Let's give Tod Browning a hand. He risked life and limb to make this movie.<br /><br />Anyway, I never thought I'd like a silent movie but this is one you can't turn away from. The performances are amazing, Lon Chaney is so good that you can read his mind, you almost don't need the words. And let me just say this about Joan Crawford: she never looked better than she does in this movie. Lithe, svelte, and statuesque, she glides through the movie like a ballet dancer, and her body is as taut as a leopard's. It's difficult to describe her youthful attraction without bringing to mind the caricature she became later in life with her shoulder pads and thick eyebrows, but in this movie she is simply stunning. Her eyes are so intense that they don't look real.<br /><br />The story itself is very simple, sure people can describe it to you, but Chaney's Alonzo is so carefully fleshed out that he practically pops off the screen, you have to see it to believe it. He seethes with anger when the hunky Malabar makes a pass at Nanon. Nanon's pathological aversion to being touched by men is matched only by Alonzo's pathological obsession with Nanon. This is where the power of the movie lies. When the fickle Nanon's man-hands-phobia evaporates after spending several weeks with the anxious and ever-patient Malabar, she announces their engagement to Alonzo and his psychotic behavior explodes. You can read the mixture of irony, rage, and madness that simultaneously wash over Chaney's face. Browning lets this powerful scene go on for several minutes, and every moment is wrenching. As Alonzo teeters on the edge of madness, lamenting his dearly departed arms, Malabar and Nanon join in his laughter, thinking he is happy for them. It's a horrible thing to see, it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion.<br /><br />If you only watch one silent film in your life, let this be the one. It's really weird and cool.