The Unholy Three 1925

The Unholy Three 1925 starring Lon Chaney, Mae Busch, Victor McLaglen – three criminals have a plan to get rich but anything that can go wrong …

The Unholy Three 1925 starring Lon Chaney, Mae Busch, Victor McLaglen

Actually, the criminals’ basic plan is quite clever. Lon Chaney’s character, Professor Echo, is a very good ventriloquist. He disguises himself as an elderly woman, running a pet store. “She” uses her ventriloquism so that when she sells parrots to wealthy patrons — so when the mute parrot can’t talk, “she” visits to encourage them to talk — and cases the mansion.

But the best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray, Echo is in love with Rosie, and the man they hired to work at the pet store — as a potential fall guy — also loves her. And the other members of the game get impatient, and go to perform a robbery on their own. Which turns into murder …

Product Description 

Lon Chaney — the Man of a Thousand Faces — used his makeup skills, astonishing physicality and profound empathy to create Quasimodo, the Phantom of the Opera and more of the Silent Era’s greatest horror roles. In this hypnotic mix of creepiness and crime, he plays a ventriloquist who dons a granny disguise to team with a strongman and a little person in a bizarre robbery scheme that ends in murder. The film marks an even more fateful alliance than that of the Unholy Three: the collaboration between Chaney and director Tod Browning, who would helm seven more Chaney movies before making Sound Era horror history with Dracula and Freaks.

Cast of characters

• Lon Chaney (West of Zanzibar) … Echo – The Ventriloquist
• Mae Busch (The Mad Monster; The Bohemian Girl) … Rosie O’Grady
• Matt Moore … Hector McDonald
• Victor McLaglen (The Quiet Man) … Hercules
• Harry Earles (Freaks) … Tweedledee
• Matthew Betz (Mystery of the Wax Museum) … Detective Regan
• Edward Connelly (The Saphead) … Judge
• William Humphrey (The Phantom of the Opera) … Attorney for the Defense
• E. Alyn Warren (Revolt of the Zombies) … Prosecuting Attorney (as A.E. Warren)

Additional cast

• Margie Angus … Twin (uncredited)
• Mary Angus … Twin (uncredited)
• Violet N. Cane … Arlington Daughter in Photo (uncredited)
• Walter P. Cole … Human Skeleton (uncredited)
• D‘Arcy Corrigan (The Phantom of the Opera) … Court Jury Member (uncredited)
• Carrie Daumery … Pet Shop Customer (uncredited)
• Delno Fritz … Sword Swallower (uncredited)
• Alice Julian … Fat Lady (uncredited)
• Peter Kortes … Sword Swallower (uncredited)
• Mickey McBan … Boy Watching Hercules’ Act (uncredited)
• John Merkyl … Jeweler (uncredited)
• John Millerta … Wild Borneo Man (uncredited)
• Louis Morrison … Police Commissioner (uncredited)
• Marjorie Morton … Mrs. Arlington (uncredited)
• Walter Perry … Dime Museum Announcer (uncredited)
• Louis Shank … Newsboy (uncredited)
• Vera Vance … Dancer (uncredited)
• Carrie Clark Ward … Mother Watching Hercules’ Act (uncredited)
• Charles Wellesley (The Lost World 1925) … John Arlington (uncredited)
• Percy Williams … Butler (uncredited)