Diagonaldi Very well executed

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

dglink "Blizzard," a double amputee intent on revenge, ranks among the "Man of a Thousand Faces's" finest performances. Lon Chaney dominates "The Penalty," a 1920 silent film directed by Wallace Worsley. Although nearly a century old, the film is no museum curiosity, but rather a remarkably contemporary movie and an engrossing drama. The print is in good condition, projected at the correct speed, beautifully tinted, and well scored.While laying in his hospital bed, a young boy overhears his doctors admit that the amputation of his legs had been a mistake. Rather than admit their error, the doctors conceal their guilt, and, when the boy tells his parents what he heard, the doctors claim he is hallucinating from the effects of ether. The boy matures into Lon Chaney as "Blizzard," an underworld crime lord, who seeks to take revenge on the doctor, the doctor's daughter, and on the city of San Francisco. As part of his plan, Chaney manipulates his way into being the model for a statue of Satan, sculpted by the doctor's daughter. Meanwhile, the authorities have planted a mole among Blizzard's confidantes to uncover his plot. Although other members of the cast, such as Charles Clary, Doris Pawn, Claire Adams, and Kenneth Harlan are largely forgotten, their acting is naturalistic for the most part, and only a few overplayed flourishes of the "grand style" mar the film. Made well before the Production Code, the film has a flash of nudity and an implied sado-masochistic relationship between "Blizzard" and the woman who manually pushes the piano pedals, while he plays the keyboard.Fine sharp cinematography, an engrossing story, good performances, and a legendary star in a memorable role, "The Penalty" is a must see for silent film aficionados and Lon Chaney fans. For those unfamiliar with either silents or Chaney, the film is an excellent work in which to discover both.

simeon_flake A car accident leaves a small boy in the care of a doctor who decides to amputate both of the boy's legs. The boy also has a contusion at the base of his skull--a plot point that will become very important towards the end of the movie.Much to the doctor's shock and dismay, one of his colleagues reveals that amputation wasn't necessary and the boy overhears how the doctor butchered him. Years later, the boy would grow up to become Blizzard, the King of the San Francisco underworld.Blizzard has plans--not only to rob the city blind, but to exact revenge on the doctor who robbed him of his legs.This was without doubt, the best Lon Chaney Sr. movie I have seen. No elaborate facial makeups, just the acting skills of a master silent screen star--and the no doubt arduous pains Chaney must have gone through to affect the double amputee look.This might also be one of the very few Chaney Sr. films I've seen where he gets a girl. Not the one he had his eyes on throughout the film, but a girl nonetheless and after an operation, it appears Chaney may get a very happy ending--that is until he must pay the Penalty.This might also be the best restoration I have seen of all of Chaney's surviving silents. There's still one or two I have not purchased yet, but there was not a whole lot in the way of grain or dirt, static, whatever else may effect old movies such as these.Overall, if you're a fan of Lon Chaney, then "The Penalty" is required viewing. 10 stars

Scott LeBrun Silent screen legend Lon Chaney has a particularly enjoyable role which he plays to the hilt. His expressions and delivery are absolutely delicious; he looks like he is having a terrific time playing this demented antagonist. Experts believe that the pain he must have felt wearing a harness had an impact on his performance and added to his intensity. The other performers are fine but are simply blown off the screen by his flamboyant villainy.The story is a good one. Based on the novel by Gouverneur Morris and scripted by Charles Kenyon & Philip Lonergan, it tells of a man named "Blizzard" (Chaney), who as a child had had his legs unnecessarily amputated by incompetent doctor Ferris (Charles Clary). He grows up to be a crippled, embittered gangster in San Francisco who plots an insidious revenge, intending to get close to Ferris's sculptress daughter Barbara (Claire Adams). She's in a creative slump and has decided to make a portrait of "Satan after the fall", for which Blizzard means to model. While this is going on, an undercover operative named Rose (Ethel Grey Terry) has infiltrated his organization to get the goods on him."The Penalty" is a very diverting melodrama that does have a deliberate pace, but there are many fine moments with Mr. Chaney. In addition to its serious moments, it has some humour as well. It's especially funny when Blizzard asks of his henchmen, "Do I look like Satan?" One of the best lines of dialogue occurs when Blizzard is told that he's mad, and he responds that it's the kind of madness that succeeds. And Blizzard does indeed often look sufficiently mad.As directed by Wallace Worsley, this does have some neat details, such as hidden passageways, always fun to see in films from this period. And the story leads to a rather unexpected and touching resolution that is extremely effective.Must viewing for Chaney fans.Eight out of 10.

Tenkun The Man of a Thousand Faces in 1920, before his prime, under the direction of Wallace Worsley who would make him the Hunchback. But instead of being the sympathetic and heart-warming freak, here he is a demoniacal madman out for revenge."The Penalty" follows Blizzard, an underworld mastermind who had his legs unnecessarily amputated as a child (kinda like Reagan in "Kings Row"). And aside from general evil, crime, and mayhem, his main goal is to claim revenge on the doctor who did it. After we see the grisly mangling, we move to modern-day (1920) San Francisco where Frisco Pete, a drugged-out hoodlum, murders showgirl Barbary Nell and then flees to sanctuary at Blizzard's hide-out. The police send Rose, their undercover girl, to disguise herself as one of Blizzard's many molls, and become practically a concubine who presses the pedals as Blizzard plays the piano. Meanwhile, he works to seduce the sculptress daughter of the doctor who deformed him, posing as Satan for a sculpture. And all the while he's planning for the greatest crime spree of them all, when he'll bring thousands of disgruntled foreign laborers in to conquer the city...God, "The Penalty" is creepy. It might not be the best-made movie of all time; the actors might not all stand out; the ending may be a cop-out. But it's got a lot of good points going for it. First, the title. "The Penalty" is about penalties of all kinds: Dr. Ferris must pay a penalty for his youthful indiscretions; Blizzard must pay a penalty for his life of crime. San Francisco must pay for creating monsters like Blizzard and Frisco Pete. The film is submerged in an idea of guilt, revenge, and comeuppance. Lon Chaney, as always, is an asset, in building a disturbing atmosphere of fear and loathing, as well as messing with the viewer's psyche through his performance. On turns you pity and hate him. Sure, he's evil. But his evil is so hypnotically attractive. And he's not entirely to blame for it. He's got no legs- can he still be fully responsible for his actions? Whatever Blizzard does, he revels in it. Climbing up the wall, with those stumps- can you take it? Like other quasi-horror films of the '20s and '30s, "The Penalty" is rife with hellish, gargoylian imagery. Beyond the buckets on Chaney's stumps and his legless swagger, there's the satanic sculpture and the apocalyptic fantasies (in which we see SF reduced to anarchic rubble) and the secret room full of chorus girls making hats, and the dirty underground corridors hidden behind Blizzard's fireplace, and the fully equipped operating room (in which he sets his bizarre revenge, which is worthy of Tod Browning). Then, looking at "The Penalty" from our postmodern perch, we can also enjoy the tinting (which changes from scene to scene) which gives it an almost psychedelic flavor, especially when combined with the soundtrack, which is a mixed bag. It's got some organ, some indistinguishable wailing, a couple possible leitmotifs, and what could be music from the darker levels of Super Mario Bros. It all comes together to give us, basically, "The Phantom of the Opera" meets "Citizen Kane" in hell, dimmed a few notches.What can I say? If you like Lon Chaney, you're bound to love his role here. The finale may be a let-down, but those are the breaks. Watch with plenty of suspended disbelief and immerse yourself in the abstractly gritty, mildly Gothic San Francisco gangland of the 1920s.