Listen to the Score for THE UNKNOWN (1927) by The Rats And People Motion Picture Orchestra

The Tod Browning Tribute at The St. Louis International Film Festival was an epic evening of vintage silent cinema and live music. (Details about the event can be found HERE) http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2015/11/sliff-2015-tribute-to-tod-browning-this-friday-the-unknown-and-freaks/

The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra accompanied director Tod Browning’s 1927 silent film THE UNKNOWN which starred Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford. The St. Louis-based musicians did a terrific job with their original score and if you missed the event, we have good news. The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra have posted the performance online. If you go HERE https://soundcloud.com/rats-1/the-unknown , you will find the recording of the score. Get out your THE UNKNOWN DVD (available on the TCM Archives – The Lon Chaney Collection) or, if you don’t have the DVD, you can find the complete film online HERE http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2aq5g1_the-unknown-1927_shortfilms

Queue up the soundtrack to the film by starting the music just after the MGM lion (silently) roars and the film’s title THE UNKNOWN appears. Turn down the volume on the film’s music and listen to it with the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra’s soundtrack. You’ll be glad you did! It’s not quite the same as seeing it in 35mm with the live orchestra like the lucky attendees at SLIFF did, but it’s the next best thing!

The ten films that director Todd Browning and actor Lon Chaney made together are among the strangest of the silent era. Their macabre 1927 collaboration THE UNKNOWN is a dark drama that spotlights Chaney’s legendary skill at playing handicapped outcasts. He stars as Alonzo the Armless, who can fire a rifle, play guitar, light cigarettes, and drink wine with his toes. He’s employed as a knife-thrower in a turn-of-the-century Spanish circus where he’s fallen in love with Nanon (a young Joan Crawford), the gypsy girl who works as his ‘target’. Nanon is repulsed by physical contact with any man, so the only one that she trusts is Alonzo, simply because he has no arms with which to touch her. It’s not a match made in heaven however as murder, madness, and several shocking twists ensue. THE UNKNOWN costars Norman Kerry as Malabar, a lovelorn strongman, and John George as Cojo, Alonzo’s sinister dwarf sidekick.