DIRECTOR: Tod Browning
PRODUCER: Irving G Thalberg
PRODUCTION CO: MGM
SCREENPLAY: Joseph Farnham, Waldemar Young
PHOTOGRAPHY: Merritt B Gerstad
EDITORS: Harry Reynolds, Errol Taggart
WITH: Lon Chaney (Alonzo the Armless), Norman Kerry (Malabar the Mighty), Joan Crawford (Nanon Zanzi), Nick De Ruiz (Antonio Zanzi), John George (Cojo the Dwarf),  Frank Lanning (Costra)

REVIEWS

“The most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between Tod Browning and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney, The Unknown features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife thrower Alonzo (he flings daggers with his feet) whose dastardly infatuation with his beautiful assistant (Joan Crawford) — a woman, it just so happens, who cannot bear to be touched by the hands of any man — drives him to unspeakable extremes. Sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax —Browning wrings every last frisson from the lurid premise.”

– Criterion
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“Known since its rediscovery in the 1960s only in a shortened print found in the Cinematheque Française, The Unknown has now been restored to essentially its full length by the George Eastman Museum, with the missing shots and sequences – approximately 10 minutes of material – restored from a Czech export print in the collection of the National Film Archive in Prague. While they don't alter the narrative, the newfound scenes add nuance, background, and context, enriching what is already one of the most bizarre films to come out of Hollywood.

– MOMA 

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Dunedin     
Wednesday, 03 April, 7.30pm

Auckland
Monday, 20 May, 6.00pm
This screening is open to the public (double bill with Freaks: AFS only), all tickets $20, on sale now at Academy Cinemas (AFS members free)

​Wellington    
Monday, 10 June, 6.15pm

Canterbury
Monday, 08 July, 7.00pm

Nelson
Wednesday, 24 July, 6.00pm

Hamilton     
Monday, 23 September, 6.30pm

​Whanganui    
Monday, 18 November, 7.00pm
CULT CLASSICS selection >>