Ah yes it's back! I don't know why I've petered off on doing these...life and junk. For more Silents Talk click here.
Lon Chaney is perhaps one of the greatest silent actors ever. His make up skills are still a thing of envy today (including the slightly cringe worthy story of his Phantom makeup). The man was quite mysterious, insisting when off screen 'Lon Chaney' did not exist. There have been a few biographies written on him, though I have yet to read them (its on my list). Make up or no make up he was one hell of an actor...and his characterizations are heart wrenchingly wonderful.
Chaney was one of those actors where it probably wouldn't have mattered how he sounded. He was so versatile, I'm not sure anything could have stopped him....well except that damn throat cancer. In what has to be one of the most ironic and sad situations ever, Lon was diagnosed with throat cancer shortly after talkies arrived.
In fact he only lived long enough to make one talkie, a remake of one of his silent films, "The Unholy Three". Though I have yet to see the talkie version (which you can buy here) I have seen the silent version which is excellent. In fact its the perfect talkie premise: Chaney played a ventriloquist who uses his vocal powers to set up a jewel heist (even dressing as an old granny for a good chunk of the film!). Publicity for the film mentioned how he had to sign a contract verifying that 4 of the voices: his character's, the fake granny voice, the parrot voice, and the dummy voice were not dubbed and all his own vocalizations. Below is a clip of Chaney speaking as himself and the dummy:
Verdict: Talkies or Silents?
Well...in Lon's case I think he could have done just as well in either medium. Perhaps the one thing that would have limited him would be masking his voice as well as he masked his face. How would the Phantom speak? Or Mr. Wu? Or the batshit crazy manic depressive clown known as HE?
I think with Unholy Three, Chaney was trying to prove indeed he could do character voices...what's more character-ish than Grandma? It's just a shame he didn't live long enough to make another talkie...it's almost impossible to render a verdict without another character to judge.
That being said as usual Lon had a fine voice. Suited what we thought as him and it worked fine in the film. Though he will always be immortal in silents, I think he could have been immortal in talkies as well.
2 comments:
I've seen the talkie version and am surprised you haven's (TCM runs it now and then). It isn't exactly a bad film but it isn't anywhere as good as the silent- mostly because much of the film comes off as unintentionally funny. Chaney's speaking voice is very good and his voice as the old woman is quite adequate (you have to suspend disbelief a little.) Elliot Nugent is a complete washout as the juvenile lead- he was never a good actor but did MUCH better when he switched to writing. Harry Earles suffers from a double handicap- his voice is peculiar and has a thick German accent to the point where he is largely uninteligable. This is a shame because he actually gives a rather effective performance: hearing this chubby baby-like man snarling "I'd like to kill them all!" is quite chilling. Much as you dislike the book check out Basinger's remarkks on this film in Silent Stars- she captures the odd points quite well. (and then there's the gorilla. . . )
CA hates TCM :(. I have heard about the infamous gorilla though. I cant remember...was that in the silent too? Its been awhile.
I do adore Lon Chaney though...his films are always mind blowing.
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