Lon Chaney: Before the Thousand Faces

Lon Chaney is one of the most celebrated yet elusive figures of the silent film era, with the vast majority of his output considered lost or incomplete. This three-film anthology contains short features made at Universal during the mid-1910s, but all are missing footage and two suffer from irreversible decomposition of the surviving nitrate print. A Mother's Atonement (1915) features Chaney as a mountain man raising a daughter after his adulterous wife fled with her lover, but the daughter escapes from his violent upbringing after reaching young adulthood. If My Country Should Call (1916) has Chaney in a supporting role as a doctor treating a woman who is obsessed that her husband and adult son will be killed if they join the military and fight in an overseas war. The Place Beyond the Winds (1916) stars Chaney as a “half-breed” hunter in the Canadian wilderness who falls for a young woman already in love with a disabled young man who has been cured of his affliction. The films are often unintentionally funny due to their convoluted plot twists and overreliance on clichés, but Chaney is the saving grace, thanks to his uncommonly subtle approach to acting. Chaney looks and behaves like a real person, underplaying his roles with careful precision, whereas fellow cast members go overboard with the theatrical emoting and posturing that reigned in the early days of the silver screen. Film historian Jon C. Mirsalis produced, restored, and scored this compilation, which would likely only appeal to serious students of silent film history. Optional. (P. Hall)