White Tiger (1923)

Director:

Tod Browning

Writers:

Tod Browning (screenplay)
Tod Browning (story)

Release Date:

17 December 1923 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Three crooks pull off a magnificent crime. As they're forced to hide out together they slowly begin to distrust each other. |

Plot Keywords:

Chess | Detective | Color In Title | Animal In Title

Cast

Priscilla Dean	...	Sylvia Donovan
Matt Moore	...	Dick Longworth
Raymond Griffith	...	Roy Donovan
Wallace Beery	...	Count Donelli / Hawkes
Alfred Allen	...	Mike Donovan

Runtime:

Spain:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

A Jewel Production. Universal did not own a proprietary theater network and sought to differentiate its feature product to independent theater owners. Carl Laemmle created a 3-tiered branding system: Red Feather (low budget programmers), Bluebird (mainstream releases) and Jewel (prestige films). Jewel releases were promoted as worthy of special promotion in hopes of commanding higher roadshow ticket prices. Universal ended branding in late 1929.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Kingdom of Shadows (1998) (V)

The wages of sin in eighty minutes

Welcome to the world of Tod Browning, a world of sideshows and thieves, vampires and murderers, where men cut off their arms for love and wear dresses for revenge, the world of Dracula and FREAKS. Browning was a true original. He had a long association with Lon Chaney that ended only with death. In Browning's world, people pretend to be other than they are, but they rarely know who they are until it is too late.

There are considerable problems with the story as told, probably due to the fact that the movie was shelved for a couple of years and then had the titles rewritten anonymously. I strongly suspect that the relationships between the three leads was a lot more sexual in Browning's script than they are here.

In short, this is a bizarre movie and the main actors in it -- Wallace Beery, Raymond Griffith and Priscilla Dean play bizarre characters manipulated by a bizarre fate. Perhaps you don't believe in fate. If not, you may find this movie a mess of wild coincidences. But if you accept Browning's vision, you will find yourself drawn along.

There is a happy ending tacked on, for those of you who like happy endings. The rest of us will ignore it.