The Unholy Three
About The Unholy Three
After the dwarf Tweedledee hits a heckler, he, the ventriloquist Echo, and the strongman Hercules leave the carnival. Echo, in the voice and clothes of Mrs. O'Grady, runs a pet shop. Tweedledee plays her grandchild. Hercules works there. Echo's girl Rosie poses as a granddaughter. Deliveries cover burglaries. At John Arlington's they steal a ruby necklace. Arlington is killed and his daughter hurt. They hide the jewels on the clerk Hector. Hector loves Rosie. She will not marry him and then says she does. He is arrested. The three take her to a mountain cabin with Echo's ape. At the trial she asks for Hector's life. Tweedledee hears Hercules planning to run with Rosie and the loot, and lets the ape out. Hercules strangles him to live. Echo confesses, which frees Hector, tells Rosie to go to Hector, and goes back to the sideshow.
Cast & crew
More about The Unholy Three
Tod Browning directed. Waldemar Young wrote the scenario from Tod Robbins's 1917 novel. MGM produced it. It premiered in San Francisco on May 30, 1925, and opened at the Capitol in New York on August 16, 1925. Lon Chaney plays Echo and Mrs. O'Grady. Harry Earles plays Tweedledee. Victor McLaglen plays Hercules. Mae Busch plays Rosie. Matt Moore plays Hector McDonald. Matthew Betz plays Detective Regan.
Themes
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Chaney's second part is the old woman, done with his own voice thrown.
- Echo's last line on the platform is that life is a little laughter and a little tear.
- The 1930 talkie remake, directed by Jack Conway, brought Chaney and Earles back as Echo and Tweedledee.
- Tweedledee dies in the cabin, not in the courtroom.
Scenes
- Echo sells pets as an old woman while the others rob the houses.
- He confesses at Hector's trial and sends Rosie to him.
Influenced by
- Tod Robbins's novel The Unholy Three (1917)
