To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I feel Lon Chaney was the first extremely great actor to come out of the American film industry. He embodied characters like nobody's business. The fact that he was in this alone got me interested. Overall, the film was worth a watch to see Chaney portray the jaded stage magician turned African warlord. He was just so stone cold throughout the whole thing only to keep the audience guessing what he was actually going to do next. Lionel Barrymore was also a neat addition as the truly heartless villain who hadn't a care in the world, even when his life was at stake. Not as inspired as The Unknown or Phantom of the Opera, but still a worthy addition to the Lon Chaney catalog.

The opening sequences of Lon Chaney as the magician foreshadow the dark atmospheres that director Tod Browning would later create for Freaks and Mark of the Vampire. Excellent photography and an astonishing physical performance that was the hallmark of Chaney's work. I remember this film being shown on Chicago's PBS outlet WTTW-TV during the 1970s. It was tinted in certain scenes and featured a new score that was fresh, yet not too modern. A master from this television showing has to exist somewhere.Why this fantastic film is not more readily available is a mystery. It deserves to be seen on DVD or Turner Classic Movies.

In one of his last silent films, Lon Chaney plays a magician who went into a kind of exile in the Belgian Congo after a fight with a man who stole his wife left him a cripple. He's now known as 'Deadlegs' and he's used his mastery of prestidigitation to make himself the local kingpin in his neck of the jungle. But even he has to obey certain native customs.He's an embittered and twisted man who has worked out a most carefully engineered scheme involving his late wife's daughter. The man who did steal his wife, Lionel Barrymore is now also in Africa. He contrives to bring the two of them together and both kill and degrade them at the same time at the hands of the cannibals he lives with.Even with this Victorian plot and given the racism of the times, in Victorian Great Britain they would not have had cannibals in Africa because there were no cannibals in Africa. But what did Americans know about Africa?Still Chaney gives a compelling performance and the role calls for the make up and the contortion that he was known for. In fact in James Cagney's film biography of Chaney there are small portraits of Chaney's various screen roles and West of Zanzibar is one of them. Also look for a good performance by Warner Baxter as the alcoholic doctor who Chaney keeps on a kind of retainer.It's not a great film, far from it, but it is a fascinating look at the life and art of Lon Chaney.

Silent film of crippled Lon Chaney Sr. who blames a man (Lionel Barrymore) for causing it. He tortures and turns his young daughter (Mary Nolan) into a drug addict to punish him.Very strange but absolutely fascinating movie. The story is strong (but not overly gruesome like its remake "Kongo") with great acting. Nolan is very good at playing innocent and drugged out. Barrymore isn't in it much, but he's very good when he is. Chaney is just great in his role--quite possibly one of the best performances I've ever seen on film, and I've seen hundreds of them.Quite simply, this is one of the best silent films ever. A definite must-see.