Knitting behind the scenes turn of the century film stars

Knitting on screen, behind the scenes

Knitting for pleasure, relaxation, for necessity, for victory! Famous knitters

Shirley Mason

included Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Rosalind Russell. Cary Grant had a knitting scene in Mr. Lucky. What others can you name? 

June 2015 will mark the 10th anniversary of Knit in Public Day, some celebrate a Knit in Public Week and tweet photos. Fun that it occurs in summertime. Do you participate? Knit all year you don't need an excuse.

Here begins a series of knitting actors and actresses. It opens with the 1910s. Most f these are photos of actresses at home or behind the scenes, publicity stills or in early publications.

Shirley Mason made her film debut at the age of ten in the 1910 film A Christmas Carol. 

Actor Marc McDermott played Ebenezer Scrooge. Was this the first film version to the Charles Dickens classic? 

She appeared in the silent movie, Desert Gold, a lost film that featured William Powell early in his career playing a character with the unpleasant name of Snake Landree.

Shirley Mason's sisters Edna and Virginia (better known as Viola Dana) were also actresses. The photo of Mason above is from 1917. 

Marguerite Clark

Marguerite Clark was a top box office draw and worked alongside big stars such as John Gilbert, John Barrymore and Harrison Ford.

Clark was one of the first female film directors. Many of her films are now considered to be lost.

She starred in a 1916 silent version of Snow White. Creighton Hale was Prince Florimond and Lionel Braham was Berthold, the Huntsman.

The 1917 photo at left said this young Lasky studio actress had only one arm but she was doing her bit for the war effort. 

Encouraging her was fellow actress (and knitter), Mary Pickford. 

Baby Marie Osborne with her mother 1918

A 1918 image of Baby Marie Osborne knitting with her mother. Born in Denver, CO, the story of how the young star became the foster daughter and then the daughter of the Osborne couple is disputed. 

Child stars were big business and brought lots of money to the studios and to their guardians in those days as there were no real laws protecting their incomes.

Baby Osborne was a goldmine for the studio. She earned $300-per-week. The average annual salary in the United States was $750.

Balboa president Herbert Horkheimer issued a proclamation of Rules to be observed in regard to Little Mary Sunshine, which was handed out to all involved in filming her movies. Among the rules were:

* She is not to be teased at any time
* She is not to be shouted at or addressed in slang
* She is not to be given sweetmeats nor presents of any description while at work on the stage or on location. All presents must be sent to her dressing room or left at the general offices of the studio.
* Threatening or addressing the baby star in loud or unseemly language or using objectionable language in her presence shall be cause for instant dismissal.
* She is not to be coddled nor handled unnecessarily. You must adore her from afar.

Excerpt from: Location Filming in Long Beach

Evart Overton helps Baby Aida Horton

Anna Little knits between scenes

Actress Anna aka Ann Little was especially popular in Westerns and her films with Wallace Reid. 

After retiring from movies in the 1930s, she managed the Chateau Marmont Hotel on the Sunset Strip. 

She's not to be confused with Little Ann Little who was 4'11" tall and provided the voice for the Betty Boop cartoon character.

Chester Conklin learning to knit,
Louise Fazenda knits (right)

Louise Fazenda made nearly 300 films, beginning in the silent era. On Thanksgiving Day 1927, she married famous Warner Brothers' producer Hal B. Wallis. He was the producer of iconic films such as Casablanca. The other actresses in this photo were not identified.




Beatrice Lillie, Louise Fazenda, Frank Fay & Lloyd Hamilton in Recitations from The Show of Shows, the "all talking Vitaphone production" full of Warner Brothers stars from 1929.

June Caprice 1917

June Caprice worked in silent films as a character actress for the Fox Corporation. She also appeared on calendars for the Coca-Cola company. She married film director Harry F. Millarde. They had a daughter, June Millarde (an actress and model) who also went by the name Toni Seven.

According to Wikipedia, in 1949, U.S. Senator Warren G. Magnuson was described as the most eligible bachelor in the United States Capitol. 

June Caprice's daughter Toni Seven was linked romantically with the senator. She is featured in a book, Warren G. Magnuson and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century America.

Enid Bennett 1919

In 1918 Enid Bennett became the second wife of director Fred Niblo. He'd previously been married to actress Josephine Cohan, who was the mother of Fred Niblo, Jr. 

Josephine Cohan Niblo, sister of George M. Cohan and member of The Four Cohans, died from heart disease at an early age.  

Actress Enid Bennett played Lady Marian Fitzwalter the 1922 film Robin Hood with Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery.



This is part of a short series. Watch for more entries, more photos and trivia about favorite stars

Related Articles of Interest:


Roaring 20s Hollywood Stories Knitters Knitting with the stars in the Jazz Age, Age of the flappers: The William Desmond Taylor case

James Cagney Yankee Doodle Dandy Where were you in 42 James Cagney is George M. Cohan the Yankee Doodle Dandy

Travel, Flying with tools: Knitting needles on a plane, musical instruments

Harrison Ford, Strong and Silent Movie Star, Two Stars, Same Name: Two stars on The Hollywood Walk of Fame

Ten Woman Film Producers of the 1910s

Errol Flynn Custom Tights Record Seams: How tight is too tight?  The question of tights and Dressing a Hollywood Actor

Film characters with prosthetic hands

The last in this series on hands in the cinema. Those with prosthetic hands, from the human-like to animated, to out of this world.

Included are some books that explore the sociology and psychology of cinema and disability, stereotypes in general. Where do they come from and why do they thrive in certain genres over others why do they continue at all?

The Best Years of Our Lives
Harold Russell

The important thing about this first set of movie characters is how close they actually are to people we might know or meet. 

What percentage of the time do we see a character with a missing limb portrayed as a pirate, a villain or a victim? The psychology may be revenge for what's happened to them.

Harold Russell as Homer Parrish in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), directed by William Wyler also starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright and Virginia Mayo. 

The film won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Russell who was not an actor. Here was a situation of their hiring a person who had lived what the character had lived. Russell was a WWII veteran, a double amputee who had the disability the character had. 

There is a great scene in a diner where a patron says what he thinks about the war while Russell is sitting there having given so much for his country.  

Whatever your political beliefs, it's a good film to see particularly now when we once again have disabled veterans returning home.

Not many people know that the talented and suave actor with the mellifluous speaking voice Herbert Marshall had a prosthetic leg. The fact was kept quiet from the public. He lost his right leg while serving in WW1 due to a sniper's bullet.

In May 2014 the final Debbie Reynolds Auction included a prosthetic index finger and thumb which Harold Lloyd used after having had an accident with explosives in one of his stunts. The piece, circa 1930, had blackened over time. Bidding started at $1200 and went to $3000. A pair of later personally owned glasses was also included in the lot.



 

The Steel Claw 1961 George Montgomery is a wartime drama set in the Philippines during World War II. It is an action-adventure film about a disabled ex-Marine on a mission to rescue an officer in the early days of the Japanese invasion. **It has no relation to the comic book series Steel Claw. 

Forest Whitaker plays Cyrus Cole in Smoke (1995).

Cyrus lost his left arm in a car accident. He wears a prosthesis with a hook.  

The film follows the lives of multiple characters, all of whom are connected by their patronage of a small Brooklyn tobacco shop managed by Auggie (Harvey Keitel).  




Cole comes to terms with a long lost son and other situations in his life during the course of the movie.

Cary Grant fights with Scobie on the Roof
in Charade

Charade 1963, stars Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. One of the bad guys, Herman Scobie played by George Kennedy has a hook hand as a leftover from WW2. 

There is a memorable rooftop struggle between Grant and Kennedy, who uses his hook as a weapon. 

Charade is a very good movie that
includes this character with a stereotypical feature.

The Claw, the villain from Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947). He's described as, "Steve The Claw Michel, A quiet, compulsive killer." He's played by Jack Lambert. To further create the stereotype of the villain, it's said that, "He has an extreme fondness for cats." Like James Bond's Ernst Stavro Blofeld and images we've seen of Marlon Brando as The Godfather with cats on their laps.Ralph Byrd played Dick Tracy in the movie.


TCM, Turner Classic Movies looked at "A history of disability in film." This one is particularly important as it looks at how the disabled, how our veterans and minorities have been portrayed in film and treated in society. Irving Thalberg said that the movies would be the best record of how we once lived.

Hook, Captain Hook Peter Pan. Dustin Hoffman played the character in Hook (1991). Captain Hook and Peter Pan have been long-term rivals. 

Captain Hook, the character we think of today is not quite the same who was the original antagonist of J. M. Barrie's early 1900s play, Peter Pan or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. 

Occasionally, I've seen images of Captain Hook merged with Long John Silver from Treasure Island (a character who has a wooden leg.)

In the 1959 B-movie Alligator People, Lon Chaney Jr.'s character has a hook after losing his hand to an alligator. None of these movies show disabled persons in a positive or realistic light. His father, Lon Chaney Sr., played several disabled characters throughout his career, perhaps most notably The Penalty in 1920 and in The Unknown with Joan Crawford (1927) he is a knife thrower pretending to be armless.





Poster for Dick Tracy's Dilemma, Ralph Byrd, Kay Christopher, 1947

Movies such as Adventures in Babysitting and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer tap into campfire stories of killers with disabilities. 

Monsters, cartoon and mythological characters
 
Actually more of them than we'll discuss. But here is a sampling. You'll see a common thread. A number of the characters have what film-goers have called Swiss-Army Appendages.  

This type of character probably dates back to earlier stories and legends. These characters serve as popular toys.

Joseph Wiseman James Bond Dr. No 8x10" Photo #C1147

Sanford Scolex (aka Dr. Claw) from the 1999 Inspector Gadget movie. Dr. Claw is leader of the evil M.A.D. organization.

Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman) fitted himself with metal manual prostheses after Tongs cut off his hands. Dr. No is a 1962 James Bond film starring Sean Connery. 

He is the main antagonist and a reclusive member of SPECTRE. Certain DVDs of the movie come with collectible figures of the character.

In Live and Let Die, Tee Hee Johnson (Julius Harris), The Dragon to Big Bad Kananga, has a vicious-looking pincer in lieu of a right hand. Roger Moore is James Bond.  In fact, his whole arm is mechanical — he lost it to a caiman. He threatens to cut James Bond's little finger with it during an interrogation.

The Claw (Leonard Strong) from Get Smart is a parody of Dr. No. This is only one of many parody TV and film characters I'm mentioning.

Ron Perlman as Hellboy 2004, directed by Guillermo del Toro. The Allied team discovers an infant demon with a right hand of stone came through the portal. If you get the film on DVD you'll get extra including visits to the "Right Hand of Doom" set and a two-hour documentary.

March 22, 2014 you can celebrate Hellboy Day, marking 20 years of comics' favorite paranormal detective. Have you heard of Itty Bitty Hellboy from Darkhorse Comics? Things from Another World TFAW




Ash’s wrist-mounted chainsaw in Evil Dead 2 (1987). They describe his metal hand as Steampunk. 

Robert Englund appeared on the July 23, 2014 episode of SyFy's Face Off competition show for special-effects make-up artists. Englund talked a little about playing Freddy Krueger. He said that actors love accessories. The glove was like "an extension of the badness." Englund was also on the cooking challenge show, The Last Great Baker on the same evening, where bakers had to make horror themed cakes.

Sort of similar to Edward Scissorhands and Freddy Krueger, there's Wolverine’s claws from X-Men (2000). Played by Hugh Jackman, he is so iconic that people are getting tattoos of the character and he will appear on a tattoo competition show, Ink Master on March 25, 2014. 

In March 2014, it was announced that March 3, 2017 is the projected release date for the next solo Wolverine film. The screenwriter, David James Kelly is scripting the new Wolverine film, which will once again star Hugh Jackman in the title role. 
-- movie info from SlashFilm


A poster for 1965 film Knives of the Avenger shows star, Cameron Mitchell armed with long knives held between each finger ready to hurl at the bad guy.

 

Wolverine Bone Claws
Skeletal Replica Diamond Select Toys
There are so many collectible
Wolverine Costumes & Toys
Try making Origami Claws?

Innerspace (1987)  Mr. Igoe’s has a number of prosthetics for his hand, some of which shoot bullets.

The Hobbit, Orc Chief Azog has a metal prosthetic hand and forearm....

Gandalf: "Your grandfather Thror was killed, you remember, in the Mines of Moria by Azog the Goblin."
Thorin: "Curse his name, yes."  

Some animated movies:
With animation you can do just about anything.

John Silver’s arm in Treasure Planet (2002) His arm can be a weapon but a cooking gadget.... But then, I seem to recall that Edward Scissorhands did a little cooking with his hands, too. He sure did some

Sideshow James Bond
Julius Harris / Tee Hee
Live and Let Die

chopping.

Gobber’s arm in How To Train Your Dragon (2010). It can be a cannon andan axe, but it also transforms into a a tankard for his ale.


Christopher Lloyd (Judge Doom) in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Judge Doom had a variety of tools and weapons for hands, a chainsaw if you wanted to be a killer or a lumberjack.

Gigan, a monster who you'll find in Godzilla vs. Megalon. Gigan has razor sharp hooked blades, the "tips of the hooks can release an explosive charge on contact with an enemy."

A few others that people mentioned to me that kind of do and kind of don't belong....

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) pre-code film with Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu and Myrna Loy as his daughter. Karloff displays long trademark fingernails, very villainous. Loy's character does as well on her pinkies, though hers are of the jewelry type. 

While this is a cult favorite movie, having Karloff and Loy playing Asian characters is not as acceptable by today's standards. We still have many able

Myrna Loy in Mask of Fu Manchu

bodies actors playing disabled characters.

Thai brass dancer's fingernails are one thing, but now with long knuckle rings in fashion, Myrna would have no problem finding something to suit her fancy.
10Pcs 3 Sizes Gothic Punk Black Crystal False Nail Claw Talon Finger Ring Cosplay Fashion Jewelry.

In The Piano (1993) we see Holly Hunter's character lose a finger. She receives a silver replacement finger fashioned by Harvey Keitel's character. Losing limbs isn't uncommon in movies (horror movies especially) but this is the only one I've heard of where something like this happened. The film also stars Sam Neill and Anna Paquin.

Uma Thurman's unnaturally large thumbs in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues 1993. 



Speaking of disability... With more and more baby boomers getting older and our own hearing getting worse (and despite regulations), we don't find enough closed captioning on television or on the streamed content. Sooner than later that's going to start to hurt vendors in the pocketbook. 


Books about History, Stereotypes in Film, Television, Media
Stereotypes, perception, imagery based on Disability, Gender, Racial, Ethnic, more...
Many are available now as eBooks for Kindle, Nook, Sony...

The Bigger Little Book of Hollywood Cliches: a Greatly Expanded and Much Improved Compendium of Movie Cliches, Stereotypes, Obligatory Scenes, ... Shopworn Conventions and Outdated Archetypes Lazy filmmaking? Roger Ebert

Hollywood Goes Oriental: CaucAsian Performance in American Film (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series) Think of Asian stereotypes in the movies

Images That Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media


Film and Stereotype: A Challenge for Cinema and Theory (Film and Culture Series)

Cinema Of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies

Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body

Disability and the Media (Disability Library)


Picturing Disability: Beggar, Freak, Citizen, and Other Photographic Rhetoric (Critical Perspectives on Disability) is available digitally for Kindle and in paper. It talks about Lon Chaney Sr. and Jr. and much more.

The Science of James Bond: From Bullets to Bowler Hats to Boat Jumps, the Real Technology Behind 007's Fabulous Films  

Related pages of interest:

Disabled Actors should play disabled characters

Hands in film fashion, surrealist influences, The Women, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Elsa Schiaparelli

Movies with rogue, disembodied hands

Movies with transplanted, possessed hands

Buying, Selling, Auctioning Academy Awards : Harold Russell sells Oscar to pay for his wife's medical needs


Have a Charade movie watching party

6 movies with transplanted possessed hands

Six films featuring evil, possessed, transplanted hands

Isn't it a shame that in movies piano players seem to fall prey to transplanted

The Hands of Orlac

evil hands more often than non-piano players?  Even those like the 1960 Bert I. Gordon movie, Tormented feature a murderous piano player.

We're to believe that the technology has become so advanced that they can successfully transplant hands that function, respond, sense, etc but doctors have no source of these hands except eerie possessed killer hands. 

I've included a couple news videos at the end; what's happening in the real world of medicine when it comes to hand transplants. 

The Hands of Orlac (German: Orlacs Hände) is a 1924 silent film. This seems to be the granddaddy of them all. 

The hands of pianist Paul Orlac (Conrad Veidt) are terribly injured in an accident. The surgeon decides to replace them with transplanted hands. 

After amputating Orlac's hands, he replaces them with those that are available, the hands of an executed prisoner. The piano player will now have a murderer's hands. Sound familiar? Well it wasn't familiar in1924.

Orlac is distraught to say the least when he finds what's happened. He can no longer play the piano, the family goes through what money they have. 

When Orlac's own father is found dead and it looks like he killed him, could that be

Jerry Lee Lewis
1986

true? Was it those hands that drove him to it??

In Frankenstein bringing back the dead and performing brain transplants are the thing of perhaps the ultimate horror film. 

Beyond that, hands are another often transplanted and replaced body part in horror films. 

News stories to this day talk about transplanted organs that bring with them thoughts and feelings of the person who had those organs originally. 

I found news reports of famous piano players who had accidents and could not play for a single concert or for a short while.

Mad Love is an 1935 version of the Orlac tale with Peter Lorre as Dr. Gogol making his American film debut. Colin Clive is Orlac and Frances Drake is his wife. 

Ted Healy, Keye Luke also appear. When Orlac's hands are injured in a train accident, Dr. Gogol transplants the hands of Rollo, a knife thrower. 

Orlac is suddenly an expert knife thrower. And who is that man with sunglasses and metallic hands? 




The Hands of Orlac (1960) On his way to get married, famous pianist Stephen Orlac (Mel Ferrer) survives a plane crash but sustains a bad injury to his hands. 

It just so happens that the hands of a recently executed strangler, con man and magician are available and they'll work just fine. 

Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasence and Felix Aylmer also star.




Hands of a Stranger (1962) A pianists hands severed in accident. His new hands are those of a murder victim. The hands have a mind of their own. 

They want vengeance for their past owner's death. He now is under the control of the hands which are forcing him to commit evil acts. 

Liberace 1962

Severed Ties (1992) This is one reason we stay in school and choose our science projects carefully. 

The plot stems from replacing a severed lost arm with "a scaly replacement limb" in a regeneration experiment. 

The result is not successful. The limb becomes murderous, a reptilian creature in its own right. 

The movie features Johnny Legend, Garrett Morris, Oliver Reed, Elke Sommer, Dee Wallace.

Hands of a Stranger
Movie Poster (1962)

Quicksilver Highway 1997 The second of two creepy stories told: The Body Politic by Clive Barker.  

It's the story about a man who thinks his hands are plotting to rebel against him and the whole human race. 

Then he wakes to find that his hands have apparently strangled his wife. What do you do in this predicament? 

The film features Christopher Lloyd, Matt Frewer, Raphael Sbarge, Missy Crider, Bill Nunn and Veronica Cartwright.

The Outfit Poster Movie
Robert Duvall Karen Black
Joe Don Baker Robert Ryan

You'll see hand imagery in a lot of movies, and if the film is about a musician particularly a piano player it's even more probable. 


The 1973 film The Outfit with Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker and Robert Ryan has nothing to do with piano players. 

As the poster says, "No matter what this looks like to you, to The Outfit, it's just business." A scene where a character is shot in the hand is striking enough to be memorialized on a poster. 

In a 1946 cult classic film, The Seventh Veil, James Mason is a super controlling guardian grooming Ann Todd to be a great pianist. 

He pressures her to take very good care of her hands. After a fiery car accident she wakes up with her hands heavily bandaged and she fears the worst. Herbert Lom also appears.

The film, difficult to find on DVD, is finally available to stream through Amazon and it's included free with Amazon Prime.

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, more commonly known simply as Dr. Strangelove, 1964. Dr. Strangelove, just one of three characters played by Peter Sellers in the movie is an ex-Nazi scientist whose gloved right hand apparently has a mind of its own. The mind of the scientist himself is a little questionable, too. I thought it belonged on another list but maybe it goes here after all.

In the 1935 movie Roberta, Fred Astaire plays piano on the hands of his band. They're standing before him holding out their hands on which they're wearing piano-print gloves. Standing in a line they resemble a line like a human keyboard or pipe organ. 

This is part of a series I'm doing and I've got a couple more to go. A friend suggests that a movie that's something like this is an old favorite of mine, All of Me with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin. Half of Steve Martin's character's body is possessed with the spirit of Lily Tomlin's character. The result is very funny and a remarkable physical feat to watch as one side of Martin's body moves as a female and the other side as a male. Certainly not a horror movie.

Were you a fan of the 1960s gothic daytime television drama Dark Shadows? You might remember the mystical hand of Count Petofi. 

All this might make you wonder how far this is from reality. This story keeps getting told over and over. Amazing, interesting, and in no way meant to be related to the scary and silly theme of these movies.

Some news videos FYI

Information from UCLA






Links to related pages:
Johnny Depp and Lon Chaney, Edward Scissorhands and The Unknown, Comparing 2 movies

Six Movies with rogue, disembodied hands

Piano Dance: Fun with James Cagney, Tom Hanks, Liberace

Hands in Film Fashion: The Women, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Elsa Schiaparelli

10 Ergonomic Tips for Musicians
 

The Devil's Hand Wrist Watches by moviebuffs
See other Devil's Watches

Related Books of Interest:

Billy Joel 1982

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre


Hideous Progeny: Disability, Eugenics and Classic Horror Cinema (Film andCulture Series)
 
The Inhuman Condition: Stories by Clive Barker


Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture


The Picture of Health: Medical Ethics and the Movies

Revlon Nail Polish AD T-Shirt 1944 by AdShirts
View other Revlon nail polish T-Shirts at Zazzle.com

Lon Chaney Johnny Depp Knives Hands and Love

Knives, Hands and Unrequited Love
Alonzo and Nanon, Edward and Kim

Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford
The Unknown
8x10" Photo 

Want an idea for a double feature to thrill and delight your film buff friends? Something to send chills down to the tips of your fingers? Here's an idea. 

The 1927 Lon Chaney, Sr., Joan Crawford film Unknown and the 1990 Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder film Edward Scissorhands.

They share some basic themes, particularly unrequited love and a look at the outward ugly duckling syndrome. How many of us fear we're not good enough, think we have to hide something or we won't be accepted? 

One man has knives instead of hands. Another, a knife thrower by trade, throwing knives with his feet. That's because, far as anyone knows, he has no hands, he goes by the moniker, Alonzo the Armless.

Unknown is some 60 years older than Edward Scissorhands. That movie begins with the character of Kim, aged 60 years, telling her granddaughter the story of Edward.

Both films involve the symbolism of hands and knives. The female leads are in the same age range but not really the ingenue. One man has scissors for hands, the other has arms and hands but he hides them, pretending to be armless. What he's done with his hands is unspeakable.

Ryder as Kim is playing a high school student. Crawford as Nanon was in her early 20s. (You sometimes see Crawford's character referred to as Estrellita. For clarity I'll refer to her as Nanon only.) Both films conclude in fights to the death.

Edward Scissorhands
Movie Photo Print
 Johnny Depp, Vincent Price

The movies are more different and complementary than they are similar. One character, Edward, is gentle and naive. Alonzo has killed someone and has a lot of trouble controlling his temper. 

Lon Chaney was in his mid-40s when he made Unknown. Sadly he died only three years later at the young age of 47.

Johnny Depp was in his early 20s when he made Edward Scissorhands. It was one of his first films. 

Interestingly, he'd had his feature film debut in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Depp's Nightmare character, Glen Lantz is killed by Freddy Krueger, using a glove with razor-sharp knives embedded in the fingers. This murderer was so popular that this would be the first film in a Nightmare on Elm Street series or franchise. It's different from either of the films talked about in this article.

Edward Scissorhands 11"x17" Poster

The directors, both with initials TB; have/had repeated success with the male stars in their films. Tod Browning and Lon Chaney made ten films together. The Unknown is one of the last Lon Chaney movies. Johnny Depp has made (on last count) eight films with Tim Burton. Burton has cited Browning as being an inspiration.

Edward Scissorhands has a rating of PG-13. Unknown is a black and white silent film, pre-code with no rating. It has contains violence - visual and psychological - and adult situations. Scissorhands could be called heartwarming, but Unknown probably would not.



Kim (Winona Ryder) has a boyfriend, the unpleasant Jim. Nanon has the attentions of both Alonzo and the strongman, Malabar the Mighty.

The Unknown Movie Poster
Lon Chaney Sr. Norman Kerry
Joan Crawford Nick De Ruiz

While she likes Alonzo, she is attracted to Malabar but her phobia of men's hands make her shrink back in fear. She places her trust in Alonzo. Strong man Malabar is a better fellow than Kim's boyfriend, Jim.

Nanon: Men! The beasts! God would show wisdom if he took the hands from all of them!

Forgive me, Alonzo... I did not mean you.


Setting: Edward is brought from isolation into mainstream suburbia where he first delights those in society. But then he's labeled a freak and is set up to be seen as a criminal. 

The world of Alonzo, Nanon and Malabar is the circus of the 1920s, a place to where people can escape or hide. A place where the unusual is accepted. Are you looking for a set of movies with a circus or carnival theme? They're so varied and interesting. You can find musicals, horror movies, old and new.

Alonzo is a fugitive and he is a fake. In the 1920s armless performers were not unusual. A disability could send someone to look for employment in a sideshow. I found a few examples of performers billed as "The Armless Wonder." This isn't altogether a thing of the past of course.



 
The legs and feet of a real-life armless performer, double Paul Desmuke were used to manipulate objects such as knives and cigarettes for Chaney. Desmuke's legs would be cleverly presented into the frame with Chaney's upper body and face.

Scissorhands marked the final feature film in the long career of actor Vincent Price. He was another big influence on director Tim Burton.

** Hands as a characteristic of humans vs. characteristics of monsters

They say that our hands are one of the features that make us human. Primates have opposable thumbs. (I have a polydactyl cat who has two 'thumbs' on each front paw but we won't get into that now.) 

Edward longs to caress Kim but he hasn't got the human-like hands that he needs. Alonzo is human enough but he's used his hands to harm and has little self control. Kim's boyfriend was jealous but tried to use Edward to commit a crime on his behalf and then left him to go to jail. Who is the real monster? 

Include "Freddy" Krueger in the conversation, burned in a fire, disfigured in an accident like other horror film and comic book characters before becoming a killer or a bad guy. Maybe the granddaddy of all move characters in the 'who is the real monster?' discussion would be Dr. Frankenstein's monster. Where do these traditions come from?

Edward's 'father' is about to give him an early Christmas gift,
His own pair of hands

After you've seen the films think of what you feel and what, if anything you've learned from each. What do you think the characters have learned and how have they changed? How do you think Kim's life and Nanon's life would be in the future? 

Have you ever seen a film where a woman's hands are disfigured or her hands are possessed? Maybe someone could create a short film where a woman sends toxic emails or tweets and it turns out that her hands were possessed by the hands of..... The hands of... Who?? It wasn't her fault after all.


Watch the movies: The The Lon Chaney Collection (The Ace of Hearts / Laugh, Clown, Laugh / The Unknown) does not appear to be available to stream but it is available on DVD. Bundling with other films of the great Lon Chaney or Joan Crawford would be a good deal.

Edward Scissorhands: 10th Anniversary this is available on Amazon instant or on DVD


Make some Finger Sandwiches and maybe some Tiramisu (with ladyfingers) to serve your guests. Thumb-print cookies are fun, too. Consider some sorbet or even home-made shaved ice, Sno-Cones. Maybe coconut cake or cream pie in honor of Edward. He's still living in that mansion up on the hill and he's the one responsible for making it snow.

The Hands of Orlac

Part of a series:

Want more for your festival or something for next weekend?? 

Next, I'll look at some other hand-oriented films such as The Hands of Orlac, Mad Love and The Beast with Five Fingers. Give Peter Lorre a shout-out.


Hand transplants and and evil hands. Enough to make Lady Fingers, Thing and the entire Addams Family leave the theater and ask for their money back.

Actor Rudolph Valentino 1925 Greeting Cards by ClassicOldPhotos

Joan Crawford Lon Chaney THE UNKNOWN film ad T Shirt by Jakestuff
Browse Joan crawford T-Shirts

Edward Safety Scissor Hands T-Shirt by museling

Tod Browning 1921 vintage portrait T-shirt by Jakestuff
Design your own custom tee shirt online at Zazzle.

Johnny Depp starred in the 2007 film,
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
In the 1936 film version, Tod Slaughter was Sweeney Todd,
the murderous barber with a shop near the docks of London.
Sweeney T-shirts by MissManders

There are many Edward Scissorhands Costumes in different price ranges for adults and kids. Want to try and make a version of the scissorhands? Between Wolverine, Freddy Kreuger and Edward Scissorhands, there are several choices. 

I cracked up when I saw that they even have Wolverine Soft Claws Toddler Gloves! Dressing up as the characters in The Unknown would be fun, visit your local thrift store or shop your closet.

Short excerpt from a Lon Chaney interview. What did he think of some of the current crop of horror movies? "Kill for the sake of killing, blood for the sake of blood. No plot. No true expression of acting. No true expression of feeling."

Joan Crawford helps Clark Gable vintage movie still T-shirt

Related Pages of Interest: 

William Castle: Scream for Relief

Hands in Film Fashion: The Women The Man, Who Came to Dinner, Elsa Schiaparelli 

Personal Film Festival: Men in the Bath

Eat along with the actors in your favorite films, dinner at home with a movie

Snow White and the Huntsman finger cuffs, knuckle rings; Animated Characters on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Cute Gloves no more cold hands at the keyboard