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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 479

The Unholy Three

192586 minUnited States
DramaCrime
Video edition
YouTube
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: English.
This copy runs
85:41
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

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Synopsis

Three sideshow performers open a pet shop as cover for burglaries targeting their customers. A ventriloquist poses as an elderly woman, while his accomplices supply other parts of the invented household. When a robbery becomes murder, the conspirators' shared business unravels through jealousy, suspicion and the danger facing an innocent employee.

Cast

DirectorsTod Browning

Behind the scenes

Tod Browning's film established the sustained MGM collaboration with Lon Chaney that shaped both men's late silent careers. Its disguises and sideshow setting make performance itself the mechanism of the crimes, extending the theatrical skills of the characters into everyday deception.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Wikipedia — film referenceInternet Archive — catalogue recordDuke Center for the Study of the Public Domain — US term reference

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

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Availability checked on September 10, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

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