Todd Browning - Outlaw This is the case when the names of the creators affect the perception of the picture. Of course, this film does not contain anything unique or original. But the names of Lon Cheney and Todd Browning make you evaluate the tape in the prism of their long-term cooperation. And this in itself "pulls" the tape out of the quagmire of mediocrity. But the film itself does not leave an impression of integrity.
A very far-fetched intrigue with a Chinese sage in unexpected ways stuck in gangster urban layouts rather indicates ambiguity than produces it. He exists separately from the main characters of the film, simply watching them and empirically absorbing beingness as Alexei Karamazov. Not to mention the great preaching.
Other characters in the film are victims of momentary passions. Criminals, innocently imprisoned and a couple of lovers running between Law and Iniquity. All of them seem to indicate intrigue, show dynamics and emotional torment. But there is no synergistic effect. The narrative is divided into many segments, each of which is quite professional and convincing. What can I say if Lon Cheney himself plays in the film? But all together it seems very boring, superfluous, unsophisticated.
The usual crime drama is designed in a stylistic plane, located between detective and gangster cinema. Suddenly appearing Chinese sage here is completely illogical, but you get used to him as Muscovites are used to the statue of Peter from Tsereteli. I think that Browning and Cheney only trained, keeping in the “reserve” real “ais” in the form of the “Unholy Trinity” and “Unknown”. Well, before Dracula and Freaks, this picture is like the moon. This is why it is so overrated.
5 out of 10