Nice effects though.

Brilliant and touching

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Having seen "Outside the Law", the second Browning-Chaney-Dean feature, I can say "The Wicked Darling" feels almost like a prelude to that film. When you watch this film it looks like some of the sets were used in "Outside the Law". Browning seems to want to finish in "Outside the Law" what he started in this film. There's even a gruesome fight scene (two in fact) with Chaney & the hero here(Wellington Playter) as there would be between Chaney & Wheeler Oakman in "Outside the Law". Priscilla Dean is one of the best actresses of the silent era & I look forward to checking out her other silent films like Browning's "The Virgin of Stamboul" (unfortunately minus Chaney). The version of this film comes from the remaining 35mm print in the Nederlands Filmmuseum and it has tremendous beginning stages of nitrate decomposition. Fortunately this film was rescued in the knick of time. Dean's character at the opening of the film comes off as a thief in cahoots with Chaney but its insinuated that she also moonlights as a prostitute with Chaney her pimp. Browning seemingly sets up the viewers imagination on Dean's activity while early in the film showing Gertrude Astor as a 'kept woman' for Wellington Playter. Astor leaves Playter after he goes broke. With good chunks of the film lost and this being an abridged foreign release anyway, more imagination is still left to the viewer. But Browning's customary last act of redemption for the crooked Priscilla Dean is identical in Outside the Law.

Like so many other silent films, THE WICKED DARLING has degraded badly over time. That's because for decades Hollywood used nitrate-based film stock and it tended to decompose quickly--in some cases turning to dust, in others becoming slimy and bubbly and in a few cases it even exploded! By the time this film was placed on DVD, there was only one print left (again, this is not too unusual) and it was the version with Dutch subtitles--which needed to be translated. Additionally, the film is a mess in many spots--with lots of Swiss cheese-like holes in the print. None of this makes the film impossible to watch--just don't expect a pristine looking film.The film begins with a nice guy, Kent (Wellington A. Playter) being dumped by his shallow rich fiancée. Why? Because he's no longer rich! Nice lady, huh?! A bit later, he meets up with Mary (Priscilla Dean) who is running from the law. This is because she's a thief. However, she is able to convince Kent that she is a nice girl. However, Mary is so taken by the very decent Kent that she really does want to be this nice girl, so she gives up her wicked ways and gets a real job. The problem is that her old cronies (including Lon Chaney in an early role) don't want her to go straight and will stop at almost nothing to keep her on the side of evil. Will she succumb to niceness or rottenness? Tune in for yourself and see.Wile this is far from a great melodrama, for 1919 it's awfully spiffy. Sure, it's a bit obvious here and there and the idea of a career criminal turning a new lead so quickly and with such small provocation is silly, but it is very entertaining and well-acted for the day. Not a great film but it sure is better than average and worth seeing--lousy print and all.

Chaney and Browning's first collaboration is a more interesting film in the final analysis than what it at first appears to be. Basically on a superficial level what we have here is the basic crime and redemption story. Mary Stevens (Priscilla Dean) is a young thief who hangs out with various questionable sorts, who are led by "Stoop" Connors (Lon Chaney). She steals a necklace from a wealthy lady just before running into her fiancé Kent Mortimer (Wellington Playter) who she promptly falls in love with. Chaney and his fellow criminals (including a bizarre pale-faced fence) try to intimidate Mary into turning over the jewels even though she had decided to turn straight. She does eventually sell some of them in order to help Mortimer pay his rent -- he was wealthy but has now fallen on hard times. One key here is that Mortimer's girlfriend, the one who had the gems stolen from her (Gertrude Astor... perhaps a real socialite to judge by the name?), turned him down for marriage because he wasn't rich enough. So in the end after defeating Connors and his thugs, (SPOILERS) and after a full hour of hearing Mortimer moralize about all kinds of subjects, the two of them use the money from the necklace to run off to the country and start a pig farm. "At least we didn't throw our pearls before swine" they laugh as the credits roll. I don't know if this made much sense in terms of the overall narrative (why was Mortimer so adamant about not wanting to be with a thief, only to change his mind completely in the end?), it sure was more interesting than the ending you would expect.Chaney's performance is solid but not a stand-out for him. It's basically the same as his work in Browning's subsequent "Outside the Law" (natch for Dean, who at least had honed her saucy demeanor more by the latter effort) except that here he plays only one role. Playter has too much gravity (both literally and spiritually) on screen to be a fun or amusing lead character. Although at the end he does gain some depth I suppose. There are many standouts among the supporting cast, particularly Kalla Pasha who plays the bartender and shows off his patented wrestling moves -- latter day Tor Johnson and Hulk Hogan fans will be pleased. Browning's camera work is characteristically plain, though there is one interesting shot of Mary from the head up that pans down her face through a veil. He brings more realism to the proceedings than is normal with what looks like real night-time photography and the collection of real-life characters (like Pasha) in the supporting cast.A film that will be of interest to anyone who likes Chaney and Browning or who is interested in the early crime pictures of the 1910s, though "Outside the Law" is a bit more substantial I believe.

A solid melodrama in itself, "The Wicked Darling" is most noteworthy now for the supporting performance of Lon Chaney, in the kind of villainous role that he performed as well as any actor of his time (or just about any other time, for that matter). The movie has recently been restored from one badly damaged print and a few scraps of information, and the restorers have done an impressive job indeed piecing together almost all of the original feature.Priscilla Dean has the lead role, as a good-natured pickpocket caught up in a bad crowd, among them being Chaney's vicious character. A chain of events leads Mary (Dean's character) to develop a friendship with an upper class gentleman (played by Wellington Playter) who has recently lost both his fortune and his fiancée. The two of them go on to face a series of crises, tests, and menaces, many of them instigated by Chaney's character.It's a story like many others of its era, but Tod Browning's direction keeps it from being ordinary, adding some good touches and details, and getting good performances from most of the cast. Chaney, though, is the one that stands out. He has no disguises or detailed make-up this time, but he makes full use of every opportunity to portray a cold-hearted crook who forms a formidable obstacle to the happiness of the heroine and the man she loves. As a result, it's quite a bit more interesting and memorable than most movies of its kind.