West of Zanzibar

 

CAST

Lon Chaney (Phroso/Dead Legs), 

Lionel Barrymore (Crane), 

Mary Nolan (Maizie), 

Warner Baxter (Doc), 

Jacqueline Gadsden (Anna)

Directed By: 

Tod Browning 

Written By:

Elliot J. Clawson. 

Based on the play Kongo by Chester De Vonde

Run Time: 65 min.

West of Zanzibar was released on November 24, 1928 and turned out to be the second to last of the famous Chaney/Browning collaborations, which had begun to grow stale with critics. Donald Beaton wrote in Film Spectator, “There are a lot of people who are getting sick of seeing Chaney gulp over some girl half his age who is ungrateful enough to love someone else or set his jaw while another girl who doesn't know she is his daughter tells him that he is a low form of life . . . Chaney's once considerable acting ability has been atrophied by the parts he has to play until he has about three expressions left . . .” ¹

The film opens with a performance by the magician Phroso Flint (Lon Chaney). He is in the midst of his famous revolving secret door coffin trick. Phroso's assistant is his beautiful wife, Anna (Jacqueline Gadsden). From the very beginning we get the sense that theirs is a doomed relationship. Especially after we find out Anna is having an affair with a man named Crane (Lionel Barrymore), who is an ivory merchant in Africa. During the rest of the circus performances, a popular setting for Browning's films, Crane tells Phroso that he and Anna are running away together. A fight between Phroso and Crane ensues and Phroso is pushed off a balcony, becoming paralyzed from the fall.

Months later, Anna returns with a child. Anna is near death and Phroso meets with her in a church. When Phroso arrives, Anna is too weak to speak and soon in dramatic fashion dies, leaving Phroso grief stricken and vowing to get revenge on Crane by using the child that is now in his custody.

Eighteen years later—West of Zanizbar. Phroso Flint is now living in an outpost going by the name Dead Legs. When the local tribal king pays him a visit there is a great deal of classic racist and colonial attitudes on display, which were still very much apart of the accepted attitude of Hollywood films in the late 1920's. And is still accepted in Hollywood period pieces because this is how people probably thought and acted at the time. Dead Legs uses parlor tricks to convince the uncivilized and naïve natives that he has great magic and they need to fear him. Then one night while the local tribesmen are carrying elephant tusks back to the outpost of a local ivory merchant, a man sent by Dead Legs dressed up in a Voodoo costume scares the tribesmen and steals the tusks. We learn that Dead Legs is doing this in order to steal all the ivory from a local trader, who happens to be Crane.

After antagonizing Crane by stealing his ivory, Dead Legs decides it's time to put part two of his plan into action. Dead Legs sends word to the brothel he stashed Anna's daughter, Maizie (Mary Nolan), 18 years ago. In those years she has become a desperate alcoholic. Maizie is under the impression that she is being taken to finally meet her father. When she arrives at the outpost, she finds Dead Legs men sloppy drunk and acting crazy and Dead Legs himself, slithering across the floor like a serpent. Dead Legs pulls himself into his wheelchair to greet her, and Maizie asks him if he is her father. Dead Legs informs her that he is not. Maizie wants to know why she was brought her instead of to her father. While this is going on the natives have gathered outside of the outpost for a funeral ceremony. While Maizie is demanding an answer, Dead Legs puts on a terrifying ceremonial mask and joins the tribe for the funeral. Maizie watches the ceremony which involves the cremation of the deceased as well as having his wife and daughters burned alive with his body. Maizie becomes hysterical and tries to flee but is quickly recaptured.

Maizie and Doc (Warner Baxter), the alcoholic doctor who treats Dead Legs, develop a bond based initially on the fact that they are both in a sense prisoners of Dead Legs. Then news comes that Crane is coming to pay Dead Legs a visit now that he knows Dead Legs is the one behind the ivory thefts. The scene between Crane and Dead Legs is fantastic. As Crane enters the outpost, Dead Legs comes crawling out. At first, Crane doesn't realize the true identity of Dead Legs that is until Dead Legs shows Crane the coffin with the skeleton inside which he used to use in his act when he was still Phroso. Initially Crane finds the revelation hilarious. Then Maizie enters the room strung out. At this time Doc reveals that he is in love with Maizie. Crane is amused by the drama happening before him, then Dead Legs informs him that Maizie is Anna's daughter. Crane appears devastated by the news until he reveals to Dead Legs that Maizie is actually his daughter because Anna never ran away with Crane after she found out what he had done to Phroso/Dead Legs. The shot of the tortured Dead Legs trying to grasp what he has just learned is phenomenal. The emotion Cheney could convey with a single expression in a close up has never been matched.

Dead Legs and Anna are now left alone to deal with the nightmarish life he has inflicted upon her. Dead Legs tries for reconciliation, offering to take her anywhere in the world she wants to go. Soon a group of natives returns to the outpost with Crane, who is near death after being shot on orders from Dead Legs. Dead Legs realizing that Maizie will be burned alive if Crane dies, orders Doc to save him. Unfortunately, Crane is too far gone and Doc can do nothing. 

When Crane dies, the tribesman begin to prepare for the funeral. As is local custom Maizie is to be burned with Crane because everyone is under the impression that she is Crane's daughter. Dead Legs reveals to Doc that he is in fact her father. Doc can't bear to tell Maizie that Dead Legs is her real father, so he lies, telling Maizie her real father died years ago. When the men come for Maizie, Dead Legs tells them that he will bring her out himself. Doc and Dead Legs plot a way to save Maizie so she can avoid this terrible fate. 

 

Dead Legs decides to try a little 'White Man's Magic' to save Maizie from burning. With the natives watching, he puts her in the same wooden coffin with a secret exit that he used to use in his show. He closes it, then when he reopens it, there is a skeleton inside. Meanwhile, Doc, Maizie and the others flee by boat. However, the natives do not believe Dead Legs claim that an evil spirit has taken Maizie. The screen fades to black as the natives close in on Dead Legs. Later, a native fishes the same medallion that had hung around Dead Legs neck from out of the ashes.

West of Zanibar is a dark spectacle that seemed a perfect adaptation for Tod Browning. Unfortunately, Browning was no longer the director he had been and his creative relationship with Chaney had grown somewhat stale. West of Zanibar lacks the humanity that early Browning/Chaney films like The Unknown or The Blackbird . The sense that Phroso/Dead Legs had fully transformed to a cold-hearted animal is wonderfully conveyed in the way Chaney slithers along the floor near the end of the film. But the attempt to make him a redeemable figure in the end by having him sacrifice himself for Maizie felt a little too late. And even though Chaney still showed his ability to completely morph into someone else both body and soul and certainly looked tortured and anguished, his performance wasn't anywhere near as strong as it had been in films like Laugh, Clown, Laugh or his two most famous performances in, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of The Opera. Overall a good film to watch to experience the full arc of the Browning/Chaney collaborations.

1David J. Skal, Elias Savada. Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning . (Anchor Books/Doubleday 1995)

The Crimson Kimono

Released by Columbia Pictures in 1959

Written, Directed, and Produced by Samuel Fuller

Starring Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta, and Anna Lee.

***

Crimson Kimono is a gritty detective story mixed with a melodramatic love story and the typical blunt social commentary that Sam Fuller brought to all of his films.

The film opens with the famous stripper Sugar Torch (Gloria Pall) finishing her act then coming backstage, taking a drag off her manager's cigarette, then approaching her dressing room door. A gun shot is heard, Sugar Torch opens the door and sees someone inside. Sugar Torch runs out of the night club and is chased into a Los Angeles street where she is shot dead by an unknown assailant. Detectives Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbet) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) are assigned to the case.

During their first interview with Sugar Torch's manager Casale (Paul Dubov), they learn that Sugar was planning a new act called the Crimson Kimono, which was to a very elaborate piece telling the story of a tragic love triangle in a Geisha setting. While questioning Casale in the deceased's dressing room, the detectives come across a portrait painted of Sugar Torch wearing a Crimson Kimono. They inquire about the artist and who else had been hired to perform in the show. Once the information they need is obtained Charlie and Joe go off separately to track down the individuals involved.

Joe ends up at a local Martial Arts studio to see Willy Hidaka (George Yoshinaga), who was to play a Samurai in the Crimson Kimono. Willy tells Joe a man named Shuto (Fuji) was supposed to be the third star in the Crimson Kimono. Charlie, meanwhile, makes his way to Los Angeles Skid Row where his artist friend Mac (Anna Lee) has a studio. The scene in Mac's studio gives the film an unintentional moment of comic relief as it tries to capture the feel of the bohemian/Beat scene of 1950's. At the time of the films release, I'm sure seemed rather hip, but nearly fifty years later comes off as contrived and comedic.

The next morning Charlie and Joe are beginning their day in the apartment/hotel suite they share in downtown L.A. We learn that Joe is far more ambitious when it comes to obtaining a promotion than Charlie is, but being a Nisei is holding him back and forces him to work much harder than his white counterparts.

Charlie goes off to interview Chris (Victoria Shaw), a USC art student who painted Sugar Torches portrait. When Charlie meets Chris, he discovers that Chris is short for Christine and the woman behind the portrait is quite beautiful. At the this point, the professional interview turns more into pure flirtation, bringing together two-thirds of the love triangle that is to carry the film.

While Charlie is interviewing/flirting with Chris, Joe is attending a Buddhist service with George Yoshinaga (Bob Okazaki) who knows Shuto. After the service, George takes Joe to a rice cake shop where Shuto can be found. Joe confronts him in the shop and Shuto quickly flees. A chase down a street in Little Tokyo ensues, a fight between the two men takes place, but Shuto manages to escape.

The two detectives take Chris to meet Mac in a downtown bar. Mac warns Chris that the murderer, now identified as Hansel (Neyle Morrow) will now be after her since he's now aware that she knows what he looks like, since a sketch she drew of him for the police is now being broadcast on television. The tone of the film begins to shift here, as the melodramatic elements of the story begin to replace the gritty crime feel the film had up until this point. After the detectives drop Chris off back at her sorority house, Hansel appears outside of a window and takes a shot at Chris while she sits in the living room, fortunately missing her.

Charlie is now protecting Chris at the place he shares with Joe. We learn that Charlie and Joe became friends while serving together in Korea and that the strength of their friendship rests on their wartime experiences. When the doorbell suddenly rings, Chris becomes frightened and runs off into the bedroom as Charlie goes to answer the door. When Charlie returns, he finds Chris in the bedroom crying. He comforts her by continuously flirting with her, then kissing her.

Charlie and Joe are now on the hunt for Hansel. During their search it is revealed that Charlie has fallen quickly and deeply in love with Chris. So much so, he is already speaking about marriage. This revelation completely surprises Joe, as Charlie has always prided himself on being a easy going, commitment free, ladies man.

Later on, while Charlie is following up on a lead on the whereabouts of Hansel, provided to him by a local snitch, Joe and Chris are spending time together alone in the apartment. As Joe and Chris are talking, she discovers that Joe is a highly intelligent and deeply sensitive man who loves art and classical music. Before the night is over, Chris finds herself falling for Joe. Not too long after that Joe realizes that he too has fallen for Chris, but both the racial implications and knowing how Charlie feels about Chris, and that if he pursued her, he would be betraying Charlie, begins eating Joe up inside.

At this point in the film, Fuller has completely abandoned the gritty noir influence that the film began with and has now given way to a melodrama about love and race in 1950's America. Fuller uses a Kendo battle scene between Charlie and Joe that is part of the Nisei Week celebration in Little Tokyo to convey the building dramatic tension. In the scene, Joe's emotions get the better of him and he uncontrollably begins beating Charlie with his shinai (bamboo sword). After the fight, Joe confesses to Charlie that he and Chris are in love and out of respect for Charlie he hasn't touched her. A powerful scene unfolds in which Joe accuses Charlie of being disgusted by the fact that he has lost Chris not to just another man, but a Nisei man. This scene is then followed by a deeply emotional scene in which Joe confesses to Chris that he feels she can never truly love him because she can't understand what he goes through being a Japanese American.

Later on, in a bar, Charlie and Chris try to talk to Joe. As the three are talking Chris spots Hansel leaving the bar. Joe and Charlie chase him, following him into a shop in Little Tokyo. As they are questioning him, his accomplice Roma (Jaclynne Greene), whom Joe and Charlie questioned earlier in the film about Japanese costumes, comes into the shop and pulls a gun. She takes a shot at Joe and Charlie, missing, before running out into the street, right into the middle of a parade. The two detectives give chase through the parade, but are separated. Joe moves in, but is shot at a couple more times before he manages to take aim and shoot her. As Roma lays bleeding in the street, she confesses to Joe she killed Sugar out of jealousy. Hansel had been helping Sugar out planning the Crimson Kimono act, and Roma was convinced Hansel would leave her for Sugar, only to realize Hansel had no interest in Sugar, but it was too late, she had already killed Sugar.

The film ends with Joe and Charlie squaring things, then Joe and Chris kissing in the street before fading into an overhead shot of the lights of 1950's downtown Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, Columbia elected to market the film as just another Hollywood “B” exploitation movie, using such catch phrases as “L.A. BY NIGHT” and “WHY DOES SHE CHOOSE A JAPANESE LOVER?” Though The Crimson Kimono is imperfect in many ways and definitely not one of Fuller's best films, it is far better than the treatment it was given by the studio and audiences. But I guess that is what one should expect from a film that tries to break conventions both stylistically and in regards to subject matter. As Fuller himself said, “Upsetting the apple cart is fair game if you're striving to develop a character or underscore an emotion. In Run of the Arrow and Forty Guns, I'd broken plenty of rules to make characters more credible. And I'd do it again, as long as it gave my stories a fresh twist and allowed my characters to stay true to themselves.”