The Show
About The Show
In a Budapest sideshow, Cock Robin plays Jokanaan so that Salome, his former girl, can present his head on a platter. He chases Lena for her money until the Greek, Salome's man, kills Lena's father. Salome hides Robin. A blind old man, later revealed as her father, mistakes him for a son who is about to be hanged, and dies happy. The Greek tries a real sword, then a poisonous lizard, which kills him, and Robin and Salome go back to the platter act.
Cast & crew
More about The Show
Tod Browning directed and produced. Waldemar Young wrote the screenplay from Charles Tenney Jackson's 1910 novel The Day of Souls. John Arnold photographed it. MGM released it on 22 January 1927. John Gilbert plays Cock Robin, Renée Adorée plays Salome, and Lionel Barrymore plays the Greek.
Themes
Making
The Salome number is staged so the audience sees a beheading that is a trick, until the Greek substitutes a real sword.
Look
John Arnold shot the sideshow stage and the attic where the lizard is planted.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
MGM donated a print to the George Eastman Museum motion-picture collection.
Notes
- Gertrude Short plays Lena. Andy MacLennan plays the Ferret, the Greek's helper.
- Salome reads cheerful letters to the blind man about a son who is, in fact, waiting to be hanged.
- An official later tells her she may claim her brother's things, which is how she learns the old man was her father.
- The narrative city is Budapest. The picture is silent.
- MGM gave a print to the George Eastman Museum.
Scenes
- Salome's dance ends with Robin's head on a platter.
- The blind man dresses Robin as his son and dies when he hears the real son is dead.
- The Greek, hiding in the attic, is bitten by his own lizard.
Influenced by
- Charles Tenney Jackson's novel The Day of Souls (1910)
