bsmith5552 "West of Zanzibar" is truly one of Lon Chaney's best films. It's a story of revenge and hatred and is dominated by Chaney's performance as the paralyzed magician Phroso.The story in brief, has Phroso's wife Anna (Jacqueline Gadden) running off with ivory trader Crane (Lionel Barrymore). In a scuffle with Crane, Phroso is crippled. When Anna returns with a baby and dies unexpectedly, Phroso decides to exact his revenge on Crane through the child. The child who is named Maizie (Mary Nolan), is raised in a brothel to the age of 18. Then the demented Phroso who has become some sort of a false god in Zanzibar, begins to carry out his insane plan of revenge with the help of a derelict doctor (Warner Baxter) and his two assistants Tiny (Tiny Ward) and Babe (Kalla Posha).Chaney is so convincing as the paralyzed Phroso that you will believe that he is really crippled. With his slovenly and unkempt appearance, he drags himself around on the floor of his hut and climbs into his wheel chair pulling his lifeless legs behind him. Chaney was an excellent pantomimist. Watch the expression on his face change from insane hatred to surprise and pity at the climax of the story.Unfortuneatly, the film somewhat telegraphs the ultimate climax but Chaney's performance more than makes up for it. Mary Nolan is good as the tool of Chaney's revenge and Warner Baxter is excellent as the boozy "Doc" who comes to Maizie's aid. Barrymore is suitably evil as the other man. I was captivated by the beauty of Jacqueline Gadden in a brief role and wondered why we didn't see more of her.One of Lon Chaney's most memorable characterizations, it is a must for all Chaney fans.

cstotlar-1 This film has been on my list for years to see and I finally caught it on You Tube. The print wasn't in tip-top shape but it was quite viewable. Browning's camera never shifts and that becomes monochromatic at times but his avoidance of unnecessary inter-titles is an excellent choice. The actors are particularly good in this one and the great Lon Chaney without excessive make-up is truly remarkable. The are twists and turns galore in the last part of the film that wear quite well. The geography is somewhat muddled perhaps but the story-line braves the storm and keeps the audience guessing. The musical score of the version I saw was effective without being overbearing.I'm glad I saw this film.Curtis Stotlar

rdjeffers Saturday, December 12, 9:15pm The Castro, San Francisco "Gee, but you're a strange man." A Limehouse magician loses his wife to another man and seeks his revenge on the girl (Mary Nolan) he believes is their child.Based on the Broadway play Kongo, by Chester deVonde, West of Zanzibar (1928) was the sixth of ten films directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney. Crippled in a fight with his rival, Phroso (Chaney) discovers his dead wife and the child one year later and takes her to a malarial, booze-soaked sub-Saharan hell infested with society's rejects and bloodthirsty cannibals, where the story picks up "eighteen years later." A combination of familiar Chaney themes, West of Zanzibar is noteworthy for the performance of former Ziegfeld Follies star Nolan as Mazie, the ruined girl, and Warner Baxter as Doc, the drunken slob, pulled back from the brink to save her. Lionel Barrymore is sadistically indifferent as the other man, and Chaney delivers a typically earth-shaking emotional performance.Lon Chaney's West of Zanzibar opened at San Francisco's Warfield theatre on Saturday, December 1, 1928 for a one week run. "Rube Wolf and a company of Fanchon and Marco entertainers are featured today in Stairway of Dreams on the stage." The program also featured Fox Movietone Talking News and a Charlie Chase comedy.

theowinthrop West of Zanzibar was based on one of those torrid dramas that were big on Broadway in the 1920s, set in some distant rain forest or jungle. The best recalled is WHITE CARGO, in which a half-breed (as they were called in the 1920s) named Tondelayo manipulates one man into marrying her, and later tries to poison him for her own comfort. The play RAIN was based on a better piece of fiction (Somerset Maugham's short story of the same name) and set in the South Seas - and told of how a holy man proved more man than holy man after he met a prostitute.But KONGO, the basis of WEST OF ZANZIBAR, is not as well remembered except for the two films that came out of it: the silent film here with Lon Chaney as "Deadlegs" and the talkie movie version with Walter Huston called KONGO. They gave the same type of background - exotic and rotting to White "European" types. But KONGO / WEST OF ZANZIBAR also is a study in vengeance and it's dangers and limitations.Lon Chaney Sr. plays a prominent magician named Phroso, who is married when his wife deserts him for a rival named Crane (Lionel Barrymore). There is a fight, and Crane cripples Phroso by throwing him down. Crane leaves with the wife, but a year of so later she tries to return to Phroso, who rejects her. She dies, leaving a young girl. Phroso takes the girl, believing it is Crane's daughter.Tod Browning's films were good on building suspense and showing the odd in life from "Freaks" to Mad Magicians to Great Vampires (of fake Vampires). But the plot lines are not well thought out. Phroso learns Crane is an ivory dealer in Africa, so he follows him there, sets himself up as an ivory dealer too, and proceeds to slowly drive Crane out of business as part of a long term plan for vengeance. He also brings up the daughter (Mary Nolan) as a drudge and a drug addict. His compound in Africa includes a drunken doctor (Warner Baxter) and the local natives. It is with the scenes and plot developments with the natives that the creakiness and racism of the play shows through - Phroso keeps the natives under control by his magic tricks. Baxter, who is usually soused, is seen playing a guitar rapidly in one scene, while a heavy native woman is "shimmying" in a suggestive dance. One thing in the plot that the natives have been promised is that when Crane dies they can put the daughter to death as a sacrifice to their gods.Eventually two things upset the plotting of Phroso. First, Baxter finds that he is falling for Nolan. Soon, instead of being pliant to Chaney he starts defending her defiantly. Second, when Chaney finally confronts Barrymore, he learns that the latter could not care less about what happened to Nolan - because she is not Barrymore's daughter, she's Chaney's! All of his plotting has only endangered his own child!The film was a good one for Chaney, playing one of his most belligerent and dangerous fiends, but one who recovers his own humanity too late. Barrymore played mostly villains in the movies at this time, and makes Crane a person devoid of any charm at all (one wonders what Phroso's wife saw in him to begin with). Baxter and Nolan do the best with their roles, Baxter pulling himself together and belatedly discovering Chaney's rediscovered humanity. If not as well known to the public as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, WEST OF ZANZIBAR gave Chaney another eccentric villain to play with, and is worth watching.