Chaney in Charge

 

 (imdb)

THE MONSTER-1925-When Dr. Bowman disappears (actually his car is caused to crash and his body is taken by two ghoulish figures), the town of Danburg is in an uproar. The constable (Charles Sellon) and his "daring detectives'' investigate. Local boy Johnny Goodlittle (Johnny Arthur) who has a book "How Be A Detective" is the only one who finds a clue but the Constable laughs at him. Johnny works under Amos Rugg (Hallam Cooley) at a general store. They are both sweet on Betty Watson (Gertude Olmstead). The insurance company sends detective Jennings (William H. Turner). Once again Johnny shows them the clue he's found, a card from nearby Edwards sanitarium with the word help written backwards on the reverse side. Still, nobody believes it, since the doc is away and his sanitarium is closed. At Betty's party, she throws Johnny over for the pompous Rugg. Leaving dejectedly, Johnny meets a loony looking man who smokes an invisible pipe. When he mentions Bowman, Johnny follows him. When Rugg and Betty go for a ride, they fall victim to a planned auto accident just like Bowman had. Meanwhile Johnny accidentally gets into the sanitarium and later meets Rugg and Betty who went there to use the phone. They find a dead body. Asshole Rugg accuses Johnny of murder. Odd things happen around them. Then 30 minutes into the story Dr. Ziska (Lon Chaney) appears, saying he's in charge when Dr. Edwards is away. The guy they think is dead was actually in a trance. Ziska also has a huge mute servant Caliban (Walter James). Of course, Ziska is really an insane surgeon, once a patient who now has Edwards, Bowman and another guy captive in a dungeon. Meanwhile Ziska plans to transfer Rugg's soul into Betty's body. Fortunately, Johnny overcomes his cowardice and uses his "ingenuity" to put a stop to Ziska's evil machinations. 

THE MONSTER is thought to be the first type of haunted house mystery ala "THE OLD DARK HOUSE”. There's lots of strange characters and spooky goings on (clutching hands, secret doors etc). Co-star Johnny Arthur was known for playing timid characters, sometimes described as “effeminate”. After the Production Code was implemented in 1934, he had uncredited roles in many movies. He also portrayed Darla Hood's father in several “Our Gang” shorts. Star Lon Chaney is quite over the top in this horror-comedy which he made the same year as PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and THE UNHOLY THREE. 

Director/co-writer Roland West went on to make THE BAT and THE BAT WHISPERS but retired from the movies and went into business with ill-fated actress Thelma Todd. Co-writer Crane Wilbur (who wrote the play THE MONSTER is based on) made the controversial THE UNBORN in 1934 but went on to write many more movies (WEST OF SHANGHAI, HOUSE OF WAX, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND).

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Lon Clowns Around Again

 

 (imdb)

HE WHO GETS SLAPPED-1924-In Paris, scientist Paul Beaumont (Lon Chaney) proves his theories thanks in part to his wife Marie (Ruth King) and his rich benefactor The Baron (Marc McDermott) but the Baron steals not only Beaumont's discoveries but also his wife. Beaumont is disgraced and laughed at by an academy of old farts after The Baron calls him insane and slaps him. His wife insults and slaps him too. They are really an evil pair. 

Since his wife calls him a clown, he becomes one and 5 years later he's working at a circus as "He", a clown who makes the audience laugh by being slapped. Also there are daredevil rider Benzano (John Gilbert) who falls madly in love with Consuelo (Norma Shearer), the daughter of the shabby Count Mancini (Tully Marshall), who's to be his bareback rider. One night during his act, which despite having the audience in stitches, is rather cruel and morbid to me, “He” spies The Baron in the crowd. He also sees him talking to Consuelo, who He of course has now taken a shine to. Later, Benzano and Consuelo meet secretly. They are in love but Mancini convinces The Baron to marry her. When He declares his love for Consuelo she laughs thinking it a joke. He overhears the secret marriage proposal and sets up some deadly revenge. A scary clown with a globe shows up occasionally. 

This is another silent tragic revenge tale with Chaney once again giving his all in the sympathetic but vengeful lead role. Lead actress Shearer was married to MGM co-owner Irving Thalberg who co-produced the film with Swedish born director Victor Sjorstrom (THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921)) who also co-adapted it from a Russian play. Co-star John Gilbert was on the verge of becoming one of the biggest stars of the silent era.

 (imdb)

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Are You With Me, Dr. Wu?

 

 (imdb)

MR. WU-1927-Mandarin Wu (Lon Chaney) hires American Mr. Muir (Claude King) to teach his son "the ways of the west". When young Wu grows to manhood, he (also Chaney) marries but his wife dies after giving birth to their daughter Nang Ping (Rene Adoree'). Years later young Wu is a powerful mandarin and Nang Ping, a precocious young woman who will soon wed a man she's never met. Everything seems OK until she accidentally meets Basil Gregory (Ralph Forbes), the son of a racist diplomat (Holmes Herbert). They fall in love and have secret meetings in the lotus garden. Only her friend Loo Song (Anna May Wong) knows. When she meets his parents, Nang realizes their romance is doomed. The gardener tells Wu he saw them together so in anger Wu kills him! Then he watches Nang as she and Basil declare their love. Later saying Nang has disgraced the family Wu kills her to save her soul. Then he tortures Basil and torments Mrs. Gregory (Louise Dresser) by making her choose who should live or die: her son or daughter (Gertrude Olmstead). 

Strange little drama with Chaney once again carrying the picture as the honorable Wu. Ironically, director William Nigh years later directed the “Mr. Wong” series of films with Boris Karloff. Lead actress Renee Adoree' (from France) was a big star at the time but later contracted tuberculosis and died in 1933.

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Silent Dickens Classic

OLIVER TWIST-1922-After starring with the legendary Charlie Chaplin in THE KID one year before little Jackie Coogan co-stars with the equally legendary Lon Chaney (although he wasn't a star yet) in this early adaptation of the Dickens classic. The future Uncle Fester is the title character born and raised in a workhouse overseen by the tyrannical Mr. Bumble (James A. Marcus) where at the age of 9 he asks for more. He becomes an undertaker's apprentice but runs away to London and meets the Artful Dodger (Edward Trebaol) who in turn introduces him to the evil Fagin (Chaney) who oversees a gang of pickpockets. He and meanie Bill Sykes (George Siegmann) want Oliver for another scam though but before that happens Oliver is arrested and later taken in by a kindly bookseller Mr. Brownlow (Lionel Belmore). Fagin (who answers to a mysterious guy named Monks) kidnaps the boy when he finds out that Oliver is heir to a large inheritance. Still he and Bill need Oliver's diminutive size to pull off a robbery. When Oliver rebels Bill shoots him! He's only wounded and nursed back to health by a rich dowager and her niece who reunite him with Brownlow. After Bill's wife Nancy (Gladys Brockwell) spills the beans to the bookseller, Bill finds out about her betrayal and kills her. In the end everyone is arrested except for Bill who accidentally hangs himself. Oliver gets his birthright and inheritance.

Director Frank Lloyd was no stranger to adapting Dickens to the screen as a few years earlier he'd made a version of A TALE OF TWO CITIES. He packs a lot of story into the short running time (about 75 minutes) and keeps the tale interesting and exciting. Child star Coogan was at the apex of his career and is very good (and funny) in the lead. Naturally Lon Chaney steals every scene he's in.

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The Maddest Story Ever Told!

SPIDER BABY or THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD-1968-This quirky black and white horror film may not be the maddest but it's certainly one of the strangest!It starts out with the legendary Lon Chaney singing the title theme over the credits!

The story concerns the Merrye family who suffer from "Merrye Syndrome", a genetic disorder caused by inbreeding. Lon Chaney is great as Bruno the insanely smiling family caretaker, chauffeur and guardian of the three Merrye children: Ralph (Sid Haig, still doing mostly TV at this time), a bald mute lunatic, the homicidal Elizabeth (Beverley Washburn) and the spider obsessed Virginia (Jill Banner). A few cannibalistic aunts and uncles also live in a pit in their basement. After Virginia kills a messenger (the great Mantan Moreland) the family is visited by Peter (Quinn Redecker) and Emily Howe (Carol Ohmart from THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) distant relatives who want the family house. Also along is their weaselly lawyer Mr. Schlocker (Karl Schanzer) and his secretary Ann (Mary Mitchel). When the guests decide to stay for dinner Ralph kills a cat so they have food to serve. Though everyone else acts disgusted and snobby, Peter seems oblivious to the macabre surroundings. He's very cheerful and nice to his hosts. After Peter takes Ann out for a drink Schocker snoops around.  The girls slice him up because he doesn't like spiders ("This isn't right. There are proper procedures!"). Later the girls chase Emily (clan in black underwear) through the forest and Ralph rapes her (off-screen). When Peter and Mary return Elizabeth and Ralph kidnap Mary while Virginia ties Peter up and does her spider dance. Emily now crazy finds Ralph and blinds him. Peter manages to break his bonds and flee with Mary just before Bruno blows the place up. Peter (who narrates at the beginning and the end) 10 years later lives happily ever after with his Mary, now his his wife and their young daughter...or do they?  

SPIDER BABY was pretty much ignored in it's initial release (according to director Jack Hill it was hard to get a distributor because by 1968 black and white films were out of date) but since then it's become a cult movie and it's easy to see why. Chaney really throws himself into his demented role lecturing the murdering brood:  "How many times have I told you it's not nice to hate?" "How many times do I have to tell you just because something isn't good doesn't mean it's bad!"  His career was really almost non-existent by this point and his health problems were getting worse but he still puts in a memorable performance.

It's really strange to see a once funny guy like Mantan Moreland getting stabbed to death while caught in a window. It's not graphic though except for a quick shot of his severed ear. He made a few more movie and TV appearances before dying in 1973. Quinn Redeker was a familiar TV actor and screenwriter who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1978 for co-writing THE DEERHUNTER. Both Karl Schanzer and Mary Mitchel had been in DEMENTIA 13 in 1963. Beverley Washburn was a former child actress who was on many TV shows. Her Elizabeth is very whacky and frightening.

But Jill Banner steals the whole show as the alluring, innocent but bloodthirsty Virginia who really loves her spiders. She was in a few other movies (THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST & A MAN, A HORSE, A GUN) and TV shows (she was in around 5 episodes of DRAGNET!) but quit acting soon after. She was killed in a car accident in 1982.

Director Jack Hill made this around the same time he filmed Boris Karloff's American scenes for his last 4 film appearances (produced in Mexico).

http://www.spiderbabyonline.com/

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The Unholy 3

THE UNHOLY 3-1925-This was the first collaboration between actor Lon Chaney and director Tod Browning for MGM. (Their previous films had been for Universal). It's the story of three circus performers who decide to turn to crime. 

Their leader is Echo (Chaney), a ventriloquist who disguises himself as an old woman. Harry Earles (Hans in 1932's FREAKS, also directed by Browning) is Tweedledee, a sadistic little person who pretends to be a baby! Future Oscar winner Victor McLaglen is Hercules the strongman who's more subservient to Tweedle than Echo. They set up shop in a store that sells birds (where Echo's skills make the parrots talk a lot!). Mae Busch is Rosie, the con woman in on their act. 

It's unusual but cool the way Browning gets across the ventriloquism scam considering this is silent film!

By coincidence every time the store sells a bird, the residence they sell to is robbed. Unfortunately, things don't turn out so good. Tweedledee and Hercules don't like being "bossed" by Echo and Hector, the store manager falls for Rosie, making Echo jealous. When Echo is delayed in going out on a job the duo goes out on their own and a man is killed. They decide to pin the murder/robbery on Hector but Rosie doesn't like it. They tie her up and decide to lam it with a bound Rosie in tow and a mean looking ape that they just have to happen in the store (Echo wants to take it because it's stronger than Hercules). The gang hides out in a cabin while Hector is left to fend for himself against the trumped-up charges. Animosity grows in the hideout. 

Meanwhile Rosie tells Echo if he helps vindicate Hector, she will stay with him forever (in spite of the fact she's in love with Hector). He goes to the courtroom and after some ventriloquism tricks fail, he admits his guilt in front of the judge. While this is going on, back in the cabin Tweedledee overhears Hercules tell Rosie they could split the stolen loot 2 ways. The little guy releases the angry ape. It goes after the strongman who kills Tweedledee right before he's done in by the ape! Echo's confession exonerates both him and Hector and Echo releases Rosie from their bargain so she can be the one she loves. 

THE UNHOLY 3 once again proves Lon Chaney's prominence as the greatest silent screen actor of all time. Without the use of make-up, he conveys the tone of the story with facial expressions alone. It's an incredible sight to witness which once again makes the usual love triangle (a mainstay of so many Chaney films) plausible and heartfelt. The screenplay is by Waldemar Young (who wrote several other Chaney/Browning vehicles like THE BLACKBIRD, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT and WEST OF ZANZIBAR). It's based on a story by Tod Robbins, who also wrote the story that became the infamous FREAKS.

So popular and successful MGM chose to remake this in 1930 as Chaney's first talkie (and ultimately his last film) although Browning did not direct it. 

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More Lon

LAUGH CLOWN LAUGH-1928-Lon Chaney at the top of his game.

He gives a heart breaking performance as Tito, one half of a famous clown act who takes in an abandoned baby girl. Time passes and the baby grows up to be portrayed by 15 year old Loretta Young. Of course Tito is now in love with her but one day finds a rival for her affections in Count Ravelli (Nils Asther). Although the storyline is the familiar unrequited love triangle Chaney once again carries the whole film with poignant performance!

Director Herbert Brenon directed nearly 130 movies including the silent version of BEAU GESTE in 1926. He made his last film in 1940 and died in 1958. Sadly Chaney would make only 5 more movies before dying in 1930.

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Now This Is A Great Bad Movie!

GALLERY OF HORROR-1967–Man, if bad movies could hit home runs this Z budget anthology would be Babe Ruth! Everything connected with it is sub-par. The photography, the direction, the sets, SFX, the script and the acting!

But it wasn’t bad enough that the producers assembled a bunch of rank amateurs to play multiple roles in the 5 stories…Oh no! They had to include three “name stars” from the past too!



John Carradine (in ill fitting tux) is our narrator who introduces each tale and talks about vampires, werewolves, etc. He does this to the background of the rough sea crashing against breakers. Since Carradine could read the phone book backwards and hold our interest these scenes by default are the best-filmed parts!

John was a busy actor in films & TV at the time (in fact I would have to say that before in died in 1988 he was always a busy actor) but still he finds time to star in the first episode, “The Witches’ Clock” as a Warlock who uses an old clock to terrorize a newlywed couple. This is the only segment that is not a period piece.

The second tale involves a police hunt in foggy old England for the killer known as “King Vampire”. Lon Chaney shows up in the third installment “Spark Of Life” as a cheerfully crazy Dr. Frankenstein, doing experiments at a local college where two students decide to help him bring a corpse back to life. The fourth and longest episode (well it seems like the longest anyway!) is called “Monster Raid”. It’s about a doctor’s revenge on his unfaithful wife and her lover, also his ex-colleague who killed him. Fortunately a loyal assistant brings him back to life. Much of it is POV shots and flashbacks. Former 30’s Hollywood film star Rochelle Hudson plays the wife. I hope she wasn’t using this role as springboard for a comeback. Maybe she just lived next door and needed beer money.

And finally there’s the intriguing “Count Alucard” (yeah… right!) a tale of vampirism featuring someone named Mitch Evans in the title role and possibly giving the worst performance as the legendary vampire this side of Zandor Varkoff. This story has the funniest ending. And like all the others once the “surprise ending” is revealed the screen turns red (much like the faces of the theater owners who charged unsuspecting patrons to see this in 1967…).

The story goes that GOH was originally suppose to be an adaptation of the black & white horror comic CREEPY published by Warren (they also printed FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND) but eccentric owner Jim Warren pulled out at the last minute. The producers bravely (insert your own word here if you want) forged ahead and made their own humble opus. Many of the actors play several different roles and are all pretty bad.

Director David Hewitt would work with Carradine again in THE WIZARD OF MARS and make a few other films like the incoherent THE LUCIFER COMPLEX (where Robert Vaughn fought clones of himself, Keenan Wynn and Hitler while some guy watches it all on a TV in a cave!).

GOH is also known as “Dr. Terror’s Gallery of Horrors” perhaps to draw on the Hammer made anthology DR. HORROR’S GALLERY OF TERRORS which may have been playing in US theaters around this time. It also showed up on very very late night TV as RETURN TO THE PAST occasionally missing the “Monster Raid” sequence. For some reason known only to a chosen few it also played under the title “Blood Suckers”.

Grab a six-pack and enjoy!

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Lon Is Messing With The Devil!

DEVIL’S MESSENGER-1961-Lon Chaney is the devil or the devil’s secretary who sits behind a desk in a short sleeve shirt and tie grinning fiendishly while consulting a Rolodex of damned souls. He takes a shine to Santanya (Karen Kadler; also in THE BEATNIKS and IT CONQUERED THE WORLD) a suicide victim who’s glad she’s dead.

Unfortunately evil Lon decides to send her back to the land of the living to take care of some business. What unfolds are three tales of the unknown. In the first a photographer (US actor John Crawford who was later in a lot of TV stuff produced by Irwin Allen) kills a woman and her image appears in a photograph he took after she died. The second features a scientist who becomes obsessed with a woman he sees frozen in a block of ice and third has a guy with bad dreams visiting a fortune teller who foretells his death at midnight.

THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER is actually three episodes of a Swedish TV show made several years earlier called 13 DEMON STREET. It was created and directed by Science Fiction author Curt Siodmak (“Donovan’s Brain”) but this version is credited to Herbert Strock, usually a film editor who directed a few films like HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. Strock may have directed “the hell’s waiting room” framing sequences although I believe Chaney was the host of the series too. Some of the dialogue is dubbed and some funny out of place close-ups occur. Strangely the stories (especially the third one) are very reminiscent of US based shows like THE TWILIGHT ZONE, ONE STEP BEYOND and THRILLER all of which came later!

By the middle ‘50’s Lon Chaney’s career had taken a serious dive despite credible performances in big studio productions like HIGH NOON, I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES and THE DEFIANT ONES. He appeared on TV in the short-lived LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1957) and was great as the successful junk dealer who goes back to school in THE GOLDEN JUNKMAN (an episode of TELEPHONE TIME in 1956). He starred as the silent resurrected killer in Jack Pollenfex’s THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN but mainly was wasted in other low budget films like THE BLACK SLEEP, Bert I. Gordon’s THE CYCLOPS and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE. The last quality production he was in was probably Roger Corman’s THE HAUNTED PALACE (with Vincent Price) in 1963. After that it was mostly seldom seen junk like HOUSE OF BLACK DEATH (with John Carradine and 2 directors) and several Al Adamson movies. He was in Jack H. Harris’ deranged but fun SPIDER BABY (1968) which years after it’s release became kind of a cult film. Despite health problems Chaney (who’d dropped the “Jr.” years before) kept plugging away right up till his death, working on his autobiography, writing a horror script he hoped to produce and appearing in the obscure FIREBALL JUNGLE. His last role was that of another mute killer in Adamson’s FRANKEN-STEIN MEETS DRACULA. He died of throat cancer (the same disease killed his dad in 1930).

There was always some question as to how many episodes actually were made for Swedish TV or if in fact there were any other episodes at all but lo and behold a few years ago "Some-thing Weird Video" released a bunch of them on DVD....

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Back After A Hiatus

SLITHER-2006-In this stupid comedy gore movie Michael Rooker is a bald red neck who turns into a slimy ALIEN/THE THING like creature with tentacles. He terrorizes a hick town and he turns one woman into a giant egg and she gives birth to a million slimy DEADLY SPAWN like slugs. They jump down residents throats and up their asses like in NIGHT OF THE CREEPS and then some of the dead come back to life as zombies.

It has some good SFX but it seems to rip off something from nearly every 80’s horror film especially Brian Yuzna’s SOCIETY. Gregg Henry is the foul mouthed asshole mayor. Nathan Fillion (from the short lived FIREFLY TV show) and Elizabeth Banks (Betty Brant in SPIDER-MAN) are the stars.

Writer/director James Gunn wrote both SCOOBY-DOO movies and did work for Troma which explains Lloyd Kaufman’s cameo as a drunk. Made in Canada.



THE BLACKBIRD-1926-In the Limehouse district of London, a daring thief The Blackbird (the great Lon Chaney) pulls a series of robberies.

When not plotting crimes he disguises himself as The Bishop, the misshapen proprietor of a rescue mission. Another thief West End Bertie (Owen Moore) becomes his rival not only for some stolen diamonds but also for the affections of dance hall singer Fifi Lorraine (Renee Adoree) in this MGM production directed by Tod Browning.

Chaney livens up the somewhat mundane story with his two characterizations but on the whole it’s the weakest (and least successful) of the Chaney/Browning collaborations (at least that I’ve seen. LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is a lost film!).

The same year Chaney made another film for director Browning THE ROAD TO MANDALAY as well as the highly successful TELL IT TO THE MARINES.

Co-star Moore was a popular leading man (and singer) in his day who’s career dropped off when talkies emerged. He died of a heart attack in 1939 at 52. Lead actress Adoree came from the French stage. She’d become a star the year before in THE BIG PARADE opposite John Gilbert. She co-starred with Chaney in a later film MR.WU. Sadly like many other silent stars she died young (age 37) of tuberculosis.

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A Silent Film That Was Never Remade..

THE UNKNOWN-MGM-1927- Here’s a neglected Lon Chaney-Tod Browning collaboration set in a circus (a familiar setting for the duo) co-starring a very young Joan Crawford. Yes! Mommie Dearest herself in a movie with The Man Of A Thousand Faces!

Chaney plays Alonzo, the armless wonder, who performs daring stunts using only his feet. Crawford is Nanon, the circus owner's daughter who can’t stand having a man touch her. Naturally, she feels quite comfortable around Alonzo because he has no hands. Secretly Alonzo is in love with her and keeps believing that someday she will be his. But strong man Malador (Norman Kerry) also has set his sights on Nanon. To make sure Nanon will reject Malador’s advances Alonzo encourages his buddy to embrace the girl every chance he gets. Needless to say this sends Nanon into a rage. Meanwhile it is revealed that Alonzo is not exactly the arm-less wonder he appears to be. As a matter of fact, he has two very good arms, although one of his hands supports two thumbs! He keeps his limbs strapped to his sides when performing. One night the circus owner discovers his secret and Alonzo kills him. His daughter sees the murder committed by a man with double thumbs but does not see the murderer’s face. Alonzo doesn’t come under suspicion for obvious reasons. While Alonzo feels that Nanon would understand were he to reveal his secret to her, she might not be so forgiving to learn that he is the twin thumb killer who choked her old man to death. So, with some fiendish encouragement from his little assistant Cojo, he decides to make the supreme sacrifice. He blackmails a doctor into amputating both his arms! However, while Alonzo is recuperating from the surgery, Nanon and Malador are falling in love. By the time the now real armless wonder returns to the circus the two lovebirds are ready to get married. This sends him into an insane fervor and during one of his strong man stunts Alonzo tries to have Malador torn in half by two horses! Nanon risks her own life to save the one she loves and Alonzo realizing the woman he loves is in danger pushes her away and is stomped to death by one of the wild horses.

While THE UNKNOWN might be tossed away as just another love triangle melodrama, Chaney proves once again why he is probably the century’s most unique actor. Here as Alonzo he uses his feet to manipulate rifles, knives, cigarettes and even a guitar. His portrayal as the love torn performer is conveyed almost entirely by facial expressions. The standout scene being Alonzo’s laughing fit break down on learning of Nanon’s impending marriage.

Joan Crawford of course went on to stardom in the thirties and infamy in the seventies when her adopted daughter Christina wrote a tell all book about her. Norman Kerry was a popular leading man (and villain) in silents and played the romantic hero to Chaney’s unforgettable Erik in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925).

THE UNKNOWN was one of a dozen collaborations Chaney had with director Tod Browning (the lost film LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT was made the same year) beginning in 1919. Browning is credited with THE UNKNOWN’S story while the screen writing is by Waldemar Young who wrote some of the greatest Browning-Chaney collaborations including LONDON, THE UNHOLY THREE and the incredible WEST OF ZANZIBAR (1928).

THE UNKNOWN is an excellent starting point for those familiar only with Chaney as The Phantom or The Hunchback. Dialogue? We don’t need no stinkin’ dialogue! For more on Chaney, the man, his life and films check out Jon C. Mirsalis’ excellent LON CHANEY HOMEPAGE.

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