Where East Is East
Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning
March 17 - 26, 2023
Browning and Lon Chaney’s final film together, Where East Is East transports the duo to French Indochina, where a facially disfigured animal trapper (Chaney) has a seemingly chipper relationship with his daughter (Lupe Velez) that is sidelined by the appearance of her American fiancé (Lloyd Hughes) and her estranged mother (Estelle Taylor).
The March 21 screening will be presented with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin. The March 25 screening will be a silent screening.
Browning and Lon Chaney’s final film together before the latter’s death in 1930, Where East Is East transports the duo to French Indochina, which finds them operating in a more tender register than their previous collaborations—a peculiar tone considering the deviant love triangle at the film’s center. The story concerns a facially disfigured animal trapper named Tiger Haynes (Chaney), whose loving relationship with his daughter, Toyo (Lupe Velez), is sidelined by the appearance of her American fiancé (Lloyd Hughes) and her estranged mother, Madame de Sylva (Estelle Taylor), who decides to punish Tiger by seducing her daughter’s suitor. Chaney’s passive role makes way for magnetic lead performances from Velez and Taylor. Browning’s powers as an aesthetician are on full display in the exquisite compositions; many include real animals, but one particularly striking moment of artifice involves a gorilla. 35mm print preserved by the Cinémathèque française.
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