He made me this thing that crawls... now I'm ready to bite!
One year after tackling the story of a man who gives up his arms for the woman he loves, Tod Browning and Lon Chaney went West of Zanzibar, which is about a stage magician who's paralyzed from the waist down during a scuffle with his cheating wife's lover and later vows to get revenge on the cad and the daughter he doesn't even know he has. Since that cad (who's played by Lionel Barrymore at his most caddish) is an ivory trader, Chaney installs himself in the title location and uses the superstitious locals to disrupt Barrymore's deliveries. He's also had the man's daughter (Mary Nolan) raised in the "lowest dive in Zanzibar" and, once she's of age, has her brought to him so he can ruin her with drink just in time for what he hopes will be an unhappy family reunion. The only wet blanket is Chaney's frequently soused doctor (Warner Baxter), who falls in love with Nolan and understandably doesn't want anything to happen to her.
Modern-day viewers may be discomfited by some of the scenes with the African tribesmen, who are easily spooked by an Evil Spirit that only Chaney can chase away (in reality, just one of his hulking brutes in a scary costume and mask). They also have a charming tradition where they sacrifice the wife or daughter of any man who dies in the village, so when they kill Barrymore on Chaney's orders, that means it's curtains for Nolan. Chaney has an about-face when he discovers her true parentage, though, and manages to pull off one final trick -- allowing Nolan and Baxter to escape -- before the natives turn on him. I guess that's one way to make up for keeping her in the dark for 18 years.