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Lon Chaney
A Thousand Faces
(2000)

Lon Chaney is among the most-popular of silent era stars, largely for the lasting appeal of his wide-range of character roles. This documentary by the respected author and filmmaker Kevin Brownlow is on par with his other first-class productions on silent era films and people.

Chaney’s private life and public career is examined through still photos, clips from films, and interviews with family members, coworkers, and Chaney fans who saw his films in their original runs. Among the people interviewed are Patsy Ruth Miller (costar), Jackie Coogan (costar), Willard Sheldon (assistant director), Ron Chaney (great-grandson), Sara Karloff (Boris’ daughter), Michael F. Blake (biographer), Ray Bradbury (modern author) and Forrest J. Ackerman (publisher).

While no feature-length documentary can impart as much information as a book-length biography, we think that this production does a fine job of introducing Lon Chaney to silent film neophytes and of reviewing Chaney’s career for enthusiasts.

— Carl Bennett

Warner Archive Collection
2018 DVD edition

Lon Chaney Collection (1921-2000), black & white and color, 329 minutes total, not rated, including Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000), black & white and color, 85 minutes, not rated.

Warner Home Video,
unknown catalog number, UPC 0-88574-62898-7.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc (two DVD-R discs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan image encoded in SDR MPEG-2 format at ? Mbps average video bit rate (capable of progressive scan upscaling to ? fps); Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at ? Kbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, French and Spanish language subtitles; chapter stops; standard two-disc DVD keepcase; $22.99.
Release date: 27 February 2018.
Country of origin: USA

This DVD-R edition, reissued on MOD DVD-R disc, includes the Photoplay Productions documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000). The presentation is expected to be identical to the earlier Warner edition noted below.

Supplemental material includes Rick Schmidlin’s lame 2002 photo reconstruction of the lost film London After Midnight (1927); audio commentaries by Chaney biographer Michael F. Blake; an introduction by TCM host Robert Osborne; and photo and memorabilia galleries.

This is our current recommended home video edition of the documentary.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.

Warner Archive Collection
2003 DVD edition

Lon Chaney Collection (1921-2000), black & white and color, 329 minutes total, not rated, including Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000), black & white and color, 85 minutes, not rated.

Warner Home Video, 65791, UPC 0-12569-57912-5.
One single-sided, dual-layered, Region 0 NTSC DVD disc (two DVDs in the set); 1.33:1 aspect ratio image in full-frame 4:3 (720 x 480 pixels) interlaced scan MPEG-2 format, SDR (standard dynamic range), 5.0 Mbps average video bit rate, 192 Kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 48 kHz 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, French and Spanish language subtitles; 24 chapter stops; two-disc digipak in cardboard slipcase; $39.98.
Release date: 28 October 2003.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 8 / audio: 8 / additional content: 8 / overall: 8.

The documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000) is visually well presented in this DVD collection. The modern footage is pristene, and the contemporary footage is crisply transferred from the best possible materials. Among the rare Chaney clips is brief footage from Alas and Alack (1914), The Fascination of the Fleur de Lis (1915), The Scarlet Car (1917), Riddle Gawne (1918), The Wicked Darling (1919), The Miracle Man (1919), The Trap (1922), Mr. Wu (1927), While the City Sleeps (1928) and Thunder (1929).

Among the revelations in the documentary are the first-hand accounts of the actual mundane quality of the most sought after of Chaney’s lost films, London After Midnight (1927). Thought by many to be a vampire film, it is instead a detective film that was played tongue-in-cheek.

We love each documentary that Kevin Brownlow produces, and this Chaney piece is no exception. We are very pleased that it has been included in this DVD collection and recommend it highly.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.