Outside the Law

Many people know Lon Chaney by his classics where he plays macabre characters whose faces and bodies are abnormally distorted. Little do they know a large majority of his roles were playing gangster-type baddies. In his second Tod Browning-directed movie, Dec. 1920's "Outside The Law," Chaney is a mobster who looks to frame a rival, Silent Madden, for murder. Madden's daughter, actress Priscilla Dean, is equally a tough cookie. When Chaney's plan becomes successful, Dean looks for revenge.

"Outside The Law" is cinema's first psychologically-driven gangster film where a main character undergoes a transformation and seeks redemption for her previous crimes. One of Chaney's associates, actor Wheeler Oakman, has fallen for Dean and tells her his boss is setting her up to take the blame for a jewelry heist. She foils Chaney's plans and her and Oakman hide out in a cramped apartment whiling away the time while they have the rocks. It's here, seeing a shadow of a crucifix on the floor, Dean realizes the error of her ways and decides to come clean. Of course, coming clean means fingering Chaney, setting off one one of the most chaotic shootout conclusions in cinema. This ending was so complex it took Browning and crew two weeks to film.

Dean was one of the most active actresses in silent movies. Her movie career began in 1911 and she appeared in dozens of films. She was one of those actresses who didn't make the successful transition to sound, ending her film career in a handful of low-budget productions after 1930. She was married to her counterpart in "Outside The Law," Wheeler Oakman at the time she made the film, but the two divorced in 1926.

Chaney in "Outside The Law" was not only the main gangster but also was made-up as a Chinese assistant, Ah Wing, to an influential Confucian scholar. This was the "Man of a Thousand Faces" actor's first time playing an Asian character. "Outside" came on the heels of Chaney's breakout movie released a few months earlier in August 1920 "The Penalty." Chaney plays a bitter legless man seeking revenge against a doctor for operating on him on a needless amputation during his youth.