the unknown return to a theme common in many of lon chaney film and that of a man hopelessly in love with a woman he can never have . alonzo and the armless man be perform in a gypsy circus a a sharpshooter or knife thrower work with the lovely nanon ( joan crawford ) a his assistant . he be of course in love with her . round out the triangle be circus strong man malabar ( norman kerry ) who be also in love with nanon . nanon it seem can not bear to have a man hand touch her ( joan crawford . ) . alonzo be not what he seem to be . it turn out that he be a fugitive on the run and it be reveal that he actually do have arm and have create the armless man to hide a deformity that would identify him a the criminal the police be seek . and give that nanon can not stand for a man to touch her and she repel malabar advance and place her trust in alonzo . nanon father and zanzi ( nick deruiz ) want his daughter to stay away from alonzo and confronts him on the issue one night . zanzi discovers alonzo secret so alonzo murder him . alonzo then re confirms his intention to marry nanon . alonzo trust friend cojo ( john george ) point out to alonzo that should he marry nanon and she would surely discover that he have arm on their wedding night . so and alonzo sure that nanon will marry him and arranges to have his arm amputate . when alonzo return from his ordeal he discover that nanon have get over her fear of men hand and now plan to marry malabar . alonzo devastate and plot his revenge . chaney play an unsympathetic character in this film and so much so that he doesn not evoke the usual audience pity that he have in other film . his scene a the armless man be outstanding and the thing he do with his foot be truly amazing . and he could express so much emotion with just his facial expression . crawford be just get her career into go and go on to a lengthy career span over 40 year . kerry have also appear with chaney in both the hunchback of notre dame ( 1923 ) and the phantom of the opera ( 1925 ) . the running time of the film varies depend on your source . the version i saw run about 50 minute . the citadel book and the film of joan crawford list it at 65 minute . imdb list run time of 61 and 49 minute respectively . despite the short running time it nevertheless present a complete and rivet story . i would like to know what be cut out though .