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The Unknown (1927)
- the fickle character of Nanon (Joan Crawford), the
daughter of circus owner Antonio Zanzi (Nick De Ruiz), who complained
and confided in "armless" circus knife-throwing performer
Alonzo the Armless (Lon Chaney) (actually a fugitive criminal on
the run posing as armless) that she had a phobia about men - she
disliked males who wanted to always touch her: "Alonzo, all
my life men have tried to put their beastly hands on me...to paw
over me. I have grown so that I shrink with fear when any man even
touches me"
- to win her love, Alonzo actually submitted to extreme
double-amputation arm surgery to please her; when he recovered
and returned, he admitted to her: "I have lost some flesh";
but then to his shock and dismay, she announced her surprise wedding
to suitor Malabar the Mighty (Norman Kerry), the circus strongman,
and said that she had changed her mind, as her fiancee caressed
her: "Remember how I used to be afraid of his hands? I am
not any more. I love them now"
- the scene of Alonzo's reaction with mad laughter
and then unconsolable crying until his body shook and he collapsed,
as Nanon downplayed the incident:
"Alonzo is laughing at the way everything has happened" until
she realized he was seriously hurt and pained; when he slightly recovered,
he wiped his face with a handkerchief (held by his foot) and told
her that his heart was broken: "It was just something in here
that stung like the lash of a whip"
- the climactic and tense sequence of Alonzo's insane
revenge and sabotage against Malabar during his strong-man act
(his arms appeared to be pulled in two different directions by
horses, who were running on hidden conveyor belt treadmills); but
the homicidal attempt went horribly wrong and Alonzo was stomped
and killed by one of the horses as he went to save Nanon from harm;
the epilogue read: "So...for Alonzo there was an end to Hate
called Death...and for Nanon, an end to Hate...called Love"
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