[Revisit Review]
I wasn't as impressed with Tod Browning's The Unknown when I watched it a second time as I was the first time that I watched it. After my first viewing, I was so amazed that I wrote about it on my site Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear. But now I have cooled considerably towards it. Lon Chaney's performance is still the stuff of legend. But there are too many gaps in the film for it to be a cohesive narrative (like the startling cut between Chaney commenting on how he can't let anybody learn the secret of his arms to him walking out in the open with his arms out only to be discovered by the circus owner). I understand that several scenes have been lost, but a few explanatory title cards would have greatly helped. Also, the film doesn't have the visual panache of Browning's better films like Dracula (1931).
7/10
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