The Monkey Talks (1927) DVD-R

Starring Olive Borden, Jacques Lerner, Don Alvarado, Malcolm Waite, Raymond Hitchcock
Directed by

Print: black/white
Runtime: 60 min.
Genre: drama

The play The Monkey Talks by Rane Fauchois, which was an international sensation, became one of the silent era's more unusual dramas. Jacques Lerner, who played Fano on-stage, reprises his role. Pierre (Don Alvarado) is spurned by Maisie, a circus performer (Jane Winton). After she runs away with Bergerin, a lion tamer (Malcolm Waite), Pierre joins a traveling circus which fails, leaving its performers stranded. Several of them team up and have Fano, a diminutive acrobat (Lerner), pose as a talking monkey. Pierre pretends to be his trainer. The act becomes the sensation of Paris, but both Pierre and Fano fall in love with Olivette, the tightrope walker (Olive Borden). Maisie shows up once again, and she and Bergerin kidnap Fano, leaving a real monkey in his place. But Fano escapes and returns just in time to save Olivette from the monkey's vicious attack. Fano is mortally wounded and he dies in Olivette's arms. She and Pierre unite.