Great Film overall

Good movie but grossly overrated

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Lon Chaney remains one of the most loved figures of the silent era and for good reason: he was a fantastic actor who threw himself into his parts 100 percent. The Penalty (1920), his first starring effort, is no exception.With a plot featuring drug-dealing, prostitution, and murder, The Penalty is a grisly picture with a great, seedy underworld atmosphere. Chaney steals the show as the double amputee crime lord Blizzard; his performance is part terrifying, part wicked camp, and part sympathetic, all in all a complex villain. Also notable is Ethel Grey Terry as Rose, the woman who infiltrates Blizzard's underworld and hopes to bring him to justice- before falling in love with him, of course. Terry underplays it and gets to shine in an active role. No damsel in distress is she.Still, the film does have flaws. The "heroes" of the film are not only out-shined by the more charismatic Blizzard, they are also unlikeable for a modern audience with their sexist attitudes toward women, whom they believe should just stay at home and reproduce instead of following their ambitions. The ending smacks of deus ex machina, though I will say the filmmakers pull it off as best as they can.Absolutely essential for fans of the silent film era.

I don't know how many musical scores this movie has. I have seen a version which didn't have any soundtrack so viewing it in complete silence was a weird experience. However that didn't take away too much enjoyment from my viewing experience. The plot is here very simple, a boy whose legs are amputated which aferwards didn't seem necessary. Later when the boy has grown up into an adult despite his handicap has become a mob leader named Blizzard feared by his employees and enemies. He has no trouble having people killed who stand in his way that is until pretty agent Rose goes undercover as a worker into his mansion soon developing into his personal assistant pedaling the piano. Still Blizzard seeks for revenge against doctor Ferris who he holds responsible for his handicap. When the doctor's daughter Barbara wants to make a Satan portrait out of clay, Blizzard succeeds in getting to model for it as a step to get his revenge on the doctor. Excellent performance by Lon Chaney his mean facial expressions are scary and he really looks and moves like a real crippled man. I wonder if they worked with a body double here. The end is surprising and eventually tragic.

This was Lon Chaney's first starring film after wowing everyone in "The Miracle Man".I watched "The Penalty" at night and it really scared me. Even though people are dismissive of the ending - that it is too "comfortable" - I needed that ending - I would have found it difficult to get to sleep otherwise. Lon Chaney plays Blizzard, the insane crime lord of the San Francisco underworld. As a child he was the victim of a botched operation which left him a double amputee. He overhears the doctors talking about how the operation was unnecessary and grows up bitter and twisted in his mind.Chaney's performance is outstanding - he endured great pain by strap- ping his legs up at the knees in a specially made harness. Not only that but he perfected the walk until he actually walked like he had always been an amputee. Jumping onto tables, climbing up ladders, sliding down poles - all landing on his knees!!!He runs a millinery where he terrorizes the factory girls by jumping on the table and grabbing their hair. If one happens to catch his fancy - she becomes his personal slave - and is forced to use her hands as pedals when he plays the piano as he has no legs!!!He is surrounded by an evil henchman - Frisco Pete - who will stop at nothing to keep in Blizzard's good books - even to killing one of the girls, Barbary Nell who has left the factory to make out on her own.Litchenstein head of the secret police wants one of his agents, Rose (Ethel Grey Terry) to go undercover to get evidence to destroy Blizzard. Blizzard has a plan to take over the city and seek revenge on the doctor that operated on him as a boy.The doctor, now a famous surgeon, has a daughter who is a sculptor but wants to do a worthwhile piece of art before she marries. She places an advertisement in the paper for models that look like Satan. Blizzard is hired!!!!Meanwhile Rose has been working undercover and found nothing. When Blizzard is out she finds an underground passage - complete with an operating theatre. He plans to form an army of disgruntled foreigners who will loot the city. Blizzard, by this time will have had an operation on his legs to make him able bodied and the legs he is looking at belong to Wilmot, the doctor's assistant. There is an operation but not the one he demands!!!Lon Chaney's facial expressions are really remarkable - in a lot of scenes he really looks satanic. There are no known names in the cast - Kenneth Harlan, who had a reasonable career and at one time was married to Marie Prevost, plays Wilmot. Cesare Gravina, who had a part in "Greed" as the junkman, has a small part in this film playing a sculpting instructor.This is a fantastic film - I will give it 10 out of 10.

LON CHANEY hobbles around on crutches, his legs mere stumps through a young doctor's mistake in amputating both legs above the knee after an accident as a young boy.Chaney, the actor, must have endured a lot of pain from having to bind both legs in order to convincingly play the double amputee--and, of course, he does it with so many flourishes using his crutches and nimbly mounting chairs and climbing using just the strength in his arms. There's strength in his face too, and it's used to advantage here when he poses for a bust of Satan, the Evil One. He can convey evil with just a slight change of expression and a look in his eyes, so much so that he's quite chilling in several scenes with very little make-up needed.The plot seems like a contrivance--an old-fashioned one about a man seeking revenge for the man that wronged him, but the plot throws in a couple of twists along the way so that in the end, "the penalty" is not the one you expected.I watched this on TCM and the only unfortunate thing was the irritatingly busy background score which became repetitive and inappropriate for the on screen action. Let's hope that someone else will compose a better score for this film, for it truly deserves better than the one provided so far.