The Blackbird

1926 Directed by Tod Browning

Two thieves, the Blackbird and West End Bertie, fall in love with the same girl, a French nightclub performer named Fifi. Each man tries to outdo the other to win her heart.

Lon Chaney Owen Moore Renée Adorée Doris Lloyd Andy MacLennan William Weston Sidney Bracey Ernie Adams

86 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Rafael Jovine ★★★

As cinema evolves and more creative minds come on board sharing their stories and their vision, so does the art gets richer and richer. And when you are the Hollywood System, you more than anyone else deserve for others to basically guide you into one direction. Because of this (with its exceptions), most of the early cinema and movies either felt stuck in specific genre and in many tropes, which for those who enjoy them will find certain entertainment value, but for those like me that find the very expressive and melodramatic nature of the stories at the time, good at best or laughable in the worse case scenario, films like this do not fully click with me.
That's not…
Review by Jacob ★★★

Well that’s 2 for 2 for Tod Browning’s films I’ve watched where they have this fun sense of charm to them. The story is basically about these two clever thieves that try to outsmart each other for the love of a girl that they both want. I was very disappointed with the ending but I found the rest of the movie fun and interesting. Seeing Lon Chaney’s performance at The Blackbird and switching to the crippled Bishop was brilliant. He also looks identical to Tommy Alee Jones and Bryan Cranston. If you want to see a solid cat and mouse game between two thieves I can recommend this one for ya. Very simple movie with a simple plot that is very witty and clever.
Review by Joe ★★★★

Another twisted Tod Browing tale about a physically twisted protagonist: The saintly Bishop, who has a "twin brother" with a straighter spine but a much more crooked livelihood (the potentially deadly secret they share may shock you!). This is an extremely dark melodrama about crime and unrequited love, aka a Browning/Lon Chaney collaboration, but it leads into a truly harrowing climax that has Lon Chaney once again suffering through extreme physical torment at least indirectly in the name of love.
Would also like to deliver props to whoever was writing the interstitial cards at MGM back in the mid-20s. Here he or she has to capture not one but two ridiculous Hollywood dialects: Lime'ouse cockney for most of the characters, but also a romantic Fraunch for the central female lead. And they only get mixed up one or two times!
Review by laird ★★★½ 2

Has any writer/director taken more pleasure in creating cruel criminal characters, torturing them and having them torture others for the duration of a movie, then seeking empathy from the viewer in the final moments than Tod Browning? THE BLACKBIRD seems like a clear warm-up to THE UNKNOWN, a missing link between the underworld crime stories that precede it and the stories about characters physically disfigured by their own transgressions that follow. Chaney's character in this perpetrates a ruse that is far too absurd to be believable, but works perfectly as a large typeface in establishing this as hyper-stylized melodrama. Bonus points for intertitles written in Cockney slang. ("'e's trynna get away!")
Review by #1 Bratz Fan ★★★★ 1

Lon Chaney is really great in what’s essentially a Jekyll & Hyde type role, but without the science. He switches between a good guy and a bad guy at will, just for the fuck of it. It’s really more of a crime film, but Browning and Chaney working together can’t seem to help giving it a horror atmosphere, which was nice because I need to pretend it actually fits for Hoop-tober.
Chainsawktober Film #11: 1920s, Tod Browning
Review by Cineanalyst ★★★½

Excuse Me While I Change Into My Alter Ego
Lon Chaney's twisted performance as the eponymous Blackbird is much fun, as he literally bends himself all out of shape to pretend himself his good, crippled brother, the Bishop. The tortuous melodrama and love triangles of the rest of the film, however, leaves much to be desired. At least, with a Chaney and Tod Browning collaboration, one is bound to be treated to something at least a little offbeat, and such is the case in "The Blackbird," although it doesn't quite reach the level of their better films, such as "The Unholy Three" (1925) and "The Unknown" (1927), although its ironic twist of fate, or double deception, anticipates the latter.
Besides…
Review by AntoniusBlock7 ★★★½

Lon Chaney and Tod Browning are a favorite combination of mine, and this is a solid enough effort, but it’s not as macabre as some of their other films, and doesn’t hit any home runs. The parallel the film makes between a wealthy man (‘West End Bertie,’ Owen Moore) and a thief (‘The Blackbird,’ Chaney) are interesting, and there is something subversive in the film not having Bertie be “the good guy.” They’re both enamored with a young vaudeville performer (Renée Adorée) and prey on her, and they both look down on “chinks,” with members of both classes unfortunately using the slur. The parallel is even stronger when we find out that Bertie is also a thief. While both men…
Review by MovieMstermindd ★★½

This was decent enough except for the very weak second act. It was worth the watch for the 'man of a thousand faces' Lon Chaney but not much else.
Review by Emily ★★★

It's amazing how Lon Chaney could transform himself from role to role!
Review by Lowbacca ★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This really needs more Lon Chaney. Yes, he's playing two roles, but it's really got a focus on the wrong parts of this to really be interesting. He plays both The Bishop, a pillar of sorts of the slum community, and the Black Bird, who runs crime in the same area (using a fake bad leg as the Bishop to avoid suspicion). I think that's a really interesting dual role that I would've liked to see more about.
Instead, it's mostly going back and forth between the two roles entirely for him to try to woo a woman (with competition from another crook) and that simply isn't as interesting. The dynamics of the relationships come off as pretty bland, and…
Review by Tuomas Kiiskinen ★★★

One of those movies where you feel like the script was completely thrown together while the filmmakers were more concerned with everything else. The sets are great and Chaney is fantastic in the dual role, but the story was just so disappointingly sloppy when it comes to the potential of the concept. It's clear, that the ending was conceived first due to the complete suddenness of it. I loved the irony of it what happened to our lead, but I just wish it had been used in a much better story.
Review by PatrickRipoll ★★★½

Lon Chaney does a twist on Jekyll and Hyde, playing a master thief kingpin who poses as a fictional disabled social worker twin brother by day, effectively controlling both the straight and criminal of the vice-riddled Limehouse section of London. Tod Browning does an amazing job creating a lived-in world, we are introduced to all our characters and their histories via a terrific sequence at a playhouse that sets up a lot of compelling dynamic relationships. It's a backdrop fitting a crime epic, so it's a little disappointing when the story shrinks down into a simple love triangle dynamic very similar to The Unknown.
Chaney gets horny for the new French stage star when he sees her perform a pantomine…

Recent reviews

Review by Al Parker ★★★★

Great Lon Chaney performance in a double role as a thief and priest.
Review by fozzielogic

Lon Chaney's manysided, purposefully reshapen characters come to the fore again. For him and Browning, however, this is almost a normal story.
Review by JoelArcherFilms ★★★

A solid Lon Chaney Snr film about 2 thieves Blackbird and West End Bertie who fall in love with the sale girl a French Nightclub Performer called Fif. They try to outdo each other.
Both characters Lon Chaney inhabit are quite different and diverse. Although a studio films sets are effective to represent the English Limehouse District... Well also those who aren't British ;)
Tod Brownings directing is strong and sure in this film, but the film in parts gets bogged down by petty arguments. All in all good film but not his greatest.
Review by Lowbacca ★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This really needs more Lon Chaney. Yes, he's playing two roles, but it's really got a focus on the wrong parts of this to really be interesting. He plays both The Bishop, a pillar of sorts of the slum community, and the Black Bird, who runs crime in the same area (using a fake bad leg as the Bishop to avoid suspicion). I think that's a really interesting dual role that I would've liked to see more about.
Instead, it's mostly going back and forth between the two roles entirely for him to try to woo a woman (with competition from another crook) and that simply isn't as interesting. The dynamics of the relationships come off as pretty bland, and…
Review by MovieMstermindd ★★½

This was decent enough except for the very weak second act. It was worth the watch for the 'man of a thousand faces' Lon Chaney but not much else.
Review by PatrickRipoll ★★★½

Lon Chaney does a twist on Jekyll and Hyde, playing a master thief kingpin who poses as a fictional disabled social worker twin brother by day, effectively controlling both the straight and criminal of the vice-riddled Limehouse section of London. Tod Browning does an amazing job creating a lived-in world, we are introduced to all our characters and their histories via a terrific sequence at a playhouse that sets up a lot of compelling dynamic relationships. It's a backdrop fitting a crime epic, so it's a little disappointing when the story shrinks down into a simple love triangle dynamic very similar to The Unknown.
Chaney gets horny for the new French stage star when he sees her perform a pantomine…
Review by TheCinephobe

11.11.20
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Review by Cineanalyst ★★★½

Excuse Me While I Change Into My Alter Ego
Lon Chaney's twisted performance as the eponymous Blackbird is much fun, as he literally bends himself all out of shape to pretend himself his good, crippled brother, the Bishop. The tortuous melodrama and love triangles of the rest of the film, however, leaves much to be desired. At least, with a Chaney and Tod Browning collaboration, one is bound to be treated to something at least a little offbeat, and such is the case in "The Blackbird," although it doesn't quite reach the level of their better films, such as "The Unholy Three" (1925) and "The Unknown" (1927), although its ironic twist of fate, or double deception, anticipates the latter.
Besides…
Review by Bill Chambers ★★½

This one didn't really land for me. It's the first Browning/Chaney movie I've seen where the love triangle muddies the story instead of clarifying it, and the tragic ending is just kind of hilarious--not in the bitterly funny way of Browning and Chaney's The Unknown, but in the Jack Tripper's comeuppance way of "Three's Company".
Review by AntoniusBlock7 ★★★½

Lon Chaney and Tod Browning are a favorite combination of mine, and this is a solid enough effort, but it’s not as macabre as some of their other films, and doesn’t hit any home runs. The parallel the film makes between a wealthy man (‘West End Bertie,’ Owen Moore) and a thief (‘The Blackbird,’ Chaney) are interesting, and there is something subversive in the film not having Bertie be “the good guy.” They’re both enamored with a young vaudeville performer (Renée Adorée) and prey on her, and they both look down on “chinks,” with members of both classes unfortunately using the slur. The parallel is even stronger when we find out that Bertie is also a thief. While both men…
Review by Rafael Jovine ★★★

As cinema evolves and more creative minds come on board sharing their stories and their vision, so does the art gets richer and richer. And when you are the Hollywood System, you more than anyone else deserve for others to basically guide you into one direction. Because of this (with its exceptions), most of the early cinema and movies either felt stuck in specific genre and in many tropes, which for those who enjoy them will find certain entertainment value, but for those like me that find the very expressive and melodramatic nature of the stories at the time, good at best or laughable in the worse case scenario, films like this do not fully click with me.
That's not…
Review by Malala ★★★★

Lon en dos papeles y los bajos fondos londinenses, todo para amar.