Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

James Cagney was 58 years old when he starred in this movie as Lon Chaney, who died in 1930 at the age of 47. The story starts out in the early 1900s when Chaney was a Vaudeville performer in his 20s! His son was born in 1906 and he started working in films (as an extra) in 1912 or 1913 at the age of 30. Chaney divorced his first wife in 1913 and remarried in 1914. All of these events happened to Chaney before he was 31.While Cagney does give a good performance, he's so "too old" for the role, it's hard to get past it. The filmmakers try to hide it by having Cagney is clown make-up or or theatrical guise through a lot of the early part of the film when he's married to the first wife (Dorothy Malone, who's 33 here). With Malone out and the second wife (Jane Greer, also 33) in, Cagney looks like their father.There's a lot of lip service to Chaney's film career, which really took off with THE MIRACLE MAN in 1919. That film, which exists now only in fragments, starred Thomas Meighan and Betty Compson. Chaney had the showy supporting role of "the Frog" (a role originated on Broadway by Percy Helton). This is pretty well done. We see lots of drawings of Chaney's subsequent characters in films and two of the most famous are re-enacted.The main trouble with the re-enactments of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is that while Chaney created his characters with makeup, hooks, wires, and rubber so that his facial expressions were free. Cagney's disguises are mostly just Halloween masks and do not come close to the original creations.Irving Thalberg is played by Robert Evans, whom Norma Shearer spotted by the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel and promoted him for the role of her dead husband. Roger Smith plays Chaney's son. He was "discovered" by Cagney in Hawaii and promoted for the role of Chaney, Jr.Others in the cast include Jim Backus as the press agent, Marjorie Rambeau as the old-time actress, Marjorie Bennett as Vera the maid, and Celia Lovsky as the mother. This film is probably a fine biopic if you know nothing about Lon Chaney. If you do, then it comes across as a vanity production of the worst kind.

When James Cagney was cast as legendary silent film star Lon Chaney in 1957 he was 58 years old. That made him 11 years old than Chaney when he died of cancer in 1930. Which posed a formidable challenge - how to make a very middle-aged Cagney look credible when portraying Chaney as a young man. Director Joseph Pevney's solution was to shoot Cagney almost exclusively in long-shot for three quarters of the movie and also in shadow. Not artistically lit or subtle shadow, mind you. These shadows are big and black and blot out Cagney's face. They're the kind of obscuring shadows that would have the director screaming "cut! cut! CUT!!" on any other film and then chewing out the cameraman in front of the whole crew for lighting the scene so ineptly. There is no reason for these shadows other than to obscure Cagney's features. They do nothing to create or enhance mood, or convey a message. These are shadows that put the worst of film noir to shame. On the couple of occasions when Pevney attempts something resembling a medium close-up he over-lights Cagney's face, clumsily but effectively burning out any detail including his wrinkles. But Pevney's not simply a two or even three trick pony when it comes to concealing the ravages of time. He also has Cagney play several scenes in thick clown face make-up - because that's what we remember Chaney for. You might think that a biopic of Hollywood's first great horror actor might focus the bulk of its attention on recreating those years and films, but MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES spends an inordinate amount of its overlong running time bringing us up to speed on Chaney's vaudeville career. I'm not doubting that it was an important training ground but do we really need to see the dancing clown routine more than once? Actually, if it weren't for Pevney's ham-fisted efforts to obscure Cagney's inappropriateness for the part, this film would have very little to recommend it. If writer Ralph Wheelwright's account is to believed (and from some sources I've read it might not be), Chaney's personal life was a little on the turbulent side, but the way it plays out here is so flat, unimaginative and uninspired that it's a chore to stick with it. Within the limitations previously discussed, Cagney gives a good account of himself, demonstrating his versatility as an actor and a hoofer while suppressing most of the Cagneyisms that characterized many of his performances. But not for one moment did he lose himself in the part, and that meant I never shook the feeling that I was watching him playing a part rather than watching him become the part. Check out more of my reviews at http://thefilmivejustseen.blogspot.com/

A film legend played by an even bigger film legend. Two stories about shifting from a silent world to a speaking one. This is interesting.Families: an honest son (himself a film celebrity, but of lower order). Two wives, one flawed. A grudge. This is not interesting, even in the slightest.A walk through the confusion of silent filming. The most interesting of all.The "point" of the movie is that this man of many faces created one for the family he wished, and another for the wife he blamed for not trying, even though he got her pregnant without revealing a significant genetic flaw. This is done poorly.All in all, this barely rises to a 2.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Man of a Thousand Faces is a film that positively reeks of Hollywood sap. It is quite obviously that the screenwriter took a look at a time line of Chaney's life and took out the major events only to write his own story. Jim Cagney stars as Lon Chaney,the man of a thousand faces. Chaney was a slender and tall man and Cagney was short and stubby.Is the film accurate? No not at all. The screenwriters obviously took a look at main events in Chaney's life and fabricated it to match a story. Cagney is a legend but he is not right at all for the role. Chaney was a tall and slender man and Cagney is short and stubby.Lon Chaney Jr was not born in a hospital,he was born prematurely in Chaney's cabin in Oklahoma. The doctors were afraid the boy was still born,Chaney took his Axe and rushed Lon Jr to the lake,cut a hole in the winter ice and dunked him under. Cleva was 17 years old when Lon Jr was born.Chaney and his first wife Cleva had trouble finding work and were forced to travel the country with various theater groups searching for a job. Lonchaney.com's bio claims Lon Jr would steal sandwiches and money when the audience was not looking.The whole plot about Chaney having conflicts with his wife is silly. Lon Jr never left and he very much loved his father and would tour with him. Chaney had work but it was not until he starred in the Hunchback of Notre Dame did he gain the success he had. The make-up job was fantastic for the time and the uninformed movie goers thought that was Chaney's actual face. Also the movie glamorized his time at Universal,yes his two major films were produced there but most of his films were made for MGM. In fact Universal fired Chaney because he thought he deserved more money.The ending is the part that gets me the most. Yes Chaney was sick but he died in his sleep.He never would let his illness get to him,in fact he was planning on making a huge come back and moving into the talkies.Chaney Sr hated the idea of Lon Jr becoming an actor. He thought he needed a man's job and forced him to seek various odd jobs. Chaney Jr became an actor because he had a family to feed and he thought he could get work because he was Lon's son.The life of a legend is poked and pulled at until it was turned into this. The Soundtrack is horrible as well,the music that plays when Chaney's mute parents are on screen is subtle racism to the deaf in my book. The movie is pathetic positively pathetic. Jim Cagney is an outstanding actor,but he should have never been offered this role. Chaney died at age 47,Cagney was all ready 57 years old when he began making the film.If you do the math the movie begins in 1905 when Chaney was 24 years old.We can't expect historical accuracy with every movie but as a fan of Chaney I felt insulted watching this piece of crap.You know Lon Chaney would suffer for his art,we need more people like him and less people who want to milk a story for a dollar