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The Penalty

 
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The Penalty

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The Penalty
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  • Director: Wallace Worsley, Sr.
  • AMG Rating: starstar
  • Genre: Crime
  • Movie Type: Melodrama, Crime Drama
  • Themes: Going Straight, Out For Revenge
  • Release Year: 1920
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 6rl minutes

Plot

Among Lon Chaney's early villainous roles was Blizzard, the criminal mastermind of this melodrama set in San Francisco's Barbary Coast neighborhood. As a young man, Blizzard was the victim of an auto accident, and a quack doctor had mistakenly ordered his legs amputated at the knees. He grows up an embittered, violent man interested only in taking revenge on the rich and powerful, especially the doctor who maimed him and is still practicing. Rose, a secret service agent (Ethel Grey Terry), is dispatched to infiltrate Blizzard's gang, but she falls under his spell and becomes his mistress. Blizzard is himself attracted to a lovely artist who wants to paint his portrait, but she resists his advances. Ultimately, Blizzard's plan to have another man's legs grafted onto his own is thwarted when it's discovered that the long-ago accident had caused a reversible brain injury which turned him to the dark side. Rather than perform the operation on his legs, the doctor repairs Blizzard's brain, and Blizzard awakens to find that he is no longer interested in a life of crime. He marries Rose, but his criminal associates decide he must pay the ultimate penalty for his knowledge of their activities. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Review

Not as celebrated as The Hunchback of Notre Dame or The Phantom of the Opera in the Lon Chaney canon, The Penalty is still a melodrama with plenty of action, hokey dramatic ironies, and, of course, a magnetic performance by its lead. To play the double amputee Blizzard, Chaney had his legs folded up behind him and strapped to his body; he proves amazingly agile getting around with a pair of cut-down crutches. The glowering Chaney mug is well used here, too, as his character inspires a young artist looking for a model to resemble the devil himself. The story offers several mismatched pairs: the bad doctor who maims Blizzard and his more idealistic protégé; the woman secret service agent gone bad and the idealistic woman artist who resists Blizzard's allure; and the criminal Blizzard and the reformed man, who is ironically cured of his evil ways during an operation that was supposed to restore his legs. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Cast

Claire Adams - Barbara; Lionel Barrymore; Lon Chaney - Blizzard; Charles Clary - Dr. Ferris; Kenneth Harlan - Wilmot; Doris Pawn - Barbary Nell; Lee Phelps - cop; Milton Ross - Lichtenstein; Ethel Grey Terry - Rose; Edouard Trebaol - Bubble; Montgomery Carlyle; Wilson Hummell; Jim Mason - Frisco Pete

Credit

Wallace Worsley, Sr. - Director, Frank E. Hull - Editor, Don Short - Cinematographer, Samuel Goldwyn - Producer, Charles Kenyon - Screenwriter, Gouveneur Morris - Screenwriter, Philip Lonergan - Screenwriter

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Wikipedia: The Penalty (film)
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
The Penalty

Re-issue poster for The Penalty in the late 1920s by MGM. The Penalty was originally a sole Goldwyn production in 1920.
Directed by Wallace Worsley
Produced by Samuel Goldwyn
Written by Charles Kenyon
Philip Lonergan
Gouverneur Morris
Claire Adams
Cinematography Donovan Short
Editing by Frank E. Hull
Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release date(s) 1920
Country  United States
Language Silent film
English intertitles

The Penalty is an American crime film, originally released 1920. It was directed by Wallace Worsley, and written by Philip Lonergan and Charles Kenyon, based upon the pulp novel by Gouverneur Morris. It starred Lon Chaney, Charles Clary, Doris Pawn, Jim Mason, and Claire Adams.

Contents

Plot

The film follows gangster Blizzard (Lon Chaney), whose legs were mistakenly amputated at a young age. Driven insane by the social pressures of being forced to walk in a crutch, Blizzard becomes a crime lord. He tracks down the doctor who performed his operation, and plots a twisted revenge — kidnap the doctor's daughter's fiance (Clary), and graft his legs onto Blizzard's stumps.

Production

The apparatus worn by Chaney to simulate amputated legs was complex and incredibly painful. Consisting primarily of two wooden buckets and multiple leather straps, Chaney's knees sat in the buckets, while his lower legs were tied back. Though studio doctors asked that Chaney not wear the device, he insisted on doing so, so his costume would be authentic.

To assure audiences that Chaney was not an amputee, the original release of the film reportedly included an short epilogue clip showing Chaney out of character. This clip does not survive in the existing prints.

Legacy

The Penalty was one of Chaney's breakout roles, showcasing his taste for the macabre and talent for contortion and disguise. He had previously demonstrated similar qualities in the previous year's The Miracle Man, but Penalty secured Chaney's place as one of America's most famous character actors, before moving on to his more famous roles in 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 1925's The Phantom of the Opera'

In 2009 Empire Magazine named it #17 in a poll of the 20 Greatest Gangster Movies You've Never Seen* (*Probably).

References

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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