TCM Archives - Lon Chaney Collection Director: Tod Browning, Wallace Worsley Sr., Herbert Brenon Cast: Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Leatrice Joy, John Bowers
DVD - 2 Disc Set - Black & White Learn more
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- DVD Release Date: 10/28/2003
- Rating:
- Sales Rank: 29,873
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Features
Disc 1: Introduction by Robert Osbourne; The Ace of Hearts and Laugh, Clown, Laugh with audio commentaries by Chaney biographer Michael F. Blake; image gallery; profiles of Turner Classic Movies Young Film Composers Competition winners, Bibed Maddala (The Ace of Hearts) and Scott Salinas (Laugh, Clown, Laugh).
Disc 2: The Unknown with audio commentary by Michael F. Blake and a new score by the Alloy Orchestra; American Masters: Lon Chaney -- A Thousand Faces, 2000 documentary by Kevin Brownlow, narrated by Kenneth Brannagh; photo reconstruction of lost 1927 film London After Midnight (description below); still gallery.
Scene Index
Side #1 -- Disc One
1. Credits. [1:05]
2. A Certain Brotherhood. [7:00]
3. Preparation. [6:08]
4. Ace of Hearts. [11:44]
5. The Other Man's Felicity. [7:17]
6. The Awakening. [12:08]
7. The Bargain. [9:26]
8. The Man Who Had Lived Too Long. [3:30]
9. Extra! Extra! [6:38]
10. The Men Who Had Lived Too Long. [6:31]
11. The Ace Is Gone. [2:57]
1. Credits. [:48]
2. Ridi Pagliacci. [2:59]
3. Simonetta. [4:53]
4. Rose for Her Hair. [4:15]
5. Lucretia's Rival. [4:40]
6. A Woman. [2:35]
7. Two Afflictions. [5:32]
8. Good for Each Other. [5:21]
9. Luigi's Gift. [6:12]
10. Tito's Confession. [7:59]
11. Laugh, Clown, Laugh. [6:41]
12. Needed. [3:36]
13. Love Sworn. [8:02]
14. Let the Comedy Begin. [4:49]
15. The Comedy Is Ended. [5:09]
Side #2 -- Disc Two
1. Credits and Foreword. [:59]
2. No One but Me. [6:18]
3. Alonzo's Secret. [6:42]
4. Grip of Death. [1:20]
5. Touchy Subjects. [6:37]
6. Telltale Thumbs. [5:57]
7. The Operation. [5:01]
8. Lash of a Whip. [9:23]
9. The New Act. [4:20]
10. Death and Love. [2:47]
1. Foreword and Credits. [1:50]
2. Balfour's Death. [3:41]
3. Vampires! [5:33]
4. Dead Man's Signature. [2:53]
5. Missing Body. [3:35]
6. Night Visitors. [3:35]
7. Daytime Visitors. [3:10]
8. Not Suicide. [2:20]
9. Look Me in the Eye. [4:46]
10. Veiled Intruder. [2:25]
11. Where We Want Them. [3:21]
12. Reenacting the Crime. [6:15]
13. True Identities. [1:42]
14. End Credits. [1:28]
1. Frightening Genius. [6:27]
2. A Deaf Face. [3:04]
3. Taking to the Stage. [4:22]
4. Early Screen Roles. [3:57]
5. First Fame (The Miracle Man). [5:09]
6. The Penalty. [2:55]
7. Outside the Law, Shadows. [4:59]
8. Oliver Twist. [2:36]
9. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. [6:10]
10. Self-Enclosed. [3:48]
11. He Who Gets Slapped. [3:16]
12. The Unholy Three (1925). [3:42]
13. The Phantom of the Opera. [3:42]
14. Small Leather Box. [3:12]
15. Tell It to the Marines. [2:20]
16. The Unknown. [3:56]
17. London After Midnight. [1:59]
18. Laugh, Clown, Laugh. [2:11]
19. West of Zanzibar. [3:13]
20. While the City Sleeps. [2:36]
21. Thunder. [2:30]
22. The Unholy Three (1930). [4:00]
23. Many Faces, No Name. [3:46]
24. End Credits. [1:09]
Editorial Reviews
The screen's erstwhile Man of a Thousand Faces, a makeup artist nonpareil, is primarily regarded as a horror movie star and remembered for such grotesqueries as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and the recently restored Phantom of the Opera (1925). In fact, most of Lon Chaney's best-known starring vehicles revolve around his unrequited love for pretty ingénues half his age and the bizarre things he does to demonstrate his devotion. This theme reaches its apotheosis in The Unknown (1927, directed by Tod Browning), when circus knife thrower Chaney has his arms amputated to win the love of fellow trouper Joan Crawford, who professes to loathe a man's touch. In Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928, Herbert Brenon), the object of Chaney's affection is winsome, radiantly beautiful Loretta Young, the adopted daughter he fears losing to handsome nobleman Nils Asther. Slightly different in tone but equally well made and engrossing, these films show the charismatic star at his best -- unlike The Ace of Hearts (1921, Wallace Worsley), a torpid secret-society melodrama in which a persistently sullen, somnambulistic Chaney loses fellow member Leatrice Joy to stolid, wooden John Bowers. Mastered from a scratchy 35mm print and further degraded by a dreary musical score, Ace is the joker in this otherwise well stacked deck and should never have been included. But one weak film doesn't ruin an entire box set, especially one graced with informative commentaries by Chaney biographer Michael F. Blake, whose encyclopedic knowledge of his subject answers many questions and bridges gaps in the films. Another fascinating supplement is the "re-creation" of the fabled London After Midnight (1927, Browning), a long-lost chiller for which Chaney designed one of his most memorable countenances. Assembled from dozens of scene stills and newly shot inter-titles, Midnight is enhanced with traditional silent-film themes compiled and performed by Robert Israel; his musical accompaniment far surpasses the recently composed scores affixed to the other films. Film historians Kevin Brownlow and Patrick Stanbury break new ground with their feature-length documentary, Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces, which sports heretofore unseen footage and excerpts from old interviews with Chaney contemporaries who have since passed away. On balance The Lon Chaney Collection is superb, and highly recommended to curious cineastes familiar only with Phantom or Hunchback. Ed Hulse, Barnes & Noble
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