Classic Movie Review - Lon Chaney: Man of a Thousand Faces
By Alan Herrmann
MOVIE CRITIC
“We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!”
“You’re Nora Desmond. You used to be big.”
“I am still big. It’s the pictures that got small.”
These quotes are from the film Sunset Boulevard (1950). They are spoken by Norma Desmond, a fading silent screen star who is looking for a comeback at a desperate and delusional time in her life, as her youth and beauty fade. She’s around fifty years old but she hasn’t made a movie in several years. Gloria Swanson, who plays Norma, parallels her character in real life. Although not losing touch like Norma, Gloria knows her best roles were in the 1920s when silent films made up the majority of movies.
After 1927, more studios experimented with sound. By the 1930s, silent pictures were essentially nonexistent. Studios saw sound as a way to bring in wider audiences with the ability to add not only sound effects and accompanying music but speaking and singing – a more real experience. “Talkies” as they were referred to, helped advance the careers of those who had strong voices and a more subtle screen presence, unlike other actors who used exaggerated gestures common in silent movies that suddenly seemed awkward and dated. Some actors didn’t have the right voices for talkies, a nonexistent problem in silent films.
Most actors would survive sound movies once they learned the nuances of the new technology. Actors like Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Coleman, Gary Cooper, and Boris Karloff would actually become bigger stars in talkies because of their distinctive voices. Certain actors from the silent era known for their physical form of acting – Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Douglas Fairbanks – initially fought to keep doing silents but eventually either retired or capitulated.
Probably the finest physical actor of the silent era was Lon Chaney, who could do amazing feats with his body. He developed his own method of applying make-up and his uncanny ability to become so many characters earned him the title of the “man of a thousand faces.” In 1930 Chaney made his only talkie, The Unholy Three. It was an impressive performance where Chaney played a criminal who disguises himself as an old woman and has to speak in different voices, which he did very well.
Sadly, Chaney died at the age of forty-seven of a throat illness before he could do another picture. His frequent collaborating director, Todd Browning, had him in mind to play the title role in Dracula before his untimely death. As a result, the Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi would get the role, a part he had already been playing on Broadway. If Chaney had lived, perhaps he would have been a triple threat with his make-up, great physicality, and newfound vocal talent.
Chaney was not a comedian like Chaplin or Keaton, and he didn’t have the looks of Rudolph Valentino or Ramon Novarro – Chaney was 5’8” and had a deep lined face fit more for a boxer than a matinee idol – yet his impact on the movie industry was unprecedented. Growing up in Colorado with deaf and mute parents, Chaney learned to use pantomime to communicate with his mother and father. This ability would prove to be an asset when he became a stage performer, and particularly when he broke into silent movies.
Producers and directors appreciated that Chaney enjoyed playing various types of characters, specifically those who were physically impaired. Even when playing horror roles which he became most famous for, Chaney was able to bring out the humanity in his “creatures.” He made a huge amount of money for Universal studio in the 1920s and was often loaned out to other studios. During this time, he made his two most famous horror films, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera for movie moguls Irving Thalberg and Carl Laemmle at Universal. The studio would become the most famous horror film franchise in history. Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, and the Wolfman became staples and have survived decades.
The monsters Chaney conceived from his famous make-up kit shocked audiences, with some moviegoers actually fainting. The faces he created using grease paint, spirit gum, cotton, wire, wigs, and false teeth dramatically changed the way Hollywood would make horror movies. The shock value of truly frightening faces like Quasimodo the hunchback and Erik the phantom went beyond shadowy glimpses. The unmasking of Erik by Christine, the phantom’s captive, is one of the most iconic scenes in film history. Since Christine is behind him when she pulls off his mask, she can’t see his face, but we the audience can and get the initial shock. We see the skull-like face with dark, deep-set eye sockets, wide glaring eyes, and uneven tombstone teeth. When the phantom turns towards Christine she is repelled by the horror before her. This is the second shock, even more horrible for us because we know it is coming. This technique would be used in various films over the years but never so effectively as in the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera.
Chaney was generous with his time helping fellow actors. Both Joan Crawford and Loretta Young sang his praises for the guidance he offered them before they became silver screen icons in the 1930s, 1940s and beyond. He purposely avoided publicity and didn’t attend Hollywood parties, preferring quiet camping trips with his wife and son. His dodging of media hype was also encouraged by the movie moguls who felt the more mystery surrounding Chaney, the better.
Chaney’s son Creighton wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, which Chaney discouraged. But after his father’s death, Creighton pursued an acting career. In order to capitalize on his father’s fame, Creighton changed his name to Lon Chaney, Jr. He earned praise for his role as Lenny in Of Mice and Men but he, too, would become a Universal horror actor, most famous for playing Larry Talbot in the Wolfman films of the 1940s.
Chaney is remembered as a film pioneer whose complex characters, although often frightening, earned sympathy from viewers. They saw the infirmities and injustices the creatures endured as contributing factors to their violent behavior. In his own way, even with his horrifying make-up, Chaney spoke for the downtrodden.
Was Norma Desmond right about the importance of faces? Sure. But not all faces that audiences dreamed about in the silent era looked like Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, or Rudolph Valentino. Some would look like Lon Chaney and would produce nightmares.
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