A Blind Bargain is a weird proposition [Review]

“A Blind Bargain” reimagines a lost Lon Chaney film from 1922.

 A Blind Bargain pretty much had me at “Crispin Glover in a remake of a lost Lon Chaney film.” Not surprisingly the result is a weird proposition. It’s essentially a mad scientist film, and the flick itself is ultimately an offbeat experiment.

Set in 1970, the film provides an experience not unlike one of those late-sixties flicks you used to stumble onto on a late movie airing, asking yourself what the hell’s really going on here? Fashions of the era and occasional psychedelic touches help give A Blind Bargain that feel, but there’s a mood as well. Up front, the credits resemble the old Night Gallery opening, contributing to that.

It makes for interesting if not always rewarding viewing.

The 1922 film was based on a 19^th Century novel, The Octave of Claudius by Barry Pain. The last print of the silent film seems to have perished in the same fire that destroyed Chaney’s London After Midnight. In the original, Chaney starred as the mad doctor as well as his apish assistant. 

Glover’s not asked to do double duty in this remake. He handles the demands of the creepy Dr. Gruder. The scarred and earnest but not ape-like assistant, Logos, is played by Jed Rowen. He’s a hopeful toady expecting benefits from Gruder’s clinic and experiments.

The story really revolves around Vietnam vet Dominic Fontaine (Jake Horowitz). He’s in Dutch to a trio of hoods. When he crosses paths with Gruder’s nurse, Ellie Bannister (Lucy Loken), he learns his mom’s blood is worth a few hundred bucks a pint to Gruder. It has properties that can benefit his research, or something.

Mom is Joy Fontain (Amy Wright), a Clara Bow-level silent film star, giving a tip of the hat to this film’s origins. She’s promised a spa day so Dominic can capitalize on the blood value. Apparently in the original film a down-on-his luck man himself was in for Chaney’s experiments.

Anyway, handing Mom over to the clinic results in a colorful and sixties-appropriate experiment that makes her young again, turning her into actress Annalisa Cochrane.

She gets a brief spin in her new guise including attending a party put on by the hoods. It’s worth mentioning Sean Whalen of The People Under the Stairs is around for that too.

But the experiments of mad scientists are destined to go wrong. What will Dominic and the nurse do about it when mom starts to deteriorate? Does Dom have limits?

All of this is juggled by director Paul Bunnell (The Ghastly Love of Johnny X). It’s leisurely-paced in spite of all the gangsters and hints of body horror that don’t go that far. We don’t really get that far into Joy’s brief return to youthfulness. And we don’t get THAT much of Glover pushing Glover limits. He’s suitably out-of-his-era, even the early ‘70s, but we’d not really getting that much different from we’ve seen in Glover roles.

I guess what I’m saying is that A Blind Bargain  is not a hard pass. Just go in with modest expectations if a viewing opportunity comes your way.