The connective tissue among the three films on The Criterion Collection’s box set, Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, is the director’s experience as a circus performer that he incorporated into a series of films such as The Unknown (1927), Freaks (1932), and today’s movie, The Mystic (1925.) This is the least “sideshow” of the trio and Browning’s last film before the extra touch Lon Chaney added to subsequent productions.
In this sense, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a “lesser” film, but it’s one that hints at what was to come. One primary difference is that the action takes place mostly in the world of high society in New York City. It only begins in a Hungarian sideshow with Mara (Aileen Pringle) fooling audiences as a fake mentalist. When American con man Michael Nash (Conway Tearle) arrives with a scheme to make them all rich, the action abruptly moves to the United States.
More notable than a performance by a silent film superstar is the costuming by art deco designer Romain de Tirtoff (aka Erte) and Mara’s eerily produced performances engineered by her father, Zazarack (Mitchell Lewis) and her potential romantic interest, Anton (Robert Ober.) The most compelling performance for me was that of their mark, Doris Merrick (Gladys Hulette), whose wide, innocent eyes charmed both Nash and me.
As a whole, the relationships don’t quite ring true in The Mystic. It isn’t clear that Zara has any interest in Anton, lessening the impact of a budding relationship between her and Nash. Then, I was never convinced that Zara really did love Nash. When the entire dramatic climax of the film revolves around the love and trust between the two, it causes us to mistrust what we’re watching.
Further, when the dramatic climax is followed by a presumed twist, the impact of the twist causes it to feel… less twisty? There seemed to be more instances of characters speaking without accompanying intertitles to explain their motivations than in other silent films I’ve watched, and the performances aren’t quite strong enough to convey their feelings without words to help explain them.
I don’t mean to completely criticize The Mystic, but I’m searching for reasons that it isn’t as memorable as other Browning films. Sure, you could pin it all on the absence of Chaney, but perhaps it’s more the creative progression of the director. Ten years earlier, Browning had been involved in a tragic car crash. I imagine it’s something that haunted him and took time for him to accept. Maybe he was working it out through his films.
Certainly, his movies following this one took a dark turn and sometimes had unhappy endings. That’s an interesting aspect about The Mystic; it has a happy ending, which is perhaps the one thing I didn’t expect from a Tod Browning film, especially one that led with over an hour of not-so-happy events. It’s not that I don’t like a happy ending, but here, it feels less authentic.
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