Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Hitchcoc This was as good as it gets for Lon Chaney, Sr. While the tale itself suspect, his performance rises above. We have all heard the stories of how this man could put himself through agony for a role. This is a prime example. A boy has his legs unnecessarily amputated by an inexperienced doctor. As he grows, he goes over to the dark side and becomes pure evil. Chaney somehow tucked those legs into some prosthetics. It must have been extremely painful. His primary victims are women whom he subverts through his gangland like power. It's hard to be totally appalled at his actions because he certainly is a victim. But he has choices. As time goes along, there are those who are willing to befriend him and actually express love toward him. He had one of the most emotionally expressive faces to ever grace the screen. Unfortunately, the conclusion sort of dies on the vine.

zardoz-13 Lon Chaney's plays a Barbary Coast criminal mastermind during the early 1900s in director Wallace Worsley's "The Penalty," an outstanding crime thriller that wraps up its 93 minutes with a surprise ending. The premise alone makes this silent epic worth watching. Moreover, Chaney contrived a leather contraption that allowed him impersonate his handicapped villain without relying on hokey camera angles or trick photography. At the turn of the century, a boy in his early teens has a tragic traffic accident and an inexperienced surgeon; Dr. Ferris (Charles Clary of "A Tale of Two Cities") makes the wrong decision and amputates both of the boy's legs from the knees down. An older physician informs the young doctor that amputation was not necessary. Initially, the doctors thought that they could not be overheard, but the child is able to hear them and he tells his parents that the doctors are lying about his medical condition."Dangerous Days" scenarist Charles Kenyon has adapted Gouverneur Morris' 1920 novel and altered the upbeat, optimistic, happy ending. The title "The Penalty" here refers to the debt that the protagonist must pay for being such a heinous individual. Kenyon, Worsley, and Chaney make sure that Blizzard behaves like a cruel man. At one point, he roughs up one of his female employees when he finds her ability to make a hat less than satisfactory and reprimands her in front of her peers. Incredibly, though we are never shown how he acquired his power, the boy grows up to become an evil mastermind named "Blizzard" and he rules the Barbary Coast underworld. The Federal Police want to bust him, but Blizzard is far too sagacious for them. Eventually, the police send in an undercover operative, Rose (Ethel Grey Terry of "Wild Bill Hickok"), to work her way into Blizzard's good graces. The chief of the Federal Police suspects that Blizzard is up to no good, but nobody has been able to gather enough evidence against him to destroy his organization.One way that Blizzard's kept women can improve their chances of survival is to have an ear for music. When the crippled crime boss comes home, he prefers to sit at his piano and make music. Since he lacks the feet to push the pedals, he relies upon his kept women. Rose turns out to be the best kept woman that Blizzard has ever had and she is allowed to come and go as she pleases. Eventually, Rose discovers a concealed compartment in the fireplace. She notices a loose brick in the section of bricks in front of the fireplace and finds a trip wire in the niche. When she pulls the wire, the entire interior part of the fireplace ascends to reveal a vertical passage. A person can climb down a pair of straps connected by buckles to an underground passage that is wired for lighting and contains a surgeon's operating suite.Meanwhile, the evil Blizzard is planning to repay the surgeon for his inexcusable act of medical malpractice for removing his legs. The surgeon's adult daughter, Barbara Ferris (Claire Adams of "The Big Parade") is trying to become an artist, but her boyfriend, Ferris's assistant Dr. Allen (Kenneth Harlan of "Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.") has a low opinion of her aspirations. She wants to try her hand at one last project before she capitulates to her fiancé's demands. Allen believes that "true women need love, a home, and children." Barbara prints a newspaper advertisement soliciting a model for her sculpture of Satan after the fall and Blizzard instructs his henchmen to turn away all comers. When he shows, Blizzard makes a believer out of the daughter and she begins to model his likeness in clay. While all this is going on, Blizzard has also orchestrated an audacious plan to loot the city of San Francisco by creating a riot in the suburbs that will draw the authorities away from the city so Blizzard's minions can do their bidding. Blizzard's other scheme—not quite as audacious, but just as malignant is to fool the old surgeon into cutting off the legs of his daughter's fiancé and grafting his legs onto Blizzard's stumps."The Penalty" qualified as Lon Chaney's first major motion picture and a harbinger of pictures to come. This black & white silent opus is quite hypnotic, especially when Chaney is on screen hobbling around on crutches and leather knee guards.

wes-connors Lon Chaney (as Blizzard) is the underworld lord and master of San Francisco, despite a striking disability - he has no legs. Mr. Chaney's "Blizzard" was, as a boy, a "victim of San Francisco traffic", and had his legs amputated above the knees, after an accident. Moreover, the amputations were unnecessary; they were needlessly preformed by young, inexperienced Charles Clary (as Dr. Ferris); Mr. Clary also leaves a brain contusion untreated. As a boy, Chaney hears an older, experienced doctor scold Mr. Clary on the unnecessary procedure; but, they cover up the crime, and dismiss the young amputee's protests as delusions, caused by ether.Twenty-seven years later, the powerful crime lord decides to enact his terrifying revenge on the doctor who cut off his legs. Cheney answers a newspaper ad posted by Clary's daughter Claire Adams (as Barbara Ferris); she is a sculptress, looking for someone to model Satan, for her bust: "WANTED -- Model to pose for statue of 'Satan After the Fall.' If you think you look like Satan, apply at studio of Barbara Ferris, 32 Institute Place. 8284" The Satanic-looking Chaney is the perfect candidate to sit for the young woman; and, Ms. Adams welcomes him into her art studio, unaware (yet) of his unfortunate association with her father. Meanwhile, Cheney's underworld operation is being infiltrated by a spy; lawman Milton Ross (as Lichtenstein) has sent his best undercover agent, Ethel Grey Terry (as Rose), to gets the goods on Chaney. He is especially interested in why Chaney has his "show girls" making thousands of hats… "The Penalty" has a noticeable degree of implausibility, as do many films; and, it does become make the film more than a little distracting, at times. Yet, Chaney's performance is so commanding, and so thoroughly enjoyable, it's really pointless to list faults. The film works on the strength of Lon Chaney's performance. Director Wallace Worsley, photographer Donovan D. Short, and art director Gilbert White contribute to the master, by giving the film a great, atmospheric look.Among the supporting players, James Mason (as Frisco Pete) is easily the standout. Young Edouard Trebaol (as Bubbles) is also well-employed, and natural, alongside the high degree of emoting present amongst the adults. Trebaol memorably re-teamed with Chaney in "Oliver Twist" (they were "Fagin" and "The Artful Dodger"). Interestingly, in the original Gouveneur Morris novel, "Bubbles" had an expanded role, which eventually revealed him to be the son of "Blizzard". That subplot would have added greatly to this film, further contrasting cruelty and humanity; and, of course, recalling the boy "Blizzard", and his earlier loss. It would have also confirmed the adult Chaney's obvious sexual prowess (note how women kneel down to play Chaney's pedals has he tickles the ivories).Whatever its faults, "The Penalty" set the standard for the expertly performed and extremely successful Lon Chaney role - grotesque, anguished, sympathetic, and/or deformed. It started here. Give yourself a penalty if you pass up this Chaney classic. ********** The Penalty (11/15/20) Wallace Worsley ~ Lon Chaney, Ethel Grey Terry, Claire Adams, Jim Mason

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.