West of Zanzibar *** (1928, Lon Chaney Sr, Lionel Barrymore, Jacqueline Gadsdon, Mary Nolan, Warner Baxter) – Classic Movie Review 12,379

Director Tod Browning’s 1928 American silent romantic adventure film West of Zanzibar stars Lon Chaney Sr as a vengeful stage magician who is paralysed in a brawl with a rival (Lionel Barrymore). Jacqueline Gadsdon, Mary Nolan and Warner Baxter also star.

The screenplay is by Waldemar Young (adaptation), Elliott J Clawson (screenplay) and Joseph Farnham (intertitles), based on the play Kongo by Charles de Vonde and Kilbourn Gordon. Walter Huston starred on stage in the play and played the magician again in the 1932 sound film remake called Kongo. The Hays Office banned the play from being filmed, so to get round it, MGM changed the title first to South of the Equator, then to West of Zanzibar.

The film was in production from 25 June 1928 to 31 July 1928, cost $249,000, and grossed $921,000 globally. It was released both silent and with sound effects and a synchronised music score.

In this belated MGM silent, Lon Chaney Sr plays Dead-Legs Flint, aka The Great Phroso, a magician without the use of his legs after a gruesome fight with an ivory trader, Crane (Lionel Barrymore), who has taken his wife Anna (Jacqueline Gadsdon) with him to Africa. Their paths cross again in Africa, where the magician has the natives kill the trader by voodoo. The magician’s daughter (Mary Nolan) is in danger of becoming a streetwalker and so he marries her off to a doctor who has taken to drink through thwarted love.

West of Zanzibar is rich, ripe absolute hokum, whose weirdness exerts a fascination, but it is not really worthy of its esteemed director or cast, who are nevertheless well worth a look, especially with Lon Chaney Sr so electrifying. Lionel Barrymore is also good value and Jacqueline Gadsdon is striking too as Lon Chaney Sr’s character’s wife.

West of Zanzibar is directed by Tod Browning, runs 69 minutes, is made by MGM, is written by Waldemar Young (adaptation), Elliott J Clawson (screenplay) and Joseph Farnham (intertitles), based on the play Kongo by Charles de Vonde and Kilbourn Gordon, is shot in black and white by Percy Hilburn, and is produced by Tod Browning, Cedric Gibbons and Richard Day design the sets, and David Cox designs the costumes.

Also in the cast are Jane Daly, Roscoe Ward.

It has survived and is available on DVD. MGM Home Video released it with the synchronised score on laser disc in 1993. The film is also a regular on Turner Classics Movies and on PBS stations. There is a print [35mm positive] in the George Eastman Museum film archive.

Tantalising stills of Chaney Sr in costume as The Human Duck in a freak show act and the film’s short running time suggest it might have been heavily cut before release. Also Edna Tichenor as Dancing Girl in Zanzibar Club and Dan Wolheim as Man in Bar appeared in a scene cut from film.

Jacqueline Gadsdon (3 August 1900 – 10 August 1986).

American silent film actress Jacqueline Gadsdon (3 August 1900 – 10 August 1986) was born in Lompoc, Southern California, to Gerald F and Jessie H (Salter) Gadsden and is probably best known as the wealthy, haughty other woman in the 1927 Clara Bow film It. She married William Harry Dale (1900–1975) around 1924. She made two films (including this one) billed as Jane Daly in 1929, her final year in films. She died in the San Diego County city of San Marcos aged 86.

The cast are Lon Chaney as Phroso (Dead-Legs Flint), Lionel Barrymore as Crane, Mary Nolan as Maizie, Warner Baxter as Doc, Jacqueline Gadsden (billed as Jane Daly) as Anna, Tiny Ward as Tiny, Kalla Pasha as Babe, Curtis Nero as Bumbu, Rose Dione as Zanzibar Club Owner, Louise Emmons as Old Woman on Street, Fred Gamble as Vaudeville Comedian, Dick Sutherland as Cannibal, Zalla Zarana as Woman in Zanzibar Bar, Emmett King as Stage Manager, Chaz Chase as Stage Performer, Art Winkler as Phroso’s assistant, Mae Busch, Richard Cummings, and Ida May.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,379

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