User Reviews

As biopics go, this 1957 film shows limited interest today. The legendary figure of Lon Chaney is examined by the same Hollywood where he went to make a legend out of his life. He was a giant in the world of silent films because of the disguises he created for the movies during his second career in the industry. Chaney was a man way ahead of himself as far as the creation of the special type of makeup he used for all the different characters he played.

Lon Chaney's roots were in vaudeville, where he also was greatly admired. However, his lucky break came not in the theater, but in the new industry of the moving pictures that was starting in California. Mr. Chaney was able to bring something new to those pictures that sparked the imagination of audiences in the many films he starred in. His association with the legendary Irving Thalberg helped cement his own status in the movie business.

His personal life though, was not a happy one. His first wife, the beautiful Cleva Creighton, showed she did not care from him and abandoned Lon and her young son without a second thought. Chaney received a big blow in the custody of the young son, Creighton, who was placed in an orphanage because he couldn't show means of support for the child. Being separated from his son Creighton was a big blow to the man who adored the young boy but couldn't get his custody until he made a name for himself in the film industry. His life with Hazel, his second wife, turned out to be a fine one without the ups and downs that affected his first one.

The main attraction for watching this film was James Cagney, an actor who always gave an honest performance. In here, though, he seems to be playing a variation on his own "Yankee Doodle Dandy" in the first segment devoted to his life as an entertainer in the theater. The other half, his arrival in the movies, is not as interesting as the beginning.

The film, directed by Joseph Pivney, doesn't break new ground in the way the narrative plays in the film. Dorothy Malone, who is seen as Cleva, has some interesting moments. Jane Greer is also effective as the sweet Hazel, the woman who always loved Chaney from afar.

Sometimes it's best not to know too much about a subject if it's going to ruin your movie viewing experience. This picture is panned by a lot of the reviewers here because of the historical inaccuracies and Cagney's lack of resemblance to Lon Chaney. None of this however ruined my enjoyment of the picture, as Cagney does a superb job of recreating some of Chaney's famous silent film characters along with portraying the actor's conflicted private life. As a kid growing up in the Fifties, I never knew there was a Chaney 'Senior', and the only one I could relate to was the 'Wolf Man' Chaney from his horror films and later, his TV and movie Western roles.

For Cagney, this was a natural in more ways than one. One of the things the movie touches on is the major transition of moving pictures from the silent film era into the talkies. Cagney's portrayal shows how Chaney made the move from vaudeville into the silents in the first place, and later on into the new medium that film executive Irving Thalberg (Robert Evans) characterized as the 'bell tolling for silent pictures'. Cagney himself lived through the passing of these eras, starting out as a dancer and catching his very first break in talking pictures in 1930 with impressive performances in "Sinner's Holiday" and "Doorway to Hell".

The most emotional scenes in the picture deal with Chaney's personal life - the first meeting of Cleva Creighton (Dorothy Malone) with Chaney's deaf mute parents, the agonizing wait for the birth of their 'normal' baby, and Cleva's despondency over being sequestered from a life of her own outside the home. Later on the story delves into Creighton Chaney's newly discovered relationship with Cleva and the attendant conflict it creates with his father.

The one thing I would have handled differently I think most movie fans would agree with. By 1957 when this film came out, Lon Chaney Jr. was already a known commodity with his 1941 portrayal of the iconic Wolf Man character, followed by more monster portrayals and other homely characters like Lennie in 1939's "Of Mice and Men". Having not only a handsome but a stunningly handsome actor like Roger Smith portray the adult (Lon) Creighton Chaney was a major disconnect, so I have to remind myself to re-read my own first paragraph.

This was both a financial hit and a critically acclaimed performance by James Cagney, and I think the reason for that is that Cagney was so busy "being" Lon Chaney, that he stopped being Jimmy Cagney. Although nearing the end of his active film career, this is one of his finest roles.

First, this is a strong story. While all movie bio-pics take some liberties, it appears that this one remained closer to the real story than most. And a dramatic story it is. The script here moves the story along in a reasonable manner, not sensationalizing the apparent truth.

There are strong performances throughout, not just by Cagney. Dorothy Malone is particularly good here, although her role as Cagney's first wife is difficult to like. Jane Greer is also excellent as wife # 2. Jim Backus as the agent is also very good, and it's nice to be reminded about what a fine character actor he was before moving into television.

Rather than describe the plot, I would recommend you read the Wikipedia article about Lon Chaney, Sr. for background. It really will help you enjoy the film more.

Highly recommended for both the strong performances and a reminder of a notable silent screen actor.

From "DwightFry" Well, I'm afraid I've found the lemon.

Let's be honest: This is not a really bad movie. But only because of Cagney. His performance is a real tour-de-force, with him getting back to his roots as a dancer. We get to see the man we think of as Cody Jarrett and Tom Powers, doing funny clown routines, dancing, impersonating an old woman, and showing his warmer side. However, this is both good and bad, as Cagney does a great Cagney, but he never becomes the person he is supposed to be, that is, the legendary Lon Chaney. Apart from the the true facts of Chaney's life being ignored (a common thing in biopics), the terrible script, surprisingly Oscar-nominated, is standard soap opera at its worst, with too much melodrama and too little of what made Chaney great. "We get no insight on how he prepared his makeup, or on how painful to wear it frequently was." Given that, it's surprising a Chaney biopic was ever green-lighted, as his life, unlike that of so many movie stars, was mostly secretive to public opinion, and the few interesting anecdotes of him are not in the movie (Creighton being born half dead, and Lon getting him into icy water to revive him). And, even worse, a person that watches this movie without having seen any of Chaney's films, will dismiss these as phony and corny, and the makeups silly and badly done. The reconstructions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera look like cheap Halloween masks made by a kid, which is in itself an insult to Chaney's meticulous makeup, and evidences only that short, broad Cagney didn't look like tall, thin Chaney the slightest, not even under heavy makeup (or masked, or whatever). Cagney is only Cagney, he's the Man of a Single Face, and a very recognizable one. If you're gonna make the mistake of casting a big star to play a well-known figure (another common biopic error, that way you only see the star and not the character), at least cast a big star who resembles said figure. Casting Cagney as Chaney is like casting Danny De Vito as James Stewart.

We DO get an insight as to his use of makeup and the pain it caused him. His instant creation of the Lascar's makeup is proof of that. And his portrayal of the deformed man in "The Miracle" and Quasimodo in "Hunchback" are proof of the pain. As far as the makeup is concerned they do not look cheap unless you try to compare them to current day makeup. And as far as Cagney being too short to play Chaney Lon was 5 ft 8 in and Cagney was 5 ft 7 in, not much of a difference at all.

Again if you are going to review at least get your facts straight!!!!! 10 of 10 for Jimmy and the movie -10 of 10 for DwightFry's poor critique!

Wonderful biopic on film legend Lon Chaney. Played by early film great James Cagney. I love classic horror and enjoy learning about film history and those who pioneered the industry. Lon Chaney being one of them, is one who I still knew very little about. Though the film was loosely based upon his life. However, It still was able to capture some great highlights of his career and personal life. Lon Chaney's life was far from easy. Born to deaf parents, he struggled and was treated harshly as a youth. His adult life was riddled with tragedy in the midst of his success. His first wife , who he would have his first and only child with. Attempted suicide during the course of their rocky marriage. I was very moved by the great performances of the cast. In particular, James Cagney who's portrayal of Lon Chaney was phenomenal. Though Lon is remembered mostly for his horror performances, he was much more versatile and appeared in 157 films. Many which are now lost. A master and early pioneer as a makeup artist. Chaney's Phantom, now 93 years old, was beyond it's years and still genuinely terrifying today.

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Man of a Thousand Faces is an opportunity for James Cagney, a screen legend in his own right, to pay tribute to one of cinema's greatest icons, the irreplaceable silent cinema legend Lon Chaney.

For all his talent and success, Chaney's life was plagued by heartache. This movie covers every step of the actor's career, from vaudeville to Hollywood with all of the dark parts in between.

Director Joseph Pevney also got his start in vaudeville as a boy soprano before finding his way to the theater. He had a short career as a film actor before directing nearly 80 features and plenty of TV. He tied Marc Daniels for directing the largest number of Star Trek episodes, including "The Devil in the Dark, "Arena", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Amok Time", "Journey to Babel" and "The Trouble with Tribbles."

Lon Chaney (Cagney) is a vaudeville actor looking for success, which means working for the famous comedy dup Kolb and Dill (Clarence Kolb plays himself in this, while Danny Beck plays his partner Max Dill). When his wife Cleva (Dorothy Malone, Constance MacKenzie from Peyton Place) is pregnant, she asks him to meet his family. He's reluctant to do so as his mother and father are both deaf and mute. He was probably right to do so, as Cleva overreacts, worried that her child will be a freak.

The good news is that Creighton is born and is normal, but Lon's and Cleva's marriage doesn't survive. She's back in the theater life and sleeping with a patron unbeknowst to Chaney, who keeps leaving his son in the care of his platonic friend Hazel Hastings (Jane Greer, Vivian Smythe Niles from Twin Peaks), who has her own issues with her ex-husband, who has grown bitter due to losing his legs. Cleva discovers Lon consoling Hazel and runs away. Days later, our protagonist is on stage in clown makeup when his wife enters and drinks a bottle of acid in front of the entire audience.

The scandal destroys Lon's career in vaudeville with the state taking young Creighton away from him. That's when he goes to Hollywood and begins working with Clarence Locan (Jim Backus).

Even though Lon starts as just an extra, his work ethic makes him a featured player in short order. He's then cast in The Miracle Man as a man who is dramatically able to walk again.

Despite the success of his career, Lon faces a rough life. Sure, Hazel comes back and marries him, leading to Creighton being able to move back, but his ex-wife also comes back, seeking to reunite with the son who believes that she is dead.

By 1930, Lon has lost his son and is suffering from cancer on the set of Teh Unholy Three. Of course, this being a Hollywood version of his life, he reconciles with his son and returns home to die, giving his son his makeup case, allowing him to become an actor.

There are a lot of great stories behind the actors in this film. For example, Marjorie Rambeau plays Gert, a woman who helps Chaney when he first gets to Hollywood. Rambeau started her showbiz career in Nome, Alaska, where her mother had taken her after a divorce. There, she dressed Marjorie as a boy to keep away drunken grown men as she played the banjo and sang in saloons. She made her Broadway debut in 1913 and was already a star within two years. Dorothy Parker was so moved by seeing her that she wrote this poem: "If all the tears you shed so lavishly / Were gathered, as they left each brimming eye. / And were collected in a crystal sea, / The envious ocean would curl up and dry- / So awful in its mightiness, that lake, / So fathomless, that clear and salty deep. / For, oh, it seems your gentle heart must break, / To see you weep."

Additionally, Rambeau was so famous that restaurants often courted her to eat at their establishments. One such place was Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessen in New York City, which Rambeau attended late one night after a performance. The place was nearly out of food, so the sandwich they concocted for her was a mix of different ingredients that came to be known as the Rueben.

Man of a Thousand Faces was her final film role.

Creighton - later Lon Chaney Jr. - was played by Roger Smith, who starred on 77 Sunset Strip. He'd go on to become the manager for his wife Ann-Margaret, as well as writing and producing the Joe Namath movie C.C. and Company.

The studio doctor, Dr. J. Wilson Shields, was played by Jack Albertson, who of course would later play Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and co-star with Freddie Prinze on Chico and the Man. He's also William G. Dobbs, the man behind everything in the astounding 1981 horror film Dead and Buried.

There's also a comedy pieight scene that features the last surviving member of the Keystone Kops, Hank Mann, as well as Australian vaudevillian Snub Pollard.

Finally, studio mogul Irving Thalberg was played by a man who would do very much the same in his second career, shaping much of the Hollywood of the 1970's. That's Robert Evans, selected by Thalberg's widow, actress Norma Shearer.

To be fair, not all of this movie is 100% accurate. Much of the movie was sanitzied and fictionalized. While it's true that Lon Chaney didn't want his son to be an actor, the truth is that Creighton was working at an L.A. water heater company at the time of his father's death. After that company failed, he started acting under his real name. He didn't take on the name Lon Chaney Jr. until 1935's A Scream In the Night.

Chaney was ashamed of taking on that name and was mostly a supporting actor until 1941's The Wolfman, the movie that changed his career forever, with roles in horror franchises like Inner Sanctum movies and having the distinction of being the only actor to play every one of the Universal monsters: the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy and Count Dracula.

After watching this movie and learning about his life, it's easy to see why Chaney drank for his entire life. However, there are differenting stories about what he was really like.

Chaney was beloved and consider sweet by many, as he often befriended and protected young actors and older ones who were down on their luck. For example, William Farnum had once been the biggest silent actor in all of Hollywood. By The Mummy's Curse in 1944, he was a down on his luck bit player. However, Chaney demanded that Farnum be given his own chair and be treated with respect - or else he'd quit the movie.

However, he nearly murdered actor Frank Reicher on the set of The Mummy's Ghost and broke a vase over director Robert Siodmak's head (either during the making of Son of Dracula or Cobra Woman). Robert Stack would write later than the only monsters at Universal were the drunken team of Chaney and Broderick Crawford, who would often tear the studio to bits.

Back to the film - while Lon Sr. is shown dying at home, he really died in the hospital. And the makeup in this film differs greatly from the actual work Chaney did, that was based on using a minimum of makeup, while the pieces in Man of a Thousand Faces use full latex appliances from Bud Westmore*, who also created the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the makeup for Barbie.

*Thanks to Craig Edwards, who let me know "Bud Westmore had almost nothing to do with the design or creation of Creature from the Black Lagoon. That honor goes to Milicent Patrick."

Man of a Thousand Faces is a film that positively reeks of Hollywood sap. It is quite obviously that the screenwriter took a look at a time line of Chaney's life and took out the major events only to write his own story. Jim Cagney stars as Lon Chaney,the man of a thousand faces. Chaney was a slender and tall man and Cagney was short and stubby.

Is the film accurate? No not at all. The screenwriters obviously took a look at main events in Chaney's life and fabricated it to match a story. Cagney is a legend but he is not right at all for the role. Chaney was a tall and slender man and Cagney is short and stubby.Lon Chaney Jr was not born in a hospital,he was born prematurely in Chaney's cabin in Oklahoma. The doctors were afraid the boy was still born,Chaney took his Axe and rushed Lon Jr to the lake,cut a hole in the winter ice and dunked him under. Cleva was 17 years old when Lon Jr was born.Chaney and his first wife Cleva had trouble finding work and were forced to travel the country with various theater groups searching for a job. Lonchaney.com's bio claims Lon Jr would steal sandwiches and money when the audience was not looking.The whole plot about Chaney having conflicts with his wife is silly. Lon Jr never left and he very much loved his father and would tour with him. Chaney had work but it was not until he starred in the Hunchback of Notre Dame did he gain the success he had. The make-up job was fantastic for the time and the uninformed movie goers thought that was Chaney's actual face. Also the movie glamorized his time at Universal,yes his two major films were produced there but most of his films were made for MGM. In fact Universal fired Chaney because he thought he deserved more money.The ending is the part that gets me the most. Yes Chaney was sick but he died in his sleep.He never would let his illness get to him,in fact he was planning on making a huge come back and moving into the talkies.Chaney Sr hated the idea of Lon Jr becoming an actor. He thought he needed a man's job and forced him to seek various odd jobs. Chaney Jr became an actor because he had a family to feed and he thought he could get work because he was Lon's son.

The life of a legend is poked and pulled at until it was turned into this. The Soundtrack is horrible as well,the music that plays when Chaney's mute parents are on screen is subtle racism to the deaf in my book. The movie is pathetic positively pathetic. Jim Cagney is an outstanding actor,but he should have never been offered this role. Chaney died at age 47,Cagney was all ready 57 years old when he began making the film.If you do the math the movie begins in 1905 when Chaney was 24 years old.We can't expect historical accuracy with every movie but as a fan of Chaney I felt insulted watching this piece of crap.You know Lon Chaney would suffer for his art,we need more people like him and less people who want to milk a story for a dollar