Lon Chaney Collection [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This tribute to one of the most versatile character stars of the silent era gets a fine presentation for its release on DVD. The Lon Chaney Collection features an hour-long documentary on Chaney's career, Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (narrated by Kenneth Branagh), a photographic reconstruction of London After Midnight, Chaney's fabled "lost" thriller, and three rare Chaney vehicles, The Ace of Hearts, Laugh, Clown, Laugh, and The Unknown. The material has been transferred to disc in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and the audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo. The narration for the documentary and the intertitles for the silent features are presented in English; the disc includes optional subtitles in French and Spanish, as well as closed captioning in English. As a bonus, the disc also includes a gallery of rare stills and alternate audio commentary tracks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Screen: Black and White
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Silent
• Features:
  • cc
  • London After Midnight, Rick Schmidlin's skillful photo reconstruction of the lost 1927 film
  • Audio commentaries by Chaney biographer Michael F. Blake
  • Photo/memorabilia galleries
  • Introduction by Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne
  • Profiles of TCM Young Film Composers Competition winners
  • Subtitles: Francais & Espanol

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Title Writing - 1927- (Joseph Farnham)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1996

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Lon Chaney - Alonzo
       Bernard Siegel - Simon
       Joan Crawford - Estrellita
       Cissy Fitzgerald - Giancinta
       John George - Cojo
       Frank Lanning - Costra
       Billy Seay - The Little Wolf

• Director:

  Wallace Worsley, Sr., Herbert Brenon, Tod Browning

• Screenwriter:

  Ruth Wightman, Joseph Farnham, Elizabeth Meehan

• Play Author:

  David Belasco, Tom Cushing

• Screenwriter:

  Waldemar Young

• Cinematographer:

  Don Short, James Wong Howe, Merritt B. Gerstad, Errol Taggart

• Editor:

  Marie Halvey, Harry Reynolds, Errol Taggart

• Art Director:

  Richard Day, Cedric Gibbons

• Set Designer:

  Cedric Gibbons

• Intertitle Writer:

  Joseph Farnham

REVIEW:

• Only the silent cinema could have created such a bizarre but at the same time thoroughly believable and engrossing portrait of doomed love as The Unknown. If Lon Chaney had been able to put his feelings into words, or if Joan Crawford's strange phobia concerning male appendages had been audibly discussed, The Unknown would probably have been laughed off the screen. But in the more ethereal atmosphere of the mute theater, such florid behavior seems acceptable, perhaps even logical. Chaney was never better than when under the direction of director Tod Browning, who once again drew mightily on his own carnival background to create a world that both fascinates and repels. The reviewers at the time were often more repelled than fascinated, the prudish Harrison's Reports denouncing the Chaney-Browning morality play as "a gruesome and unpleasant picture." And The Unknown may actually still be capable of shocking even a modern audience raised on truly gruesome and unpleasant pictures. Not with blood and gore -- there isn't any -- but by the mere idea of a man willing to sacrifice his limbs for the sake of an overpowering desire. It is a cruel joke screenwriter Waldemar Young pulled on Lon Chaney, however. For the fickle Miss Crawford readily overcomes her bizarre phobia once she discovers that being embraced by Norman Kerry isn't all that bad after all. But then it is all too late for Mr. Chaney's beast, who once again is slain by beauty. To flesh out his demented sideshow attraction, Chaney was offered a bit of assistance from armless wonder Dismuki. Drafted from the Al G. Barnes Circus and Sideshow, this real-life "freak" supplied Chaney's nimble footwork and would later bill himself "The Man Who Doubled Lon Chaney's Feet." Still and all, it is Chaney's intense personality more than his feet or supposedly missing limbs that demands our attention and the role becomes yet another fascinating tour-de-force for an actor who truly deserves his more recent re-discovery. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi