:39:02
In 1955, another
Phantom script was prepared,
:39:06
again set in the gaslight era.
:39:08
But the new face of fear at Universal
was the Creature from the Black Lagoon
:39:14
and other modern horrors
of the fabulous Fifties.
:39:17
Lon Chaney now was
the stuff of old-fashioned melodrama,
:39:21
which the film story of his life became.
:39:24
Damn you!
:39:25
Damn you! Damn you!
:39:29
Man of a Thousand Faces was a sanitised
retelling of Chaney's Hollywood story.
:39:35
They love him, don't they?
:39:37
The authorised version
of a very private life,
:39:40
which some felt dropped the curtain
on the true backstage drama.
:39:45
The son of deaf-mutes, Lon Chaney was
sensitively portrayed by James Cagney.
:39:51
The film explained
Chaney's craft and fame,
:39:55
but weak facsimiles of Chaney's triumphs
:39:58
failed to convey
his power of accomplishment.
:40:01
Even Erique's organ requiem
sounded contrived,
:40:04
having been ad-libbed
by staff composer Herman Stein,
:40:08
asked to strike some chords for what
he was told was only a sound check.
:40:20
Chaney's soul remained
a private mystery.
:40:25
Do you have to pray like that?
:40:28
I wouldn't know how
to mean it any other way.
:40:31
Cut!
:40:33
Even a bargain-basement unmasking
generated excitement,
:40:36
and inspired a new Phantom.
:40:38
The never-produced 1957 script
confronted the ghosts of World War Il,
:40:44
the Phantom a dancer
named Carlo Volpurno,
:40:46
scarred by Mussolini's Fascists.
:40:49
The spirit of Lon Chaney
lived on at Universal.
:40:52
There's a great new joke
going around school.
:40:55
Don't step on that spider-
it might be Lon Chaney.
:40:59
Very funny.