and circuses. With this he maintains a nice house in Saigon, where he lives comfortably with his daughter, Lupe Velez. When she announces she's in love with Lloyd Hughes, he's skeptical. His lack of faith grows when they run into Estelle Taylor on ship upriver; she finds out he's Miss Velez' fiancee and proceeds to vamp him. Chaney explains she's his daughter's mother. They return to his house, but Miss Taylor follows them.

It's director Tod Browning's last silent movie, filled with his usual depravity, and Miss Taylor's eye makeup is quite remarkable, as is her placid, self-satisfied voraciousness. With Willie Fung, Chris-Pin Martin, and the inevitable Charles Gemora as a gorilla.

"Where East is East" is another entertaining and somewhat disturbing film from Director Tod Browning and Lon Chaney, this one set in Asia. Chaney plays a wild animal trainer whose daughter (Lupe Vélez) falls in love with a young man (Lloyd Hughes). After some initial reluctance, Chaney supports their intended marriage, but then trouble comes in the form of Madame de Sylva (Estelle Taylor), an Asian seductress. As she moves in on Hughes, we find out she's actually Chaney's old wife and Vélez's mother, who abandoned them long ago. A disturbing love triangle is thus formed between a young man and a mother and her daughter. Chaney snarls and is and tries to protect his daughter, compelling as always, but it's the women who steal this show. Vélez is a bundle of energy and plays her part with a touching innocence and charm, and Taylor absolutely lights up the screen from the moment she appears – her face and hair are just stunning. The two of them and a macabre (if a bit contrived) ending easily make this a film worth watching.

Some notes of interest in the personal lives of the cast: Chaney would sadly die just one year later, and Vélez and Taylor would become such close friends that it would be Taylor at Vélez's side the night she committed suicide 15 years later.

Also, some notes on the subject of race, always a lightning rod in watching these old films: It's disappointing that none of the principal Asian roles are played by Asians, Asian countries and cultures are muddled together, and Asian characters are shown butchering basic grammar even when they should be speaking in their native languages to one another. On the other hand, Browning doesn't play to other stereotypes, wisely doesn't attempt to make Taylor or Vélez look "more Asian" with garish make-up, knowing it would be ridiculous (see Renee Adoree in 1927's Mr. Wu, among others), and also includes three lines in correct Chinese, as opposed to putting up a hodgepodge of nonsensical characters. (And interestingly enough, he doesn't even translate those lines into English.) Not bad, especially for 1929.

In Southeast Asia, scar-faced animal hunter Lon Chaney (as Tiger Haynes) is very protective of "pretty as the poppies in the morning sun" daughter Lupe Velez (as Toyo), who is dating cute Lloyd Hughes (as Bobby Bailey). Mr. Chaney, who likes to play bullfighting games with Ms. Velez, grows to accept Mr. Hughes after he helps save Velez from a loose tiger. When all seems idyllic, seductive Estelle Taylor (as Madame de Sylva) arrives to heighten interest in sex and revenge among the men.

Directed by Tod Browning and top-billing Chaney, then the #2 "Box Office Star" according to the annual "Quigley Publications" exhibitors' poll, "Where East Is East" is nothing special; it features the expected Browning/Chaney formulaic moments, but they are mild when compared to some of the collaborators' other works. Despite some silly posturing and eye make-up, Ms. Taylor is most entertaining. She and Mr. Hughes are fun - and, watch out for Taylor's jealous lesbian attendant.

****** Where East Is East (5/4/29) Tod Browning ~ Lon Chaney, Lupe Velez, Estelle Taylor, Lloyd Hughes