West of Zanzibar (1928)

Directed by

Tod Browning

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 05m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 43 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A paralyzed stage magician plots revenge against a rival in a remote African outpost. The magician uses a woman with sad eyes as part of his scheme.

tensemelancholicdarkslow-burnvisually lushsombergrimfocusedclaustrophobic

What happens

West of Zanzibar is a 1928 American synchronized sound film directed by Tod Browning. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. The screenplay concerns a vengeful stage magician named Phroso (Lon Chaney) who becomes paralyzed in a brawl with a rival (Lionel Barrymore). The supporting cast includes Mary Nolan and Warner Baxter. The screenplay was written by Elliott J. Clawson, based on the 1926 play Kongo by Charles de Vonde and Kilbourn Gordon. Walter Huston starred in the stage play and later played Phroso again in the 1932 sound film remake of the same story which was also called Kongo. The Hays office, the official Hollywood censor, banned the stage play "Kongo" from the screen, so to bypass the ruling, MGM changed the title first to South of the Equator, then finally to West of Zanzibar. Owen Moore was originally set to play Doc, but the role went to Warner Baxter instead. Mary Nolan was hired to play Maizie because she had "such sad eyes". Cedric Gibbons and Richard Day designed the sets, and David Cox handled the costumes. West of Zanzibar is intriguing to Lon Chaney fans because of the lost or excised sequences that Browning allegedly shot for the film that no longer exist; in particular, Phroso (Chaney) in costume as The Human Duck in a freak show act and scenes showing Phroso and his troupe when they first arrive in Africa. Stills of Chaney in the duck costume exist, but it is unclear whether the scene was actually shot, or merely planned and publicity stills were taken. The film was in production from June 25, 1928 to July 31, 1928, and cost $249,000 to produce. Its worldwide box office gross was $921,000. The film was released both silent and with sound effects and a synchronized music score. Film historian Jon C. Mirsalis wrote that Waldemar Young was involved in writing the screenplay (but no other sources mention him) and that the film was released on December 28, 1928 instead of November 24th. Stills exist showing Chaney as the crippled Phroso. MGM Home Video released the film with the synchronized music score on laser disc in 1993. It was released on DVD in 2012 as part of the Warner Archive Collection, using the same video master. The film also turns up frequently on the Turner Classics Movies cable TV channel and on PBS stations. Print exists in the George Eastman Museum film archive [35mm positive]. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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