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

The documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000) is visually well presented in the 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 at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.co.uk.

Other Photoplay Productions documentaries available on home video:
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995)
D.W. Griffith: Father of Film (1993)
So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton at MGM (2004)
Unknown Chaplin (1983)

Other silent era-related documentaries available on home video:
American Experience: Mary Pickford (2005)
Before Hollywood, There Was Fort Lee, N.J. (1964)
Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982)
Birth of a Legend (1966)
Buster Keaton Rides Again (1965)
Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies (2001)
The Chaplin Puzzle (1992)
Chaplin’s Art of Comedy (1966)
Chaplin’s Goliath (1996)
Charlie Chaplin: The Forgotten Years (2003)
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)
Clara Bow: Discovering the ‘It’ Girl (1999)
Discovering Cinema (1908-2004)
Douglas Fairbanks: The Great Swashbuckler (1976)
Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin (2006)
The Film Parade: A History of Early Cinema (1933-1947)
Forgotten Silver (1997)
Fritz Lang: Circle of Destiny (1998)
The Gentleman Tramp (1975)
The Great Chase (1963)
Harold Lloyd’s World of Comedy (1962)
Kingdom of Shadows (1998)
The Last Diva: Francesca Bertini (1982)
Laurel and Hardy’s Laughing 20s (1965)
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino (1982)
The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon (2004)
Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu (1998)
The Man You Loved to Hate (1979)
Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997)
Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde (1997)
Memories of the Silent Stars
Olive Thomas: Everybody’s Sweetheart (2004)
Otto Messmer and Felix the Cat (1977)
The Railrodder (1965)
Rudolph Valentino: The Great Lover (2006)
Sergei Eisenstein: Autobiography (1996)
Silent Britain (2006)
Slaphappy: The Movie (2004)
30 Years of Fun (1963)
Victor Sjöström (1981)
The Way to Murnau (2003)
When Comedy Was King (1960)
Without Lying Down (2000)