The Penalty

This 1920 crime drama was one of the very first films to showcase Lon Chaney’s (dubbed the “man of a thousand faces”) gift for physical transformation, as Chaney strapped his legs into a painful leather harness in order to play underworld despot Blizzard, an embittered criminal mastermind and double-amputee who scrambles through San Francisco on stubs of limbs and crutches like a human spider. Weaving his nefarious web across the metropolis, Blizzard terrorizes his underlings, kills traitors, and concocts a double-barreled plot to both rob the city and take revenge on the doctor who mistakenly severed his legs when he was a child due to a misdiagnosis. Director Wallace Worsley (who later directed Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame) creates a sinister atmosphere of corruption and murder, adding bizarre touches of sexual menace and sadism as Chaney scrambles up walls and down secret tunnels on elaborate handholds and chains, leering at potential victims with the vicious grin of a human demon. This handsome new Kino edition is mastered for Blu-ray from a 35mm restoration by the George Eastman House and features a new compilation score by Rodney Sauer performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Extras include the 1914 one-reel Western “By the Sun’s Rays,” surviving footage from Chaney’s lost 1919 film The Miracle Man, and a video tour of Chaney’s makeup case. Although this is a relatively minor film in Chaney’s career, fans of silent cinema will appreciate this release. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)