Blind Bargain, A
Entry updated 3 January 2017. Tagged: Film.
Film (1922). Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Directed by Wallace Worsley. Written by J G Hawks, based on The Octave of Claudius (1897) by Barry Pain. Cast includes Virginia True Boardman, Lon Chaney, Fontaine La Rue, Raymond McKee. 57 minutes. Black and white (tinted prints existed).
The film is lost, quite possibly destroyed when Goldwyn was taken over by MGM. The impoverished protagonist, as described in the original novel, comes to an agreement with Mad Scientist Dr Arthur Lamb: in return for £8,000 he will submit himself to a fatal experiment after enjoying his wealth for one week, during the course of which Claudius sells his novel, wins his love, and comes into riches; Lamb's death at the hands of his mad wife saves the day. It is understood that the film intensifies this drama. Dr Arthur Lamb (Chaney) is engaged in experimental surgery, presumably enhanced by mysterious Drugs or serums, through which he has transformed his assistant into an "Ape Man" (also Chaney) (see Apes as Human); to be drugged and eviscerated would be a fate worse than death. It is assumed that Robert Sandell (McKee), the Claudius figure who has agreed to the blind bargain, escapes in the end. [JC]
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