WEST OF ZANZIBAR (1928)
Article #428 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-17-2002
Posting date: 10-10-2002

A magician’s legs become paralyzed when he is hurt in a fight with a man running away with his wife. When the wife shows up later dead in a church with a child, he vows to use the child to get revenge on the man who injured him.

After THE UNKNOWN, this is my favorite of Lon Chaney’s collaborations with Tod Browning. Once again, it’s more lurid melodrama than actual horror; the most horrific element of the plot is having one of the characters disguised as an evil spirit to scare African natives into dropping the ivory tusks they are transporting. However, the story itself is so depraved and the African setting exudes such a sinister dark atmosphere that it becomes a horror movie in spirit if not in plot. Once again, I find it hard to take my eyes off of Chaney, whose ability to evoke both deep horror and intense pity is as strong as ever. This was remade only a few years later with Walter Huston in the Chaney role as KONGO.