The Unholy Three/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptation Displacement: Not many people know of these movies, but even less know of the novel of the same name that they were based on.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Tweedledee and Hercules in the novel.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Tweedledee in both versions.
    • While he was still a rotten guy in the talkie version, Hercules in the silent version is much worse, being just as evil and cruel as Tweedledee.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • In the novel, we have Echo choking his dummy in the opening chapters; while doing so, he gives the dummy's voice a sickening, horrific choking sound that the book describes in unsettling detail.
    • Also from the novel, Hercules and Tweedledee screaming as they're being electrocuted.
    • The gorilla coming into the locked room, baring its teeth at the camera, and rushing at Hercules in the 1925 film.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • Tod Browning, the director of the 1925 version, would go on to direct Dracula and Freaks.
    • Mae Busch (Rosie in the silent version) would go on to be a frequent supporting player in the Laurel and Hardy shorts, and actually played Mrs. Hardy in their very first sound film, Unaccustomed As We Are.
    • Harry Earles (Tweedledee in both versions) would go on to play Hans in Freaks and (what would become his most well-known and recognizable role) one of the Lollipop Guild singers in The Wizard of Oz (he's the one in the blue shirt).
  • Tear Jerker: Tweedledee's back story in the book. He really tried to rise above the mockery and be a good person, and the author does a very effective job of showing something dying inside him once he finally reaches his breaking point. Granted, in spite of this, it's very hard to feel anything other than contempt for him by the end of the book.