lon chaney ( a alonzo the armless ) be a criminal posing a an armless circus knife wielder while he amaze by throw knife with his foot and notably at assistant joan crawford ( a nanon zanzi ) . actually and mr. chaney arm be tightly girdle to his chest while he suffer from an obvious deformity and which would identify him to authority he have two thumb on his left hand . evidently a victim of sex abuse and ms. crawford have an unusual fear of arm while so and she reject the advance of circus strongman norman kerry ( a malabar the mighty ) . instead and she warm up to the armless chaney . he mistake crawford affection for love and and decides to make himself her ideal and by amputate his arm . while chaney recuperates and crawford overcome her fear and and begin to enjoy mr. kerry muscular arm . when he return and chaney be understandably upset chaney and director tod browning be superb in this disturbing and horrific drama . brown build great suspense in the wonderful end and wherein he wind up disturb image in your mind and and teasingly leave them on the verge of explode a usual and the horror unseen be the most unsettling . crawford excel in one of her best early role while she play fall in love with kerry exceptionally well . of course and no one can match chaney while though great throughout and his scene realize crawford never truly love him be emotionally wrench . great character actor john george ( a cojo ) have a fine role a chaney helper the scene where he first unwrap the girdled alonzo should have your eye glue to the screen . there appear to be some portion of the unknown missing and but the amputation of footage hasn not spoil the film . the unknown ( 6/4/27 ) tod brown ~ lon chaney and joan crawford and norman kerry and john george .