Review of Where East Is East (1929) by Zoran S — 22 Mar 2009
This isn't as awesome as The Unholy Three or The Unknown (though awesomely enough it also has a genius scene where a giant gorilla attacks someone like in The Unholy Three), but it is as every bit as wonderfully lurid.
I mean Lon Chaney plays an animal tamer who is a bit too protective of his daughter who he, uh, kisses on the lips and "role plays" as an animal with her. Even goofier, the daughter is going to marry a man who is sexually obsessed with her mother.
Chaney scowls overly expressively throughout and the film doesn't have a wasted scene at a brief 65 minutes. While I know there can never be another Lon Chaney, I do think something has been lost with sound cinema: the big, expressive emotions, which totally enthrall you in a basic way (pre-psychological identification with a character) that makes cinema about the human face.
Chaney's face is unrequited love, pain, anger, sorrow, obsession, and madness all wrapped into one; yet, in this film and The Unknown he also never fails to be sympathetic.
This review of Where East Is East (1929) was written by Zoran S on 22 Mar 2009.
Where East Is East has generally received mixed reviews.
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