Zeus

The Road To Mandalay (1926)

• Director
  • Tod Browning
• Writers
  • Tod Browning(story)
  • Joseph Farnham(titles)
  • Herman J. Mankiewicz(story)
• Stars
  • Lon Chaney
  • Lois Moran
  • Owen Moore

  Having nothing whatever to do with the Rudyard Kipling poem, The Road to Mandalay is a typically bizarre collaboration between star Lon Chaney Sr. and director Tod Browning. Chaney plays Singapore Joe, the one-eyed proprietor of a Mandalay bordello. Joe's convent-bred daughter Rosemary (Lois Moran) is totally ignorant of her father's existence and of course knows nothing of the manner in which her education was financed. When the girl falls in love with Admiral Edward Harrington (Owen Moore), Joe recognizes the admiral as one of his old partners in crime and vows to save Rosemary from ruining her life. But Harrington has totally reformed, and it is he who ultimately rids the world of Singapore Joe. Even in 1926, critics recognized the Oedipal subtext in Road to Mandalay.