PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

salvidienusorfitus The beginning of the film is really hard to take seriously. Lionel Barrymore was miscast in his role as the lover. It is hard to believe that someone as beautiful as Jacqueline Gadsdon could fall in love with him in preference to Lon Chaney. They really should have cast someone younger and more handsome. That being said the story is rather sad... especially when Lon Chaney realizes he has made a big mistake... and has been wrong all along in his assumptions. He plays his part well and you can't help feel sorry for him. Mary Nolan is beautiful and plays her part well. Warner Baxter looks rather silly/crazy when he "goes native" and starts dancing but otherwise plays his part well. The Synchronized Score with music and sound effects is pleasing and quite effective and sets the spooky/dark mood effectively.

wes-connors In London, dapper magician Lon Chaney (as Phroso) entertains audiences by turning a skeleton into beautiful Jacqueline Gadsdon (as Anna), his wife and partner. But she is planning to run away with lover Lionel Barrymore (as Crane), an African ivory merchant. He gives Mr. Chaney the bad news and their confrontation leads to Chaney being tossed over a balcony. Consequently, Chaney loses the use of his legs. He begins a heartless revenge after obtaining his quickly expired wife's "love child" and taking her to Africa...Eighteen years later, "West of Zanzibar", Chaney (now known as "Dead-Legs") retrieves pretty blonde Mary Nolan (as Maizie) from her childhood as an alcoholic prostitute. This is how Chaney wants to present Ms. Nolan to her father, Mr. Barrymore. While staying with Chaney, Nolan arouses Warner Baxter (as Doc), an addicted physician helping Chaney cope with his disability. Chaney uses his magician background to dupe superstitious natives. Their propensity to eat and burn people could come back to bite or burn him...Perverse and predictable, this lurid melodrama contains enough Browning/Chaney dramatics to recommend, although the story is far from their best. There would be only one more collaboration, "Where East Is East" (1929), due to Chaney's untimely death. "West of Zanzibar" is one of the pictures the legendary filmmaking team might have re-made with sound. The short running time hints story elements were dropped at some stage; a longer film might have improved the pacing, and made the big scenes more surprising.****** West of Zanzibar (11/24/28) Tod Browning ~ Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Nolan, Warner Baxter

bkoganbing In one of his last silent films, Lon Chaney plays a magician who went into a kind of exile in the Belgian Congo after a fight with a man who stole his wife left him a cripple. He's now known as 'Deadlegs' and he's used his mastery of prestidigitation to make himself the local kingpin in his neck of the jungle. But even he has to obey certain native customs.He's an embittered and twisted man who has worked out a most carefully engineered scheme involving his late wife's daughter. The man who did steal his wife, Lionel Barrymore is now also in Africa. He contrives to bring the two of them together and both kill and degrade them at the same time at the hands of the cannibals he lives with.Even with this Victorian plot and given the racism of the times, in Victorian Great Britain they would not have had cannibals in Africa because there were no cannibals in Africa. But what did Americans know about Africa?Still Chaney gives a compelling performance and the role calls for the make up and the contortion that he was known for. In fact in James Cagney's film biography of Chaney there are small portraits of Chaney's various screen roles and West of Zanzibar is one of them. Also look for a good performance by Warner Baxter as the alcoholic doctor who Chaney keeps on a kind of retainer.It's not a great film, far from it, but it is a fascinating look at the life and art of Lon Chaney.

MartinHafer The movie begins with Lon Chaney and his wife doing a stage magic show. Shortly after they finish, the wife runs off with her lover AND the lover attacks Chaney and leaves him paralyzed from the waist down--and all this occurs in the first few minutes of the film! Several months later, Chaney finds his wife dead in a church with a baby that he assumes is her lover's child. What an odd coincidence, huh?! The movie then picks up about 18 years later. What has Chaney done with his life in order to get revenge on his wife's lover? Yeah, exactly what any other man would do--follow the guy to Africa, start a cult among the natives so you can be their chief and bring the now addicted baby (who is now 18 and going through DTs) there to torment her in front of her biological father, naturally! This is all very creepy and convoluted and just plain weird. In a way, it's very entertaining but also pretty ridiculous. This story is one of the more bizarre tales I have seen in a silent film, though pretty consistent with director Browning and Chaney's styles. And while many of the story elements are quite scary and unsettling, the pacing of the film is a real problem--particularly at the end of the film. Instead of wrapping everything together and dealing with the suspense, the movie just starts to bog down and becomes rather plodding. This is a real shame, as it tends to lessen the dramatic impact and slow the movie to a crawl. A truly interesting and creepy relic, but far from Lon Chaney's best film, though his ability to mimic a disabled man and pull himself along with floor with "dead legs" (also his nickname in the film) was incredible--a fine job of acting on his part.