The Blackbird (1926)

Directed by Tod Browning. Starring Lon Chaney, Renée Adorée, Owen Moore, Doris Lloyd, William Weston, Andy MacLennan.

The Man of a Thousand Faces becomes the Man of a Thousand Postures when he plays a “dual role”—a scurrilous thief known as the Blackbird, and his well-liked hunched and crippled brother known as the Bishop…but they’re secretly one and same. Chaney’s customarily bravura work makes this silent movie worth watching, but the story is little more than a routine love triangle with a slight twist (love quadrangle?); he’s smitten with a vaudeville performer played by Adorée, but she’s also caught the eye of a fellow crook (Moore). Director Browning avoids most of the stilted set-ups and transitions for a steadily-diverting yarn, palpable slumhouse atmosphere and tense glowering from the rivals, but the final reel is a borderline disaster, with its cheaply contrived (and obvious) “ironic” ending and intertitle declarations straight out of bad theater. Browning also co-wrote the screenplay.

65/100