The life and career of vaudevillian and silent-screen horror star Lon Chaney, including his contentious relationship with his neurotic wife and his premature death.The life and career of vaudevillian and silent-screen horror star Lon Chaney, including his contentious relationship with his neurotic wife and his premature death.The life and career of vaudevillian and silent-screen horror star Lon Chaney, including his contentious relationship with his neurotic wife and his premature death.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
Robert Evans
- Irving Thalberg
- (as Robert J. Evans)
Philip Van Zandt
- George Loane Tucker
- (as Phil Van Zandt)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAs with most biographical films, the script is a combination of fact and screenwriters' fancy. To give but two examples, Lon Chaney Jr. was not born in a hospital, but at his parents' then-home in Oklahoma City, as was common at the time. Further, Cleva Creighton Chaney was well aware, before her marriage to Lon Chaney, that his parents were hearing-impaired, and had already met them on several occasions.
- GoofsLon Chaney did not die at home surrounded by loved ones, he died very suddenly in the hospital (around midnight) after suffering a hemorrhage.
- Quotes
Lon Chaney: The kind of fellows I play, pretty girls don't write to.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
- SoundtracksJingle Bells
(uncredited)
Written by James Pierpont (as James Lord Pierpont) (1857)
integrated into soundtrack when Chaney family reunites at Christmas
Featured review
1957 bio-pic on the life of silent film legend Lon Chaney,this overlong and poorly written film has only the central performance of James Cagney as the title character to recommend it. Nearing the end of his long and distinguished career, Cagney was already 10 years older than Chaney was when he died when filming began and is hardly convincing as a young and struggling vaudevillian and new father. Things improve when Chaney goes to Hollywood where the screenplay deals with his success as a character actor and his near miraculous ability to transform his face and body as necessary to play what became an amazing range of exotic and tortured characters.
Unfortunately the writers choose to concentrate the bulk of the film on Chaney's family problems. Chaney's parents were deaf mutes, which apparently accounted for their son's out-sized gift for pantomime. But the screenplay treats deafness as if it were the plague, something so embarrassing that Lon cannot bring himself to tell his pregnant wife (played by Dorothy Malone) that his parents are deaf. When she discovers the truth, she reacts in an absurdly hysterical tantrum, even threatening (in a veiled sense, of course, after all this is 1957) to have an abortion rather than risk the possibility of giving birth to a deaf child.
The Malone character is scapegoated throughout the film, becoming the screenplay's surrogate for society's prejudice towards the deaf, and later being punished for wanting her own career. Even though she eventually becomes a sympathetic character, the script comes down strongly in favor of Chaney's second wife, who dutifully gives up her own show business career to become the stay-at-home wife and step-mother to Chaney's young son.
Jim Backus does his best in the role of Chaney's friend/press agent to keep from being a walking cliché while forced to utter lines like " 'Mystery' did you say? That's it! We'll call him 'Lon Chaney, Man of Mystery!' " and " How many faces did you say? That's it! We'll call him 'Lon Chaney, Man of a Thousand Faces!' " Jane Greer gives up her usual femme fatale persona to play Lon's devoted second wife, and a very young Roger Smith plays son Creighton (later to become Lon Chaney, Jr.), hoping to follow in his father's footsteps. The sodden direction by Joseph Pevney precludes any mystery as to how this story will resolve itself.
Only the performance of James Cagney makes this film worth watching, even as the script wallows in Hollywood kitsch and repellent 50s attitudes towards women and the handicapped. John Bills
Unfortunately the writers choose to concentrate the bulk of the film on Chaney's family problems. Chaney's parents were deaf mutes, which apparently accounted for their son's out-sized gift for pantomime. But the screenplay treats deafness as if it were the plague, something so embarrassing that Lon cannot bring himself to tell his pregnant wife (played by Dorothy Malone) that his parents are deaf. When she discovers the truth, she reacts in an absurdly hysterical tantrum, even threatening (in a veiled sense, of course, after all this is 1957) to have an abortion rather than risk the possibility of giving birth to a deaf child.
The Malone character is scapegoated throughout the film, becoming the screenplay's surrogate for society's prejudice towards the deaf, and later being punished for wanting her own career. Even though she eventually becomes a sympathetic character, the script comes down strongly in favor of Chaney's second wife, who dutifully gives up her own show business career to become the stay-at-home wife and step-mother to Chaney's young son.
Jim Backus does his best in the role of Chaney's friend/press agent to keep from being a walking cliché while forced to utter lines like " 'Mystery' did you say? That's it! We'll call him 'Lon Chaney, Man of Mystery!' " and " How many faces did you say? That's it! We'll call him 'Lon Chaney, Man of a Thousand Faces!' " Jane Greer gives up her usual femme fatale persona to play Lon's devoted second wife, and a very young Roger Smith plays son Creighton (later to become Lon Chaney, Jr.), hoping to follow in his father's footsteps. The sodden direction by Joseph Pevney precludes any mystery as to how this story will resolve itself.
Only the performance of James Cagney makes this film worth watching, even as the script wallows in Hollywood kitsch and repellent 50s attitudes towards women and the handicapped. John Bills
- How long is Man of a Thousand Faces?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Der Mann mit den 1000 Gesichtern
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime2 hours 2 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) officially released in India in English?
Answer