StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Pamela Short
Dr. Anthony Lamb has been experimenting with methods for prolonging human life. A half-man, half-ape, lumbers through his house, a victim of his early experiments. In another part of town, Robert Sandell, an unsuccessful writer, is distraught because his mother is ill, and must be seen by a specialist. Desperate for money, he attacks Dr. Lamb in the park, but is overcome, and the Dr. brings him to his home. Robert tells of how his family was once prosperous, and he was engaged to marry Angela Marshall. His father died, and they fell into poverty. Robert went to war, and when he returned he found his mother seriously ill. Dr. Lamb drugs Robert, and over the protests of his wife, plans to perform experiments on him. Robert awakens the next morning to find his mother has been brought to Dr. Lamb's home. The Dr. says that she is dying, but that he can save her...if Robert will agree to let him conduct a surgical experiment on him. Robert consents, and Dr. Lamb performs delicate surgery that saves the woman's life. Knowing that his mother is out of danger, Robert goes off to spend a few days with Angela. Mrs. Lamb and the ape-man are both terrified of Dr. Lamb, and the two plot to prevent the evil experiments planned for Robert. At a charity ball, Robert and Angela plan their engagement, but Dr. Lamb arrives and tells Robert that he must return to the laboratory now. Mrs. Lamb warns Robert of the danger that lies ahead, and tells him that he may end up like the ape-man. That night, the ape-man brings Robert a note from Mrs. Lamb, and he follows the strange creature through a passage that leads to a laboratory. There, Robert finds cages full of snarling half-men, half-apes, all failures from previous experiments. Dr. Lamb arrives and explains his experiments to Robert. Robert and the Dr. fight, but Robert is overpowered and strapped to the operating table. The ape-man enters, and refuses to obey the order to leave. The ape-man throws the lever that releases a huge beast- man from a cage. Dr. Lamb fires his revolver at the creature, but the beast grabs the doctor and breaks his back before dying of the bullet wounds. Robert marries Angela, and finally finds success as a writer, selling the story of his strange experience.
"It appears to have been the aim of all connected with this production to accent the weird, mysterious and uncanny elements and to make the picture so that it would thrill and fascinate spectators because of its horror and mystery...Lon Chaney's work in this picture is really marvelous and he again demonstrates that he is one of the best if not the very best character actor on the screen. As the ape-man, his portrayal and likeness to a huge chimpanzee is wonderful and sends chills up and down your spine. " ---Moving Picture World
zpzjones
Pity!, that A BLIND BARGAIN is a lost film. A text reconstruction was published in 1988 by Philip Riley with help from legendary horror aficionado Forrest Ackerman. Their book uses a multitude of still pictures that survived from the production and at least arranges the story in a manner that is close to the shooting schedule. This book is a similar reconstruction that Riley & Ackerman did with the lost London AFTER MIDNIGHT(1927).ABB is one of the few Lon Chaney Sr movies/stories that can be classified as horror in the 'supernatural' sense that we know it today. His horror reputation has come down through the years due to fantastic makeups in films like Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame & London After Midnight. All great make-ups. But most of Chaney's classic silent movies centered around deformed people, emphasized make-ups or criminal melodrama. At the time this was very groundbreaking stuff in movies and bad behavior and criminal machinations was considered horrific enough to most adult movie goers who had been raised in the 19th century. Supernatural horror had only been explored in movies sporadically in primitive 1-2 reel versions of Frankenstein & Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde. ABB, judging from Riley's synopsis is about a scientist, Dr Lamb(Chaney Sr), who experiments in his lab blending human & simian aspects into his nimble assistant(also Chaney Sr in dual roles). From what one can decipher of where the story goes, the simian experiments using the assistant go awry and out-of-control. From here the story starts to look familiar to the Dr Jekyll story and it also curiously has a bit in common with Lon Chaney Jr's THE WOLFMAN made 20 years later. Riley's book has some very good stills of Chaney Sr during the course of production on ABB and some fascinating shots of Chaney Sr in various stages of makeup showing the human-on-the-way-to-simian stages of the haywire experiments. Like Dr Jekyll & Frankenstein & Wolfman & The Fly this shows a human blending into something other than human giving credence to the supernatural. THE Vampire in London AFTER MIDNIGHT was a faux paux, meaning he was not a real vampire, he was used by a very human & crafty detective to leaven a story thus rendering him non-supernatural. Chaney's makeup as the vampire is very horrific and has erroneously been linked to supernatural by some. The experiments in ABB are quite of the supernatural as we expect them today.This was the third or fourth time Lon Chaney Sr worked with his friend director Wallace Worsley. They had made the excellent THE PENALTY in 1920 and were a year away from making HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME(actually begun in 1922). Personally I don't think Worsley was good at directing big super productions like HUNCHBACK but he was excellent at smaller more intimate Chaney pictures like THE PENALTY, ACE OF HEARTS & VOICES OF THE CITY. The great cinematographer, Norbert Brodine, was a young up-and-coming cameraman then and ABB is one of his earliest assignments working with Chaney & Worsley. Towards the end of his life Brodine provided some insight into the making of this movie by reminiscing about the production. Hopefully a copy of ABB will resurface somewhere, in some country. Keep those fingers crossed.
