I'm currently reading the revised edition of DARK CARNIVAL, the excellent biography of film director Tod Browning, written by David J. Skal and Elias Savada. I'll be writing a blog post on the book when I've finished it, but it has inspired me to seek out some of Browning's films I haven't yet viewed. Last night I watched THE WICKED DARLING, a 1919 silent crime melodrama made by Universal.
THE WICKED DARLING is an important title in Tod Browning's directorial catalog. It was the first time he worked with Priscilla Dean, an actress he would go on to collaborate with a number of times. It was also the first time Browning directed Lon Chaney, and the filmmaker and actor would wind up working together on a total of ten films. Browning and Chaney formed one of the greatest director-star pairings in cinema history, although DARK CARNIVAL suggests the relationship was far more professional than personal.
Like most Tod Browning movies, the plot of THE WICKED DARLING is fairly simple. Priscilla Dean plays Mary Stevens, a petty criminal who is referred to as "The Gutter Rose" in the film's intertitles. After swiping a valuable pearl necklace, Mary, while hiding, encounters Kent Mortimer (Wellington Playter), a man who has lost his fortune and his fiancee. Mary is so taken by how the kindly Mortimer has responded to his bad luck, she decides to go straight. Her confederates, a nasty crook called Stoop (Lon Chaney) and a disreputable pawn shop owner (Spottiswoode Aitken), still want the necklace Mary stole, and they have no intention to let her change her ways.
Tod Browning's penchant for sideshow weirdness hadn't fully blossomed yet when he directed THE WICKED DARLING, but he ably portrays the seedy side of town that Mary and her cohorts operate in. Priscilla Dean is the major star of this picture--she was a top leading lady for Universal at the time--and she does show a natural, appealing screen presence, although I thought she looked too fresh-faced and innocent to be a denizen of skid row.
With one look at Lon Chaney's Stoop, with his devilish grin and jauntily angled hat, you just know the guy is a baddie. Chaney gives Stoop an air of menace, but he also shows the guy isn't as tough as he thinks he is. I wouldn't call Stoop one of Chaney's most memorable performances--there's no special makeups or physical contortions to be found here--but the role shows that the actor was a fine supporting player, and he no doubt impressed Tod Browning with his professionalism.
Wellington Playter was an odd choice for the part of Mary's love interest. For one thing, he's taller and much bulkier than Chaney--actors Playter's size usually played bad guy roles in the silent era. The other thing is he's not all that dynamic, so one wonders why Mary changes her life over him.
THE WICKED DARLING has a very old-fashioned, melodramatic air to it--while watching it one has to remember that Browning worked with D.W. Griffith for a number of years. The climax of the film features an expected confrontation between Kent, Mary, and her former cohorts--but the battle is interrupted to guarantee a happily ever after ending, which was probably acceptable for audiences during the time.
I viewed THE WICKED DARLING on YouTube. The print was in very bad shape--but we should be thankful the movie exists at all, because for years it was considered lost. Tod Browning would go on to make a number of crime tales at Universal, and he would re-team Priscilla Dean and Lon Chaney in the much better OUTSIDE THE LAW. The most important aspect of THE WICKED DARLING is its place in movie history, but the movie does give one a chance to see what Lon Chaney was like before his "Man Of A Thousand Faces" 1920s stardom.
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