Even though Tod Browning is closely associated with Lon Chaney, he was first assigned Priscilla Dean and began to weave a spell of success around her. She had come to Universal in 1917 because she was impatient with Biograph's failure to utilize her talent and by 1920 she was Universal's top female star. Often teamed with Lon Chaney, it was her performance in "The Virgin of Stamboul" that had the front office realizing they had a winning actress and from then on her stories were hand picked, mostly with Tod Browning as director.

Earlier in the year Universal had scored a hit with "Drifting" so they reteamed the stars, Priscilla Dean, along with Wallace Beery and Matt Moore, as well as director Browning in "White Tiger" about a trio of international jewel thieves. Raymond Griffith was one of the crooks and all the stars as well as Browning boosted the film's prestige. Siblings Roy and Sylvia are innocent victims trapped in a brutal criminal family. When their father is killed little Roy is led to believe that his whole family is dead and he vows to have his revenge on vicious Bill Hawkes (Beery) but Sylvia has escaped and 15 years later.......

The three come together at a London wax works. Hawkes, now working under the name Donelli, has a pick pocketing racket going with Sylvia, posing as his daughter, as the lure. Roy, known as "the Kid", is also on the shady side of the law as an unbeaten "Mechanical Chessman" but seeing Sylvia lift a watch he stops to admire as from one crook to another - never dreaming she is his sister!! With Browning a freak show or carnival is never far away and there are some pretty grisly wax exhibitions: someone remarks "why do you want to hang around these gruesome figures for"!!

They pool their talents. Roy feels that "Donelli" looks vaguely familiar but is persuaded to team up as they try their con game in America. With Roy dazzling the idle rich with his mechanical chess man act, the others are given the run of the house where they can locate the safe etc. Hiding out in a mountain cabin Hawkes begins to sow seeds of distrust by questioning the loyalty of both Sylvia and Roy - all the while handling a box of Argentine Ant killer. Scary stuff!! Matt Moore has an ambiguous part, Roy says from the first "there's something suspicious about that guy! I don't trust him!" and he is a shadowy figure but if you have ever seen him in a movie you'll know the part he plays!!

Wallace Beery looks pretty imposing with his bleached white hair but for me the stand out is Raymond Griffith. It is a pretty grim and at times far fetched story but Griffith's light touch lightens the mood. There is a scene (sort of reminiscent of "Paths to Paradise") when he is strolling around the mansion having already robbed the safe and hidden the jewels, trying to act nonchalant and put the pesky butler off the scent. Another scene has him donning glasses as becomes his role of Donelli's secretary and not being able to see a thing because of the thick lenses: it is not a slapstick routine, he is just very skillful, slightly stumbling over an obvious chair etc. Griffith pulls it all off with aplomb. Very easy to see he had been a professional dancer.

Highly Recommended.

After their underworld father is shot down, children Raymond Griffith (as Roy Donovan) and Priscilla Dean (as Sylvia Donovan) are brought up believing each other is dead; they are separated, and raised, by other criminals. Wallace Beery (as Bill Hawkes),the "Stool Pidgeon" who played a part in her father's death, raises Ms. Dean to be an accomplished London pickpocket. Meanwhile, enterprising Mr. Griffith scams pawns as "The Mechanical Chess-player". Mr. Beery, who calls himself "Count Donelli" invites Griffith to join himself and Dean. Soon, the unholy trio travel to New York's Fifth Avenue; there, they plan their biggest heist.

Tod Browning's "White Tiger" is entertainingly performed, and directed. Later in the running time, Matt Moore (as Richard Longworth) makes the troupe a fine acting quartet. The story situation requires too great a suspension of disbelief, however. You'll may wonder why Griffith and Dean don't dope things out sooner (just for starters). The "White Tiger" referred to in the title is, by the way, the criminal element that lives in the heart of the unholy criminal: "Fawning and hating the strong, ready to ravage the weak, faithless…suspicious…cruel and savage, fearing no God…trusting no man…that's White Tiger in the heart of the crook!"

Welcome to the world of Tod Browning, a world of sideshows and thieves, vampires and murderers, where men cut off their arms for love and wear dresses for revenge, the world of Dracula and FREAKS. Browning was a true original. He had a long association with Lon Chaney that ended only with death. In Browning's world, people pretend to be other than they are, but they rarely know who they are until it is too late.

There are considerable problems with the story as told, probably due to the fact that the movie was shelved for a couple of years and then had the titles rewritten anonymously. I strongly suspect that the relationships between the three leads was a lot more sexual in Browning's script than they are here.

In short, this is a bizarre movie and the main actors in it -- Wallace Beery, Raymond Griffith and Priscilla Dean play bizarre characters manipulated by a bizarre fate. Perhaps you don't believe in fate. If not, you may find this movie a mess of wild coincidences. But if you accept Browning's vision, you will find yourself drawn along.

There is a happy ending tacked on, for those of you who like happy endings. The rest of us will ignore it.