The unholy three are Lon Chaney (in his only talkie and last film), Harry Earles (the dwarf from "Freaks") and muscular Ivan Linow, as well as pretty Lila Lee. They are the four survivors of a traveling carnival show that was closed by the police, and now operate a bird shop as a front for a robbery ring with Chaney in drag posing as the kindly operator. Earles, already difficult to understand with his helium laced voice and foreign accent, plays a nasty sort that Angelo Rossitto would imitate years later in Monogram programmers with Bela Lugosi. He is the instigator among the group, and points out to his co-conspirator Linow that Chaney and Lee seem to always be in cahoots against them. Elliott Nugent is the naive clerk at the store, in love with Lee, but unaware of the four's previous connection. They set their sights on the ruby necklace of a millionaire client which leads to murder and threatens to expose their racket.
While this is not a horror film, it has a definite horrific moment near the end of the film that some may find very disturbing. It is difficult to like a film where the major characters are obvious crooks and killers, but what makes this better than average is Chaney's performance as the former ventriloquist who can make customers believe his parrots can talk and some really creepy shadowing. The other performers, particularly Lee, are outrageously melodramatic, and at times, it seems like they are speaking in silent cinema dialog rather than as characters in a sound film. But the movie avoids being creaky, so despite some of the bad acting, this is truly a historical film. The scene of Earle's toy elephant with the ruby inside and the detective playing with it is quite amusing, as is a reference to how a ruby Earle swallowed will eventually turn up. The court sequence at the end is truly gripping with a twist of fate that commences with wit and tragedy.
While this is not a horror film, it has a definite horrific moment near the end of the film that some may find very disturbing. It is difficult to like a film where the major characters are obvious crooks and killers, but what makes this better than average is Chaney's performance as the former ventriloquist who can make customers believe his parrots can talk and some really creepy shadowing. The other performers, particularly Lee, are outrageously melodramatic, and at times, it seems like they are speaking in silent cinema dialog rather than as characters in a sound film. But the movie avoids being creaky, so despite some of the bad acting, this is truly a historical film. The scene of Earle's toy elephant with the ruby inside and the detective playing with it is quite amusing, as is a reference to how a ruby Earle swallowed will eventually turn up. The court sequence at the end is truly gripping with a twist of fate that commences with wit and tragedy.