Tag: Lon Chaney
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West of Zanzibar (1928)
Phroso (Lon Chaney) is paralyzed during a scuffle with Crane (Lionel Barrymore,) the man with whom his wife, Anna (Jacqueline Gadsdon) is having an affair and leaving the country. A year later, he finds her dead inside a church with a baby beside her. 18 years later, he’s living West of Zanzibar and creating an…
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He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
The 1924 silent classic, He Who Gets Slapped, did not air on TCM as part of its Lon Chaney marathon that I recorded on October 14, 2020. Instead, it aired as part of its circus movie marathon exactly a month later. Wherever you’re able to see it, I highly encourage that you do. For my…
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The Unknown (1927)
Joan Crawford once said that she learned more about acting from watching Lon Chaney work than from anyone else in her career. “It was then I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera and acting.” She appeared with Chaney in The Unknown (1927) during the first…
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The Blackbird (1926)
If you’ve ever wanted to see Lon Chaney, “the Man of a Thousand Faces,” transform into one of his misshapen characters, there are a couple scenes in The Blackbird (1926) that at least give you a glimpse. He quickly pulls his ankle into the air, twisting his leg at the knee, then jerks his shoulder…
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The Unholy Three (1925)
Having been awed and amazed by previous Lon Chaney films that I’ve seen, I was a little disappointed in the one I’d heard most about: The Unholy Three (1925.) Learning now that it was the first collaboration between Chaney and director Tod Browning at MGM, it stands to reason that each film would only become…
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The Penalty (1920)
Written by Gouverneur Morris, adapted from his famous novel Directed by Wallace Worsley Starring Lon Chaney, Charles Clary, Doris Pawn, Jim Mason, Milton Ross, Ethel Grey Terry, Kenneth Harlan, Claire Adams US Release Aug. 8, 1920 (Detroit) RT 90 min. Home Video Kino International Classic Horrors rating = 8 (out of 10) What turns a young man…
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Written by Perley Poore Sheehan Directed by Wallace Worsley Starring Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry US Release Sept. 6, 1923 RT 117 min. Home Video Flicker Alley (or Amazon Prime) Classic Horrors rating = 7 (out of 10) Warning: review contains plot spoilers. It’s more challenging for me to write about silent movies…
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Phantoms of the Opera: 1925 vs. 1943
The 1943 version of Phantom of the Opera is not really a remake of its 1925 silent version; instead, another version of the story by Gaston Leroux, like so many more that would come in later years. Nevertheless, since they both have legacies as Universal Monsters, it’s difficult not to compare them. Both are rewarding…
Classic Horrors Club 