poe-48833 THE MONSTER just happens to be one of the finest LOOKING Fright Films of The Silent Era: every shot is beautifully composed and lit and much of the imagery is truly striking (all of the Monstrous characters LOOK like Monsters, and each has his own distinctively individual persona). The effects are outstanding, too: at one point, a character is swept off his feet by the wind and down a staircase and out a door into the waiting arms of another character. This sequence is best SEEN and not DESCRIBED: mere words don't do it justice, believe me. Chaney is as sinister as he ever was, and his familiar face lends its own creepiness to the goings-on. Highly recommended.

kidboots Lon Chaney, like Edward G. Robinson, was more than happy to parody his image. The surprising thing with Chaney is that it came so early in his "horror" career. This was his second MGM movie - straight after "He Who Gets Slapped", which is probably why it wasn't that popular. A big problem was that audiences of the time found it so hard to understand a movie poking fun at a genre that only came into existence a few years earlier. Roland West was the perfect director for it but although he directed a few atmospheric thrillers like "The Bat", "The Monster" and the excellent early talkie "Alibi", his output was sparse and by 1931 he had directed his last film "Corsair" with his good friend Chester Morris and current girl friend Thelma Todd.Adapted from the play by Crane Wilbur (earlier the hero of "The Perils of Pauline" serial) it had opened in New York in 1922 with a respectable 101 performances. The movie starts out creepily enough. "A human monster watched with cat like eyes for a victim"!!! Then John Bowman, the town's wealthy farmer is run off the road with the old "smoke and mirrors" trick and disappears!!! For the next half hour the film becomes a small town comedy - it seems everybody's a detective and has an opinion, none more so than Johnny Goodlittle (Johnny Arthur) who has just earned his detective diploma and has found a clue at the crime scene - a scribbled message for help with the name of a disused sanitarian - but instead he becomes the town laughing stock.No wonder audiences felt shortchanged. Lon Chaney didn't make his appearance until the 30 minute mark and the two male leads were pretty under whelming. Johnny Arthur, as the put upon hero would not have caught any small town girl's eye and basically played a mincing milquetoast, a role he perfected in the talkies and Hallam Cooley was pretty forgettable as his rival. The last hour takes place at the sanitarian where the lunatics have taken over the asylum and as usual Lon Chaney puts everyone else in the shade. He plays Dr. Ziska and he brilliantly overplays it to the hilt - with his weird bunch of henchmen - "You are trying to make me MAD - and I have an operation to perform"!!! and as one body hurtles down the chute "You sent me a MAN - and you know I wanted a woman"!!! I suppose more sophisticated movie patrons of the time would have enjoyed it but most were probably expecting (with a title like "The Monster") another "Phantom of the Opera". Gertrude Olmstead, as Betty, was a nice actress who was more than happy to retire when she met the love of her life Robert Z. Leonard who was recovering from his years of being married to "Queen of the Divas", Mae Murray.

MissSimonetta The Monster is one of the great Lon Chaney's less memorable ventures. It's neither bad nor good, though it does have its moments. The only reason it doesn't get a lower rating is because it doesn't take itself too seriously and Chaney is somewhat entertaining as a mad scientist.The story involves three young adults (Johnny Arthur, Gertrude Olmstead, Hallam Cooley) trapped in a creepy asylum under the "hospitality" of a mad doctor (Lon Chaney) whose intentions seem quite malicious. Arthur's character is a less funny version of Buster Keaton's character in Sherlock Jr., but he's not bad and certainly the most memorable of the trio. Chaney is entertaining as the mad doctor, but it is far from being one of his better parts. The "haunted house" plot feels very dated and some of the jokes really aren't all too funny.Though mostly forgettable, The Monster is essential for huge Chaney fans like myself and if you're really bored, then you might like to waste some time with this one.

MARIO GAUCI I was rather disappointed by THE MONSTER this time around: it has little to offer apart from its very strangeness (which appears to be a trademark of director Roland West, who later made both the silent version of THE BAT [1926] and its first sound remake THE BAT WHISPERS [1930]).The plot is very creaky: typical 'old dark house' stuff - and not especially interesting at that - which frequently borders on the ludicrous. It starts off well enough with an atmospheric sequence set in a thunderstorm, and the comic relief which occupies most of the film's expository first half (possibly inspired by Buster Keaton's SHERLOCK JR., made the previous year) is likable enough. But when the three leading characters get caught inside a desolate sanitarium, taken over by mad scientist Chaney, the film starts to drag and it never quite recovers. Chaney is flanked by three distinctive-looking assistants/former patients: one, dressed in a cape throughout most of the proceedings, is suitably creepy; another, fairly amusing, is a buffoonish character whose child-like approach to things thwarts Chaney's plans more often than abetting them; and there is also the (rather grating) standard of all such flicks, the mute strong-man who never does anything more strenuous than scowling!Chaney himself is wasted here: the scientist, Dr. Ziska, is supposed to be working on some 'great experiment' but this is barely touched upon till the final reel - and by this time, the audience has stopped caring! Johnny Arthur, the film's unlikely hero, gets to do an incredible stunt (another nod to Keaton) and there are a few genuinely eerie scenes, like when a pair of hands reach out from under the sleeping heroine to grasp her. The film also betrays its stage origins by flat and stagy direction - the only other Roland West picture I have watched, THE BAT WHISPERS, is far more cinematically fluid and interesting (if still basically flawed).