Man Of A Thousand Faces (1957/Universal DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B
As time
goes on and the Old Silent Hollywood becomes less familiar with newer audiences
it’s more imperative for people to become familiar with the ‘old greats’. In 1957 one of those productions cast James
Cagney in a superb role of actor Lon Chaney and this loose biography attempts
to showcase the work of the individual known famously as “the man with a
thousand faces”. For those who are not
that familiar, Lon Chaney was a highly celebrated actor in the silent age of
Hollywood who died in the 1930 of lung cancer, but before his death would etch
forever in the history of filmmaking his role in film The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and goes down as one of the great
Classic Monsters alongside Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.
According
to many sources there was more to Lon Chaney than meets the eye and often those
‘faces’ were reflections of his personal life, which perhaps only two people
really knew best: Hazel and Cleva Chaney, who were his first and second wife
and played here by Dorothy Malone and Jane Greer. Like most geniuses, Lon’s life was complex
and complicated, which perhaps was the fuel that he used for his memorable
on-screen personas, but it may have cost him his life at an early age. I am mindful of the quote from the movie Blade Runner – “The light that burns
twice as bright burns half as long”, and perhaps that was the case with
Chaney. Whatever the case, this film
attempts to portray the true life story of him and takes perhaps certain
liberties to make the film more accessible, it would be interesting to see how
this film would be made nowadays as the rating system would allow for more
provocative material to be addressed as the case was with 1998’s Gods and Monsters about filmmaker James
Whale.
Presented
in anamorphic widescreen 2.35 X 1 scope image the film never looked better
despite having some issues that DVD is unable to rectify being a standard
definition format, the limitations are evident. While soft at times the black
and white image looks good for being 50+ years old. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono mix is adequate as
well and would only make sense to upgrade in the future when the film gets a
restored print to meet HD standards. For
now, this will suffice.
- Nate Goss
