AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

dweilermg-1 * Like many Hollywood bio-pics MOATF is indeed more about entertaining the movie-going audience rather than being 100% accurate. It is a mix of fact and fiction/legend. However Cagney's recreation of many of Lon Chaney Sr's many movie character scenes especially. The Miracle Man make this movie indeed worth watching and enjoying over and over. Regardless of movie's inaccuracies Chaney was indeed a genius and the movie tells that part of his story well.

mark.waltz Celebrating 4000 reviews brings me to the man who had more faces than the sane year's Eve. 997 to be exact. James Cagney delivers another fantastic performance as a real person, having been songs and dance man (and song writer) George M. Cohan, gangster Marty Snyder who lead singer Ruth Etting to fame, yet almost destroyed her life anyway, and later, a naval commander who was one of World War II's most controversial figures. In between beating up Doris Day and spouting philosophies to sailors, he took on the role of the man who left Hollywood by dying the same year he arrived. Lon Chaney is credited for so many great performances, so it's very appropriate that a man of equal greatness takes on his life.Fresh from her acclaimed role in "Written on the Wind" (for which she would win an Oscar), Dorothy Malone plays another juicy part as Chaney's selfish first wife, a promising singer whose bitterness over her fear of son Creighton becoming deaf that she deliberately seems to go out of her way to destroy her marriage. There's no subtlety in her performance, making her seem rather harsh and one dimensional. Jane Greer, who played evil broads earlier in her career, is much more believable as his second wife who looked on young Creighton (Lon Jr.) as if he was her own son. The second half focuses on Malone's return as a pathetic shell of her former self and the revelation that Creighton believed his mother to be deceased, setting up a major conflict between father and son. Surprisingly energetic and never slow, this shows Chaney's struggles in vaudeville, how he uses his experience of having deaf parents to establish his acting style (picking up details from others he meets as well), and even getting to dance a bit. Every moment he's on, Cagney is a master of making you forget that he's Cagney. So many incredible small moments make this one of the best movie bio's, certainly a ton better than "The Buster Keaton Story" and "The Helen Morgan Story" released the same year. It's nice to see the wonderful Jim Backus in a dramatic role, quite a contrast from Mr. Howell and Mr. Magoo. Marjorie Rambeau has a great cameo as a veteran character actress of dowager parts, aiding Chaney in his rise from extra to star. Future movie producer Robert Evans ("Love Story") plays veteran "wonder boy" producer Irving Thalberg, setting up the film's narration. While a few proved facts were altered for dramatic effect, in the case of this story, it works out for the best, giving Cagney a great exit.

MikeMagi There was a time when movie bios were a mix of fact and invention -- and 1957's "Man of a Thousand Faces" typifies the genre. Yes, Chaney was the son of deaf mutes but there's no evidence that he hid the fact from his pregnant wife or that she demanded an abortion when she heard the news. And while it's true that she was suicidal, she didn't try to kill herself on stage. Their bitter relationship makes for a series of mawkish moments, backed by dire music, when the movie ought to be focusing on Chaney's talent. When it occasionally does, thanks to James Cagney's splendid performance, it suddenly springs to life. His re-enactment of moments from "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" are amazing. But just when you think you're getting a sense of what "the man of mystery" was really like, it's back to sludgy soap opera. And all you can do is groan.

Stanley Strangelove Other reviewers have knocked the film because it is not historically accurate and I can't dispute that. But for me, James Cagney's performance makes this a film that is a must-see. True, the film is short on depicting Lon Chaney's film characters and although we do get to see Cagney in makeup as the Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera, the scenes are extremely brief. Most of the film depicts Chaney's conflict with his first wife, wonderfully played by the stunning Dorothy Malone - whew, what a knockout!- and the stormy relationship with his son.The film is a soap opera but Cagney is wonderful showing that he can play drama, comedy and even dance and mime.