Wow,...there is so much that is wonderful about THE PENALTY, but there's so much of the ending that undoes all the wonderful stuff in the first 90% of the film. Let's first talk about the good stuff. Lon Chaney plays an absolutely amazing role as a double-amputee. He actually bound his legs behind him and learned to walk on stumps for the role and he really looks like he's missing legs! Unlike 'Lt. Dan' from FORREST GUMP, this was not a computer trick--instead, Chaney underwent this very painful ordeal to get the part right.
His character is an evil mastermind and he looks so incredibly tough and nasty. Some of this is natural (he was a far from handsome man) but part of his appearing so menacing was due to makeup and wonderful acting. The plot also was pretty creepy and exciting in a very, very dark way. As the evil criminal mastermind, Chaney did some very scary and edgy things--such as using a trap-door to make his enemies fall into a pit where they were then quickly dispatched!! As a result, the film was very exciting and weird--in a good way.
However, the most grisly aspect of the plot--where Chaney had an enemy's legs chopped off and grafted onto his own stumps--was NOT done but only threatened. In what I see as a 'cop out' to make the movie less disgusting and provide a happier ending, when the surgeon is forced to do this awful procedure, he instead finds a tumor on the base of Chaney's brain that apparently made him evil! And, 'VOILA'--when the tumor was removed, Chaney was apparently another Albert Schweitzer--with a new-found love of mankind! What a disappointing turn of events--especially for what comes next in the film.
So in conclusion, the film is creepy, edgy and a marvelous performance by Chaney that is ultimately severely impaired by a poor ending. Too bad, but at least Chaney's later films would capitalize on the successful aspects of this early film and also produce better, more grisly and realistic endings--such as in THE UNKNOWN or PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
His character is an evil mastermind and he looks so incredibly tough and nasty. Some of this is natural (he was a far from handsome man) but part of his appearing so menacing was due to makeup and wonderful acting. The plot also was pretty creepy and exciting in a very, very dark way. As the evil criminal mastermind, Chaney did some very scary and edgy things--such as using a trap-door to make his enemies fall into a pit where they were then quickly dispatched!! As a result, the film was very exciting and weird--in a good way.
However, the most grisly aspect of the plot--where Chaney had an enemy's legs chopped off and grafted onto his own stumps--was NOT done but only threatened. In what I see as a 'cop out' to make the movie less disgusting and provide a happier ending, when the surgeon is forced to do this awful procedure, he instead finds a tumor on the base of Chaney's brain that apparently made him evil! And, 'VOILA'--when the tumor was removed, Chaney was apparently another Albert Schweitzer--with a new-found love of mankind! What a disappointing turn of events--especially for what comes next in the film.
So in conclusion, the film is creepy, edgy and a marvelous performance by Chaney that is ultimately severely impaired by a poor ending. Too bad, but at least Chaney's later films would capitalize on the successful aspects of this early film and also produce better, more grisly and realistic endings--such as in THE UNKNOWN or PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.