The Penalty (1920)

The Penalty (1920)
Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces, was no mere makeup wizard, as this dark, deviant crime drama shows. Strapping his legs into a painful leather harness to play a double-amputee underworld kingpin, Chaney scrambles through the film like a human spider weaving his criminal web across San Francisco with equal parts seduction and terror. Crippled as child by an incompetent doctor, he dedicates his life to vengeance in a double-barreled plot that will bring both the city and the doctor (now an honored physician) to their knees. Director Wallace Worsley (who later collaborated with Chaney on his legendary Hunchback of Notre Dame) peppers the busy plot with bizarre touches of sexual menace and sadism, and he creates a wicked atmosphere of corruption and murder that implicates every character. Even the absurd twist of a happy ending can't wipe that away. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Review: Classic vintage macabre
Though this film was made a few years before Lon Chaney became a huge star, when he was still known primarily as a very good character actor, it easily seems like his best surviving pre-stardom film. In spite of his stardom still being a little bit away, he was given the lead role, and did such a wonderful job with it. I think his performance as the villainous double amputee Blizzard (what a great character name!) ranks up there as being just as compelling and great as his performance in a film like 'The Phantom of the Opera,' 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame,' or 'Tell It to the Marines.' (It's really amazing to think about the physical pain he put himself through to play a double amputee, in an era long before CGI, sacrificing so much for the sake of his craft.) As in all of his films, though he's playing a horrible villain, the type of person you'd ordinarily be afraid of, avoid, or make fun of, he brings depth and sensitivity to the role. Even though Blizzard is a very wicked man, he's not totally inhuman, and does display more human emotions a couple of times. Underneath the exterior of the tough unbending criminal mastermind, there does exist the heart of someone who isn't completely evil. He's also a lot more interesting than just about all of the other characters, because of this depth and complexity. After all, when was Lon not great? As a young boy, Blizzard's legs were unnecessarily amputated following a traffic accident, and when he was coming out of the operation, he overheard the doctor and his young assistant arguing about how this was an unnecessary operation. Twenty-seven years later, he's an evil criminal overlord on San Francisco's Barbary Coast, obsessed not only with building his criminal empire and taking control of the entire city but also with finally getting revenge on the doctor who ruined his life. He gets his chance when he sees an advertisement in the paper (under the terribly old-fashioned "Male Help Wanted" section of the help wanted ads) for a model to sit for a sculpture depicting Satan. The young sculptor, Barbara, is none other than the doctor's daughter. Blizzard's plans for revenge soon come to include Barbara's boyfriend Wilmot, who is rather old-school and wants Barbara to give up her career as an artist to marry him and have a family. While Blizzard is plotting to seduce Barbara and get her father to cut off Wilmot's legs so they can be grafted onto him, all while still hatching an elaborate plot to take over the city, he's also falling for Rose, a woman who was originally hired to investigate his evil plans. Because Blizzard isn't totally evil, Rose comes to develop feelings for him as well, and starts having second thoughts about ratting on him. All of this makes for a great vintage macabre film, complete with a very creepy atmospheric soundtrack. It starts off well and just gets even better and better, more and more intense and dramatic, as it goes along. Unfortunately, there's an incredibly ridiculous and implausible plot twist at the end (which was foreshadowed in the beginning of the film), which probably seemed silly even by 1920 standards. It leads to what I consider a disappointing ending, but everything that comes prior to the final reel is so wonderful that the lame ending doesn't cancel it out. Bonus features are plentiful and include trailers, the surviving footage of the 1919 film 'The Miracle Man,' a photo gallery, information on the novel on which the film was based (and which helps to clear up some confusions and questions the viewer might have, like why those women are making all of those hats), the 1914 short 'By the Sun's Rays,' and an essay by Chaney biographer Michael Blake, who also provides a short video tour of Lon's makeup case and the costume he used in this film.
Customer Review: Quite unusual and most fascinating
The unusual story for "The Penalty" was taken from a novel by a popular author of the early 20th century, but it is the star and legendary character actor, Lon Chaney, who really makes this film unforgettable. Before his most famous roles as the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Phantom of the Opera, Chaney's most impressive and highly-acclaimed performance was in this film, "The Penalty", in which he plays a double amputee and criminal mastermind with chilling conviction. In fact, next to his portrayal of a Chinese man in "Shadows" in 1922, his role in "The Penalty" is probably one of his most striking and poignant, especially as he uses no make-up to disguise his face in this film. This gives him a chance to express the warped-minded criminal character simply with facial expressions and other gestures, while stunning the audience with his realistic movements on stumps and crutches to portray the accident victim whose legs were amputated at the knees when he was a child. Swearing hateful revenge for the doctor who needlessly amputated his legs, this frightening criminal character schemes his plots while a female agent goes undercover to find out how he operates. Although somewhat dark and oppressive due to Chaney's overwhelming performance of the evil `Blizzard', there are still romance and intriguing plots in this interesting, though unlikely, story. The sombre mood is emphasized by an unusual modern musical score which seems to add some eeriness to the atmosphere. It is already eerie enough to see Chaney with cut-off legs, even when one knows that he is walking on his knees with his legs tightly strapped back behind him under loose pants and jacket. There are no tricks or special angles used: this is just another aspect of Chaney's amazing abilities of transformation which impressed audiences and fellow-actors so much in the 1920s that a humorous phrase was coined, namely "Don't step on that spider - it might be Lon Chaney!" Such was his physical skill to portray amputees, cripples and disfigurements, and "The Penalty" gives us a fascinating glimpse into this extraordinary art of a unique silent film legend. To highlight this point, this DVD has some interesting bonus material which provides ample background information to the film, as well as excerpts from other rare old films in which Chaney appeared. In itself an excellent example of a silent film, the picture quality of "The Penalty" is also very good throughout, and with the exceptional music and Chaney's outstanding performance, this DVD rates full marks and will surely leave a deep impression on every viewer.