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Features: DVD
In a role that established him as one of the most dynamically terrifying performers of the silent screen, Lon Chaney stars in The Penalty, a grotesque thriller from director Wallace Worsley (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame). When an incompetent doctor amputates the legs of a young boy, he has no idea that the youth will grow up to be the immoral and embittered Blizzard, a criminal mastermind who orchestrates a bizarre and heinous plot to avenge himself upon his malefactor. The Penalty teems with irony and sexual menace as Blizzard befriends the surgeon's daughter and serves as an artist's model for her sculptural rendition of Satan, waiting for his moment to show the depth of his demonic desires. In playing the devious Blizzard, Chaney tightly harnessed his legs within a pair of leather stumps, flawlessly rendering the physical disfigurement that so profoundly echoes the misshapen mind that drives this sadistic character toward his violent destiny. As Chaney biographer Michael Blake says, "One has to wonder if the intensity Lon brought to this role might have been due in part to the pain produced by the harness."
Editor's Note
Lon Chaney turns in an amazing performance in this silent horror film, for which he had to wear an extremely painful harness that kept his legs strapped behind his back. Chaney stars as Blizzard, a double amputee who is out to get revenge on the incompetent doctor who performed the needless amputation on him when he was a child. Now the head of San Francisco's crime syndicate, Blizzard begins his revenge scheme by insinuating himself into the life of the doctor's daughter by serving as her model for a portrait of Satan. Soon, Blizzard's plan encompasses not only humiliating the doctor and his daughter, but also, as he descends into madness, conspiring with the communists on an invasion of the Bay Area. Absurd, frightening, melodramatic, and highly entertaining, THE PENALTY is a high point of 1920s horror.
| Features | Full Frame | | Scene Comparison (Novel, Screenplay, Film) | | Production Budget Sheet From The Penalty | | Gallery Of Photographs And Artwork | | Surviving Footage From Chaney's The Miracle Man | | Chaney's 1914 One-Reel Western By The Sun's Rays | | Essay: "The Penalty: Novel, Script To Screen" | | A Video Tour Of Chaney's Makeup Case And The "Double Amputee" Costume Worn In The Penalty | | Essay By Chaney Biographer Michel F. Blake | | Original Theatrical Trailers From Chaney's The Big City And While The City Sleeps |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Kino Video |
| Release Date: 10/5/2004 |
| Running Time: 93 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1920 | | Catalog ID: 2162 | | UPC: 00738329021627 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 4:3 |
| Cast & Crew
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