Where East Is East

As a man with many cinema tastes, I elected to satisfy a pair of my obsessions last night, when I took in the 1929 Silent film “Where East Is East”.

The first fixation is my fondness for the work of Lon Chaney. I’ve managed to watch 13 entrees in the screen legend’s filmography and each one has provided me a thrill. More than just a make-up genius, Chaney was an actor of phenomenal skill and he processed an extraordinary charisma.

The other mania I satisfied was my love for the work of Film director Tod Browning. He was an ex-circus and carnival man whose tastes tended towards dark, strange and unusual subject matter. He is best known as the filmmaker of “Dracula”, which for my money was not really his best movie. At heart, Browning was more comfortable making silent pictures than with talkies.

The two men were often teamed together, making ten films together in the space of 11 years. Chaney’s love for unusual make-up paired nicely with Browning’s weird sensibilities. “Where East Is East” would be the team’s last collaboration as Lon died from lung cancer the year following it’s release.

On a personal note, my own stupidity is responsible for not seeing the piece earlier. My buddy Al burned me a copy a while back, but for some reason I got the title confused with “West Of Zanzibar”, a film that I’d already seen. I was looking at a Chaney filmography yesterday and the ol’ light bulb switched on.

Befitting a Browning/Chaney production the movie is filled with twisted concepts. Lon portrays a white trapper in Vietnam, called Tiger Haynes. He makes his living hunting and selling exotic beasts to circuses. He lives with his bi-racial daughter, Toyo, who is played by a young Lupe Velez. When Tiger comes home from a successful expedition, Toyo is waiting for him with exciting news… she has fallen in love. Her beau is an American lad named Bobby (Lloyd Hughes), who also happens to be the son on one of Tiger’s best customers. Mr. Haynes is not particularly happy with this turn of events as he has suffered deep romantic wounds inflicted by the girl’s mother when she abandoned them while Toyo was just a baby. He fears for her enduring similar heartbreak. I need to also throw out something that I truly believe that Browning wished to allude to. There is an intense intimacy displayed in Tiger and Toyo’s acts of play and affection that hints at incestuous feelings. However, when Bobby puts his life on the line to protect the girl from an escaped animal, Mr. Hayes accepts that the boy is sincerely in love with his daughter.

The two men take a riverboat down to Saigon to deliver the animals. Also on board is beautiful seductress named Mme. de Sylva (Estelle Taylor), who is very attracted to the young American man. Quite experienced in the art of flirtation she manages to mesmerize Bobby, before Tiger intercedes. The boy is ready to succumb to de Sylva until Tiger reveals that the woman is in fact Toyo’s mother. The shock makes him repentant and when they get to Saigon, Bobby elects to return to his fiancée with Tiger instead of sailing with the cache to Singapore. Partially because Mme. de Sylva is to be sailing on that same ship.

When the two men return home, Toyo is again giddy with excitement. You see her mother has come back! The poor girl is blind to the woman’s selfish designs on her daughter’s man. Suffice to say there is much tension in the air.

As I doubt that many of you will seek this out, I am going to reveal the ending. But just in case you might, I will insert these spoiler warnings.

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When de Sylva comes back it is established that back in the old days, she had been cruel to an ape that Tiger owns. Indeed the animal becomes very agitated when he sees her. At the climax, she thinks that she has won out and beckons Bobby to her. In the shadows, Tiger has unlocked the ape’s cage, so instead of a lover’s embrace she meets a horrific and violent death. Free from her siren like spell, Booby and Toyo are indeed wed.

Another interesting detail is that at no point is it ever stated that Tiger and de Sylva were ever married. Between this and all the sexual innuendo, it’s a wonder that this made it past the censors. 

All in all, I found “Where East Is East” to be one of the better entries to be found in either man’s archives.

Pat