Outside the Law is a 1920 American crime silent film directed by Tod Browning and starring silent screen legends Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean. The picture was the second picture that Browning and Chaney worked together on.
San Francisco criminal leader Silent Madden (Ralph Lewis, American Madness), and daughter Molly Madden (Priscilla Dean, White Tiger) have decided to stop living a life of crime and go straight, abiding by the laws after they receive counseling in Chinatown from Chang Lo (E. Alyn Warren) and his servant Ah Wing(Lon Chaney ,London After Midnight).
Soon after, a vicious gangster, Black “Blackie” Mike Silva (Chaney in his other role) frames her father for murder and also plans to set-up his daughter Molly in a jewelry heist. Molly gets word of his plans through her gangster lover Dapper Bill Ballard (Wheeler Oakman, Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars). The film ends with brutal shootout between Blackie and Bill.
Outside the Law is a tremendous film, a superb crime drama, with an incredibly fast paced violent ending. Director Browning has made one of the best in that era. Browning would continue his amazing legacy with Dracula and Freaks, a pair of timeless classics, to name a few. The acting, with a cast of veteran silent film stars is just terrific. Priscilla Dean has a strong film presence in Outside the Law, as her character is a beautiful but no-nonsense tough girl, who starts to loosen up when she is hiding from the law with her lover Bill. Her anti-hero tough gal persona would also appear in the films Drifting and White Tiger. She was married to co-star Wheeler Oakman at the time.
Lon Chaney has two roles in the film, showing his incredible versatility. He is Ah Wing, a good-natured student of Confucian philosophy, and the unhinged thug Black Mike Sylva, living in San Francisco’s underworld, two completely opposite roles. He excelled in both of his parts.
Kino Lorber presents Outside the Law on Blu-ray. The image quality is a bright, looking clean and polished with some minor grain and print damage. The picture does have a balanced grey scale. The high contrast added to the clarity of the picture, giving it added brightness. Around the 58-minute mark to the end of the movie, the film has some severe print damage. The damage at times interferes with the viewing of what the characters are doing in the movie and is overwhelming in some parts, if only for a moment. The film elements, which came from a 35mm nitrate print from the Library of Congress, suffers from what is called nitrate decomposition and decaying for the final thirty minutes. While the image is still viewable, be prepared to see it in this manner for the last half-hour.
Outside the Law’s English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 track is crisp and clear with the fantastic musical score by Anthony Sanko sounding the most aggressive.
The release does have a few cool extras. There is an audio commentary by Anthony Slide discusses Outside the Law in detail and its amazing cast. You should listen to it!
The film’s alternate ending is shown and there is a footage comparison from a 16 mm print of the 1926 re-release for your viewing pleasure.
I loved this film and glad to have Outside the Law in my collection, as should any fans of Priscilla Dean, Lon Chaney and Tod Browning. This could be it as far as Blu-ray releases go for this movie and arguably may well be its definitive release
Outside the Law (1920)
Director- Tod Browning
Cast- Priscilla Dean, Wheeler Oakman, Lon Chaney
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date-10/13/20