Lon Chaney - the "Man of a Thousand Faces."
Lon Chaney was an actor who could project both fear and sympathy with his film roles, via the use of makeup and the way he could, psychologically, become the character. However, Chaney proved that he didn't have to rely on makeup in order to give a convincing performance. It was a considerable loss when he died suddenly in 1930. He made one talkie picture but his transition to sound cinema was assured, being gifted with a good voice. His legacy lives on.
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- DirectorKevin BrownlowStarsKenneth BranaghForrest J. AckermanMichael F. BlakeLon Chaney, the silent movie star and makeup artist, renowned for his various characterizations and celebrated for his horror films, becomes the subject of this documentary.Covers the actor rather than the man. An excellent documentary.
- DirectorBret WoodStarsLon ChaneyRonald GordonPatsy Ruth MillerA documentary on the life and career of actor Lon Chaney, with clips from his films and interviews with people who knew him.
- StarsLon ChaneyGerald leaves England to seek his fortune in America and falls in love with Marja.Claude his older brother marks her for his own and they marry before he goes back to England.So when Gerald proposes she is already married.Since Claude is gone nothing is heard of him and because of this, Marja throws herself from a cliff, a cripple for live.Gerlad receives a letter announcing the death of Claude.Marja finds the letter and realizes how much Gerald did love her.
- DirectorWallace ReidStarsWallace ReidVivian RichPauline BushTwo men playing cards, the argument, flash of a revolver, and one lay dead. The murderer homeward fled, hurried his little girl baby into a west-bound train and was heard of no more. The years passed and boyish Jim Conway grew to manhood with the sole purpose of seeking out his father's murderer to deal justice to him. He went West and was one day, lost in the mountains. He called for help and help came in the form of a sweet-faced woman who led him to her home. He spent the following weeks with her and the aged father, learned to love the mountain nymph for her beauty of soul and fair face. One day she asked him his reasons for being in the hill country, and he, lover-like confided his secret. Behind the door, sat the white-haired father. He rose, shook himself like a leaf as he invited the young man into the house. And there he confessed the deed, baring his chest for the expected blow. But none fell for love had sweetened the poison of his thought.
- DirectorPhillips SmalleyLois WeberStarsLois WeberVal PaulDouglas GerrardAbandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.
- DirectorAllen CurtisStarsMax AsherDaisy SmallLon ChaneyJake's wife fears he has made good his suicide threat after he has caught her making love to the Dude in his own home. During the last minute preparations for Jake's funeral, the mourners are suddenly surprised to find him sitting upright in their midst.
- DirectorEdwin AugustStarsJeanie MacphersonLon ChaneyRobert Z. LeonardBarnacle Bill, a hunchback fisherman, rescues a child from the sea. He brings her up in the hope of making her his wife, but she eventually falls in love with a young man her own age.
- DirectorEdwin AugustStarsEdwin AugustLon ChaneyAn injured telegraph lineman, the father of a large family, finds it difficult to make ends meet. A gentleman thief attempts to aid the family by desperate means.
- DirectorOtis TurnerStarsRobert Z. LeonardJoseph SingletonJohn BurtonDisguised as a piper, a wealthy Scotsman wins the hand of a peasant girl.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsJ. Warren KerriganPauline BushJessalyn Van TrumpUnhappy with his marriage, The Dreamer runs away. He collapses and is found by The Desert Flower, who convinces him to return to his family. In various illusions he sees himself in three stories: in the first he is Napoleon, in the second he is a Knight, in the third he is a Sultan--but he dies in all of them. Meanwhile, his wife is about to be sent into the desert while refusing to marry a Stranger. Before this can happen, the Dreamer arrives and sends the Stranger into the desert. The Dreamer becomes again a loved, respected member of the Town.
- DirectorAllen CurtisStarsLouise FazendaMax AsherEddie BolandSusie turn down Lee's love to became an actress. After losing the leading lady the director of a movie team engages her. Many chaotic incidents make it necessary that at the end Susie is forced to accept Lee's love and give up film business forever.
- DirectorAl ChristieStarsEddie LyonsLee MoranRamona LangleyRamona is fond of pets. Her hubby, Eddie, has a horror of all animals and particularly her pets. The parrots bite him and the monkeys show their teeth. Ramona receives a wire from Eddie's uncle telling him that the circus has gone broke and that he is sending his pet elephant to Eddie to take care of. Ramona sends for Eddie and despite his protests insists that he go and get the beast. He attempts to get some stablemen to arrange to take the elephant. They refuse until he finally agrees to pay a high price for a stall. Arriving at the station Eddie is handed the huge animal with a bill for excess charges amounting to $300. Eddie has one trouble after another. The stable owner refuses to allow the beast on the place. It keeps with Eddie and his wife busy breaking down the fence to get the pet inside and then feeding and giving it water. In the meantime the neighbors protest and the authorities order it removed at once. The last scene of the beast shows him dragging a furniture van with Ramona sitting on top and Eddie leading.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsJ. Warren KerriganPauline BushWilliam WorthingtonThe gambler takes his sick wife to the mountains. The doctor has informed him that she will need special care, and he, with rich, red blood in his veins, is disgusted with life and her in particular. At the local saloon he finds comfort in the smile of one of the female regulars. Jim is jostled and insulted by the cowboys until, maddened, he draws his gun and fires. The posse pursue him, but he escapes to the mountains. Meanwhile, the wife has discovered her husband's infidelity; leaving a note she goes into the hills with the avowed purpose of dying. At the stream she finds Jim, weak from the loss of blood. She nurses him and he, in turn, takes her to an old couple in the hills, where she rapidly regains her health. Jim commences to realize the meaning of manhood. Time goes on; the wife feels now that she can regain her husband's love and starts for the mining camp. On the road her husband staggers to her feet and dies, having been shot after a saloon brawl. She goes on, meets Jim, and together they face the future.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsPauline BushMurdock MacQuarrieJames NeillRed Margaret, a moonshiner, struggles between love for a government agent and loyalty to her people.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushWilliam LloydIn an out-of-the-way spot in the mountains refugees from the United States and Canada, who are wanted for various crimes, have gathered. A man wanted for embezzlement arrives with his daughter Pauline. The embezzler is a natural leader and, to James' chagrin, becomes the leading spirit in the colony. Two members of the Northwest Mounted Police, Lon and Mac, are on the embezzler's trail. The embezzler, without James' knowledge, stations his men and instructs them to fire on the police. Mac is wounded. The embezzler's daughter takes him to her cabin. On one occasion the girl leaves the cabin and confers with her father. Lon follows and learns that her father is the man they are seeking. Believing that he has the girl at his mercy, Lon makes advances. Mac interferes because he, also, has fallen in love with Pauline. Lon then tells him of the girl's father. Mac goes to James and demands the surrender of the embezzler. James complies, and Mac arrests Pauline's father. The girl then appeals to Lon, promising him everything if he will save her parent. Lon lifts his revolver to shoot Mac. However, other refugees mistake Lon's intention. Lon is shot, and as they shoot at Mac the embezzler is killed. They are about to finish their work when another one of the mounted police comes up and covers them, while Mac disarms them. The girl looks from her dead father to Mac, whom she has already learned to love.
- StarsOwen MooreFritzi BrunetteJohn CharlesTwo fellows, Charles Young and Tom Moore, are in love with Dora Blake. Charles was the choice of her mother, but hated by her father, while Tom was the man whom the father chose as a husband for his daughter. Now, Dora did not know which to decide upon, but at last decided to marry Charles, whom she had known the longest. Upon hearing of the engagement, Mr. Blake forbade Charles ever entering the house again. Knowing that he could not succeed in making Dora his wife as matters now stood, Charles wrote a note to her, asking her to elope with him and to meet him at the station the following morning. Dora was delighted and answered that she was willing to go to the end of the world with him. The next morning she was waiting for him, when in he came, intoxicated. She never imagined such a thing of Charles. She would run back home, was her first thought, and when he informed her that he would have to go for the marriage license she was glad to have a chance to make her escape. In the meantime, when Tom found out that he had lost all hopes of winning Dora he decided to leave the town, go out west with a friend and forget his troubles. He went to the station, and there he met Dora just as she was coming out of the station door. She calmed herself as best she could and talked along with him, not thinking how fast time was flying, so by the time she thought she must get out of the place Charles had returned with the license. Tom, seeing that Charles was intoxicated, felt sorry for Dora when she denied knowing of what Charles was talking and took her away from him. Later Tom again pressed his suit, and was readily accepted, as by this time Dora had learned of her mistake and really loved him. All the family were now happy, and as the time for the wedding approached Mrs. Blake was glad that Dora had accepted Tom, after all. The night before the wedding Mr. and Mrs. Blake had gone out, and the butler came in with a note to Dora. She was horrified. It was from Charles, whom she had not seen since that day at the station. Thinking that she might get him to consent to go away forever, she allows him to he shown into the room. He had been away, but had heard how she had told Tom she was innocent. He was going to stay until the day of the wedding, and then show Tom the marriage license, and also the sort of a girl he was going to marry. Too dumb with terror to speak, the words she meant to say were forgotten. When he had gone she came to a full realization as to what would happen if she did not stop him. Thinking only of her happiness, she told her butler where she was going, and immediately set out for his home. When Tom came that night he asked the butler where Dora had gone and, being told, he set out after her. Upon reaching Charles' room he witnessed a scene he would never forget, Dora pleading with Charles to destroy the license and give her her happiness. Walking into the room, he asked what it all meant. Things were explained. Charles had wronged her, but she had lied to him. Taking her by the arm, he led her from the room and took her home. She begged for forgiveness, explaining that she did it to be happy with him whom she loved, but he was hurt and, kissing her good-bye, he said, "Only a little lie, you have told me one, you will tell me others," and then he left her.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushLon ChaneyIn a small town in the Rockies, Mac, Jacques and Jacques' sister, Marie, have grown up in an atmosphere semi-criminal. Mac, who is Jacques' best friend, is a serious and well-read man, superior to his surroundings. Mac loves Marie and she returns his affection. Desiring to make something of his life Mac goes to the city. He soon wearies of the city life, however, returns to the mountain wilds and joins the mounted police. Forrest, a comrade, is detailed to investigate the smuggling activities. He goes to the country where Mac lives and makes advances to Marie. In the complications which follow, Forrest is killed by Jacques. When the news of Forrest's death is brought to headquarters Mac is sent to bring the murderer in. He starts out eagerly to avenge his friend's death, never suspecting that it was Jacques who did the killing. He goes into the country wearing the despised "red-coat." His former friends scoff at him. Marie scorns him. Jacques' betrayer, a "Canuck" whom Jacques had once knocked down, comes to Mac and tells him where he will find the murderer. Mac follows directions and finds Jacques. Then comes an intense mental battle. Mac wavers at the thought of taking Jacques prisoner. Jacques' deed was done partly for his sake. Marie stands near. With a mighty effort he decides and in the face of the girl's scorn he leads his prisoner away. The townspeople try to rescue Jacques. Jacques' only thought is for his friend's safety and he fights by his side. When his friend falters in his duty Jacques compels him to remember his word. The two men understand each other; Jacques will not let Mac go back without his prisoner. Mac cannot take his friend to the scaffold. They clash, struggle and go down to death together into a pool beneath the treacherous "Devil's Slide."
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsPauline BushMurdock MacQuarrieLon ChaneyRepentant of the mistake of her innocent girlhood, the worn-out woman returns to the town of her birth, to the only ones to whom she can turn in her extremity, her parents. She finds them in the graveyard. As she walks through the streets the villagers shun her. The news is rapidly passed that the Magdalen has returned. The gray beards are indignant that she should blast the fair name of their town by her presence there. The citizens' committee calls upon the new minister and instructs him to order the woman out of town. The minister carries his message, but the woman tells him it is her house and she shall stay there. The young minister is struck with the woman and the sincerity of her repentance. He remonstrates with the gossips. He returns to the woman and comforts her. In the meantime, the citizens have gathered to trumpet her out of their village. Hearing some approaching, the minister, fearing to arouse further scandal, steps into her house. The woman bravely goes out to meet her assailants, and they begin to jeer at her and stone her, until the minister defends her. The unoffending half-witted fellow is hit with a brick and killed. And there is a suggestion of a future bond of sympathy between the Magdalen and the minister.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushAllan ForrestJoy reigns in a colony of struggling artists because Old Felix, a composer, has at last sold one of his symphonies. The night of its initial hearing at the grand opera house the members of the colony turn out en masse. Too poor for orchestra seats, they gather in the gallery around the old composer. The old composer is happy almost to tears, and when the last note has died away there is a cry for the composer. Felix attempts to utter a few words of thanks, but is smothered with flowers. At his studio his friends have prepared for his welcome, and it is upon his arrival there that be feels the happiness which comes of success. However, at the other end of the hall another different drama is being enacted. A girl sits beside her stricken mother, and as the merriment in the studio reaches its height, the soul of the mother departs from the body. After all his friends have left the disconsolate girl seeks the help of Felix. The old musician is touched and all of his flowers, tributes to his success, he carries into the room of death and lends the girl as much financial assistance as she needs. The following day Felix adopts the girl as his ward. Lon, a sculptor, is impressed by her simplicity and beauty, and falls in love with her. Forrest, an artist, a malapert young man, patronizes the girl, and is repulsed in his advances. Felix puts up the money for Lon to go to Europe and study, and Lon, as a means of insuring the girl to himself when he returns, marries her secretly, but with Felix's consent. Forrest overhears when Lon and the girl are discussing their future happiness, and being ignorant of their marriage, he takes a jealous pleasure in the thought that all is not proper. He circulates gossip to the girl's discredit, and finally on the eve of Lon's departure, he convinces Felix's friends that he is right. The old musician is at work on a second symphony, and is utterly oblivious to what is going on; he scarcely notices that he is deserted by his friends. The friends hold a council, and decide to tell Felix the kind of woman he is harboring. Old Felix, after fully grasping what they mean, drives them from his studio. However, he is rendered more feeble by the reaction of his violent emotions and the contemplation of the foul suspicions which have separated him from his old friends. Thus he labors with feverish haste to complete his last symphony. But work and worry and forgotten favors are too much for the old man. His mind begins to wander. He staggers to his bedroom and dies. The girl finds him there, and carries the message of his death to his old friends. They congregate around his bedside, and that his soul may hear and forgive them, they play his last symphony. Lon, the sculptor, has returned from Europe, famous, and while the party of friends are yet beside the death-bed, he enters and greets the girl as his wife. The friends understand the injustice of their treatment of Old Felix, and again gather around his bed.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsPauline BushWilliam C. DowlanMurdock MacQuarrieGiovanni Bartholdi ( Lon Chaney ), in desperate need of money, arranges to sell Carlotta ( Pauline Bush ), to supposed white slavers. Tony ( William C. Dowlan ), a friend, and her father come to her rescue and Carlotta is happily reunited with her family.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushWilliam C. DowlanAccording to the play a sinister family skeleton overshadows and threatens to wreck the lives of two innocent persons, until the workers of evil defeat themselves by the same methods with which they at first gained ascendancy over others. John Spencer had been a criminal at one time in his life; he feared the iron hand of the law. But as much as he feared the law falling upon his shoulder and forcing him to answer for his misdeeds of long ago, he loved his daughter. For her he sought to do right. Pauline was ignorant of her father's past and she idolized him as a good father and a man of principles. Roger Dixon is the only man who knows of and can prove John Spencer's guilt. He makes this knowledge the basis of a systematic scheme of blackmail: the price of his silence growing larger day by day. Pauline loves and is loved by Arthur, a young attorney. As time passes the blackmailer grows bold in his demands, and finally he threatens that if Pauline is not given to him in marriage he will send Spencer to states prison. The father, a moral coward, becomes party to a scheme to discredit Arthur in the girl's eyes. As an actor in the plot, Spencer goes to Arthur with a number of options which the young attorney is to investigate, but not to sell. Arthur gives Spencer a receipt for the options. Dixon secures the assistance of two crooks. Dick, the penman, and Perkins. All three go to a restaurant to perfect their plans. With a half knowledge of the affair. Pauline follows Dixon and from a hiding place listens to the plans of the three men. Pauline returns to her father. He breaks down and tells her of his misconduct in early life and Dixon's power over him. To save him Pauline consents to marry Dixon. In the meantime, Perkins steals the options from Arthur's office and the case against the attorney is complete. In paying off Dick, the penman, and Perkins for their services in the conspiracy, the crooks fall out and Dick shoots and kills Dixon. With Dixon the family skeleton in the closet of the Spencer residence also expires and happiness follows for all.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushLon ChaneyThe Lamb is one of these gentle young men who spend their lives looking after the affairs of others and in the meantime lose all the best that is the heritage of the young. This particular Lamb is devoting his life to his invalid mother and in his spare moment editing a weekly paper. The citizens of the small western town deride the editor and his paper. But there are two persons who have faith in him, and they are the Woman and his mother. He loves the Woman deeply, but would not propose marriage because he deems it would be unjust to saddle an invalid upon a young wife. After an absence of five years, the Wolf, a husky mountaineer, who is sure of himself and devoid of the finer instincts, visits his home town. He had an old love affair with the Woman. He again renews the suit for her hand. She is captivated by his masculine force of character and accepts his proposal of marriage. They are married and the Wolf takes the Woman to his hut in the mountains, where he is the agent between a stage line and a mining company. The monthly payroll money for the miners is delivered to him by the stage company and he turns it over to the mining company. The Woman learns of her mistake in marrying the Wolf. He is all the things she least suspected, a brute, an egotist without sentiment, or love for her. In the meantime the Lamb's mother dies. Nursing this sorrow and the hopeless love for the Woman, he goes into the mountains in search of solitude. He falls in with a band of outlaws and at first is a visitor among them. Word travels to the village that he has actually become an active member of the band. He becomes a marked man, shunned and ostracized. He then determines that he will afford the village people cause for their fear and hatred of him. He becomes an outlaw and grows as coarse and as hardened as he was previously gentle and refined. The Wolf decides that as he is now thoroughly tired of the Woman, he will steal the payroll money left in his keeping and leave her. On the night set for the theft the Woman is alone guarding the money. The Lamb also has decided to steal it and he arrives first and is admitted by the Woman. He recognizes her as his first and only love, but she does not recognize him. To quiet her suspicions he lays his revolver upon the table. Presently someone outside is heard tampering with the lock. Each thinks the intruder a confederate of the other. The Woman covers the door with the Lamb's revolver. A masked man enters and she shoots and kills him. It is her husband, the Wolf. She then recognizes the Lamb and with the new light that comes into her face and into his face, it can be seen that in the future a different, better life is in store for each.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushLon ChaneyFor fifty years the Dawsons and the Putnams have been engaged in a deadly family feud. Old Hen Dawson is now the patriarch of the Dawsons, and Jed Putnam is the leader of the Putnams. Dawson has an only daughter, June. There lives with him one, Wood Dawson, a nephew. In the rival family there is an only son, Joel. Joel and June were secret lovers. One day a gospel man comes into the territory and convinces the heads of the two families that their feud is ungodly. All their various henchmen are disarmed and peace and harmony is established. That is, until Wood learns that Joel Dawson is his successful rival for the hand of June. Then Wood becomes stiff-necked. He circulates the report that Joel and June have been carrying on improperly. He has words with Joel and in the general fight which follows Joel shoots and kills Wood. Both families reopen hostilities. Hen Dawson forgets his oath and sets out to kill Joel. However, when he finds Joel he finds June with him ready to elope. Tragedy is about to take place, when the gospel man forever puts an end to the long standing war of extermination. He marries Joel and June.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushWilliam C. DowlanIn a small mining community lives an orphan girl who is engaged to a miner. A degenerate Mexican infests the camp and proves a menace to the citizens. The orphan's sweetheart finds him intimidating two young sweethearts and gives him a well-deserved beating. Thus he incurs the Mexican's hatred. A young stranger, coming into camp, accidentally shoots himself while cleaning his revolver. The orphan girl takes him into her cabin and dresses his wound. She is called out by the Mexican and attacked, but is saved by the stranger. To secure revenge, the Mexican informs the miners that the orphan is harboring a man in her cabin; this reaches the ears of the orphan's sweetheart. With a strong fist, the young miner smashes the lying mouth. In the meantime, the stranger, unaware that the girl is engaged to the miner, falls in love with her. The miner finds it out and his heart aches, but he acts straight. Upon learning the truth, the stranger departs; he makes his way up the hill, leaving the girl behind with a sore heart, for she loves him in a way. However, as he looks back and down the mountain, the stranger sees the Mexican below him on a cliff about to shoot the miner and the girl as they stand on the door-step. He hurriedly throws his pack onto him, spoiling his aim; then he jumps over and down. He kills the Mexican, but his own life is sacrificed.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsPauline BushWilliam LloydGeorge CooperThere is a fine opportunity for bravery during the height of battle. But there is probably a finer opportunity at the moment of defeat when the cry increases to a roar, "Every man for himself." The man worthwhile is the man who does not heed this cry of the panic-stricken. Such a man was George Tate, moonshiner by birth, but possessing the qualities of which heroes are made. His father was murdered by a half-breed. His sister, Amy, was assaulted and was in continual danger from the same source. Although he lived in the shadow of the law, an outcast with other moonshiners, he believed in a square deal. One day the revenue officers swept down upon the moonshiners' still. Tate and Neut Haigh, who loved Amy, led the forces of the moonshiners. At the deciding moment in the battle the half-breed exposed the secret defenses of the rugged country to the revenue men. Tate, Haigh and Amy were finally driven into the Tate college. They were surrounded and the battle was at that stage when the weaker ones cry, "Every man for himself." Tate looked into the faces of Amy and Haigh. They were lovers. They had something to live for. His thoughts ran in leaps and bounds. He lifted a trap door in the floor. He knew that he was looking upon his sister for the last time. He could say nothing, except, "go."