Saturday, March 29, 2014

Chained for Life (1951)

How bad is it? It's only slightly worse than average.
Should you see it? If you're curious.

Daisy and Violet Hilton were conjoined twins (Violet's on the left, above) who were in Tod Browning's classic film "Freaks" in 1932. This exploitation film is their only other film, done two decades later. They play a version of themselves in a vaudeville-style show. Much of the film is padded with acts from the show; there's a juggler, a bike act, an accordionist and then the sisters sing - and, if that's really them singing, they weren't bad! The plot has one sister getting married as a publicity stunt, but the other sister disapproves and ends up shooting the man. How you can punish the murderer without punishing the other is the legal question that's the crux of the film (and it's left to the audience to resolve). The sisters can't act and the manager overacts in a stagy way that sort of fits his character. Overall, it's just a minor entertainment curio.

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