Leonidas Frank Chaney a famous silent movie actor who was
known as the “Man of a Thousand faces.” He is called this because of the extraordinary
makeup he did on himself and his excellent portrayal of characters. He is best known for his silent horror films;
he played the original phantom in “Phantom of the Opera,” and was also the original
hunchback from Victor Hugo’s novel The “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
The first Lon Chaney film I watched was called the Unknown,
It was filmed in 1927 and it’s about a man who was born with a double thumb on
his left hand, played by Cheney, who poses as an armless knife thrower in a
circus. He falls in love with his lovely assistant, who is played by Joan
Crawford, who is attracted to the strong man, played by Norman Kerry, but is
terrified of his arms. Later on in the film Joan Crawford’s character witnesses
a murder, but she doesn’t see his faces she only notices the murder’s left hand
and his double thumb. Frightened that he would be discovered and that he would
never be loved by the girl if found out that he had arms, Chaney decides to cut
his arms off. When Chaney returns he is told that Crawford and the strong man
were going to be married. Not only it was heartbreaking to see how Chaney did
all of this for nothing, but the emotion Chaney brought to that scene. Tears pouring
down his face, it was like witnessing someone getting slapped in the face.
When movies began coming out with sound, they actually added
sound to the already filmed “Phantom of the Opera,” but the only one who you
didn’t hear say anything was the phantom. Chaney didn’t think it was right for
the phantom to speak in it. Another one
of Chaney’s films that was remade with sound was The Unholy Three. It’s about a
ventriloquist; a midget, a strong man, and a pickpocket who pretend to be owners
of a pet store who later rob the houses of their wealthy customers. Lon Chaney’s
character disguises himself as an old woman known as “Grandma O’Grady,” he
wanted to do the voice of her himself so he chose the words carefully and spoke
slowly. In the original ending of the
film when he was saying goodbye to his girlfriend who was leaving to be with
another man, he was doing his act and using his dummy he said to
her, “good bye ol’ pal.” He then lays the dummy on him and begins to cry,
except with real tears. In the remake they’re at the train station saying
good bye to Chaney’s character who was going to jail, but the ironic thing about
this scene is that for a goodbye present, Chaney is given a box of cigarettes when
in real life Chaney was battling with lung cancer. This was Chaney’s first talking
film and the last film he was in. He died two months after the film was released.
Lon Chaney Sr. was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on
April 1, 1883 and died on August 26, 1930. And for some strange reason his
crypt was left unnamed. Not only was Lon Chaney a terrifying actor but his son
was too, Lon Chaney Jr. who played the original wolf man.
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