Michael_Elliott Monster, The (1925) ** (out of 4) The teaming of legend Lon Chaney and director Roland West sadly ends up being a very disappointing entry in the "old dark house" genre, which was still quite new at the time this was released. In the film, Chaney plays a mad scientist trying to figure out the secrets of life in an abandoned asylum. Wannabe detective (Johnny Arthur) winds up at the asylum with the woman (Gertrude Olmstead) he loves and the two try to destroy the scientist and his evil ways. THE MONSTER is a major disappointment that doesn't appear to know what type of film it wants to be. Considering Chaney is given top-billing you'd think that the director and studio would want a horror film or at least some sort of dark mystery but they only partially give us that. For some reason the film contains a lot of comedy relief that really sinks everything. The film starts off with the wannabe detective, a store clerk in reality, constantly being pushed around and of course he plans to show them all one day. We get another guy thrown into the mix because he appears to be more "manly" and of course these two both want the same woman. This silly love story never comes full circle and it really just adds minutes to the running time and the film certainly didn't need that. There's full comedy scattered throughout the film and it's a bit of a mystery why they bothered. I mean, you do have the Man of a Thousand Faces and you do have him playing the role of a mad scientist so did they really think people wanted to see this type of comedy? Even stranger is that Chaney gets top-billing yet he doesn't appear until the mid-way point and sadly both Arthur and Olmstead aren't strong enough to carry the material. Once Chaney does get on screen he delivers another fine performance and while there's not any real make-up, I did enjoy that head full of white hair. Chaney was always good at playing mad and he does a good job here but it's a shame he's wasted. West's direction is pretty much all over the place and it's clear that he couldn't do comedy. The "old dark house" stuff is a tad bit better but it's still far from what he did with THE BAT.

ametaphysicalshark This 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney and Johnny Arthur and directed by Roland West ("The Bat", "The Bat Whispers") is a harmless little horror-comedy about two men and a woman who get trapped in an old dark house with a mad scientist (the always excellent Chaney) and go through a series of perilous events caused by the scientist and his never ending supply of creepy servants. The acting is good and the production values are superb. Most of the comedy is funny and the creepy parts still hold up reasonably well. All in all, "The Monster" is no classic and certainly one of Lon Chaney's less remarkable films but it's still a decent, harmless film.

preppy-3 Johnny Goodlittle (Johnny Arthur) is an amateur detective and sets out to solve the disappearance of John Bowman. Meanwhile he also fights for the attention of Betty Watson (Gertrude Olmstead) from Hal (Hallam Coolley). They soon all end up in a very weird sanitarium run by Dr. Ziska (Lon Channey) who may not be what he seems to be...This has it all--three innocents stuck in a creepy sanitarium on a dark and stormy night; a mad doctor; clutching hands; secret passageways; monsters lurking about and lots of action and adventure. This is a very strange but fun horror comedy with the emphasis on comedy. Some of the comedy is stupid (Arthur getting drunk was tired and unfunny) but, for the most part, it works. The horror aspect here is minor and wouldn't even scare a young kid.The acting is all pretty good. As for Chaney he's obviously enjoying himself--it's one of his few roles when he doesn't have tons of makeup on. He also plays his character way way WAY over the top, but does so in an engaging way.Yes it's a silly movie but, after it gets to the sanitarium, in never stops moving and is lots of fun. It gets only an 8 because of the slow opening half hour and a terrible music score that doesn't even match the images on screen!

MARIO GAUCI I was rather disappointed by THE MONSTER this time around: it has little to offer apart from its very strangeness (which appears to be a trademark of director Roland West, who later made both the silent version of THE BAT [1926] and its first sound remake THE BAT WHISPERS [1930]).The plot is very creaky: typical 'old dark house' stuff - and not especially interesting at that - which frequently borders on the ludicrous. It starts off well enough with an atmospheric sequence set in a thunderstorm, and the comic relief which occupies most of the film's expository first half (possibly inspired by Buster Keaton's SHERLOCK JR., made the previous year) is likable enough. But when the three leading characters get caught inside a desolate sanitarium, taken over by mad scientist Chaney, the film starts to drag and it never quite recovers. Chaney is flanked by three distinctive-looking assistants/former patients: one, dressed in a cape throughout most of the proceedings, is suitably creepy; another, fairly amusing, is a buffoonish character whose child-like approach to things thwarts Chaney's plans more often than abetting them; and there is also the (rather grating) standard of all such flicks, the mute strong-man who never does anything more strenuous than scowling!Chaney himself is wasted here: the scientist, Dr. Ziska, is supposed to be working on some 'great experiment' but this is barely touched upon till the final reel - and by this time, the audience has stopped caring! Johnny Arthur, the film's unlikely hero, gets to do an incredible stunt (another nod to Keaton) and there are a few genuinely eerie scenes, like when a pair of hands reach out from under the sleeping heroine to grasp her. The film also betrays its stage origins by flat and stagy direction - the only other Roland West picture I have watched, THE BAT WHISPERS, is far more cinematically fluid and interesting (if still basically flawed).