IMDb plot summary: A trio of former sideshow performers double as the "Unholy Three" in a scam to nab some shiny rocks.
Directed by Jack Conway. Starring Lon Chaney, Lila Lee, and Elliott Nugent.
The Unholy Three follows three circus performers -- a little person, a ventriloquist, and a strong man -- who leave the circus after their sideshow is shut down and band together to commit crimes, disguised as a family running a pet shop. This certainly is a more exciting premise than a lot of the crime films I've seen from 1930, leaning heavily into melodrama and elaborate costumes (the ventriloquist disguises himself as a kindly grandmother, and the little person as her baby grandchild). It's a remake of a silent film by Tod Browning, who was later known for the film Freaks, and like that film, the premise of this one treads the line between being respectful of folks who worked at the sideshow and being exploitative. But overall I think it does a good job of letting them be villains without letting their "otherness" MAKE them villains, and overall they come across as full characters more often than not. It's not a film for everyone, but I enjoyed it -- it felt different from other films of the era, and I appreciated a story I hadn't seen told yet.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Unholy Three > The Anderson Tapes
The Unholy Three < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Unholy Three > Cafe Society
The Unholy Three < We're No Angels (1955)
The Unholy Three > Secret Window
The Unholy Three > Andhadhun
The Unholy Three > The French Dispatch
The Unholy Three > I and You
The Unholy Three > Whisky Galore!
The Unholy Three < The Mummy (1932)
The Unholy Three > Maria Full of Grace
Final spot: #1194 out of 3806, or 69%.
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