Imagine what self confidence (or maybe lack thereof) that one must have to answer an ad that states 'If you think you look like Satan, apply at studio of ...'. It wouldn't have been a problem for the 'Man of a Thousand Faces', the elder Lon Chaney who made the transition from vaudeville to silent films, and eventually into talkies. Chaney's films may be a little hard to come by, but they're worth catching if only to see the amount of dedication the actor put into his craft. That's demonstrated here by the painful looking exercise the man had to go through to appear amputated at the knee of both legs. You know, I kept marveling at how real the effect looked and wondering how the film makers did it, because it does look like the actor really has no legs. Other reviewers on this board describe the process, so one could check those out.
The story itself is a rather ghastly one, as it follows the tragic amputation of a young boy's legs due to an accident, but which probably didn't have to be performed as suggested by a senior doctor examining the work of Dr. Ferris (Charles Clary). The operation affects the young man not only the physically, but mentally, as he resorts to a life of crime that transforms into a madness for corruption and power. Taking the name of Blizzard (Chaney), the evil madman concocts a bizarre plan of revenge on the doctor who operated on him, the doctor's daughter, and even the entire city of San Francisco.
I have to admit, there were any number of disconnects in the story for me which one might attribute to the writing of the era. One of the major ones involved Blizzard's management of a workshop in which dance hall girls assembled thousands of hats! Later it was revealed that the plot to loot San Francisco involved ten thousand disgruntled foreign laborers, but even so, why the business with the hats? It all seemed rather bizarre, but no more so than the twist at the end of the story that restored Blizzard's brain to normalcy, even as he wound up paying the penalty for his formerly wicked life.
I caught this film on the Turner Classic Movie channel, with a soundtrack that eerily fit the activity that appeared on screen. I doubt if it was the original score for the film if indeed there was any. The music offered was at times strange, mysterious, and other-worldly, expertly complementing the character of Blizzard and his garish life. One might even consider the version of the soundtrack I experienced to be somewhat devilish.
The story itself is a rather ghastly one, as it follows the tragic amputation of a young boy's legs due to an accident, but which probably didn't have to be performed as suggested by a senior doctor examining the work of Dr. Ferris (Charles Clary). The operation affects the young man not only the physically, but mentally, as he resorts to a life of crime that transforms into a madness for corruption and power. Taking the name of Blizzard (Chaney), the evil madman concocts a bizarre plan of revenge on the doctor who operated on him, the doctor's daughter, and even the entire city of San Francisco.
I have to admit, there were any number of disconnects in the story for me which one might attribute to the writing of the era. One of the major ones involved Blizzard's management of a workshop in which dance hall girls assembled thousands of hats! Later it was revealed that the plot to loot San Francisco involved ten thousand disgruntled foreign laborers, but even so, why the business with the hats? It all seemed rather bizarre, but no more so than the twist at the end of the story that restored Blizzard's brain to normalcy, even as he wound up paying the penalty for his formerly wicked life.
I caught this film on the Turner Classic Movie channel, with a soundtrack that eerily fit the activity that appeared on screen. I doubt if it was the original score for the film if indeed there was any. The music offered was at times strange, mysterious, and other-worldly, expertly complementing the character of Blizzard and his garish life. One might even consider the version of the soundtrack I experienced to be somewhat devilish.