Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)

Sorry, this movie sucks

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

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

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

James Cagney was 58 years old when he starred in this movie as Lon Chaney, who died in 1930 at the age of 47. The story starts out in the early 1900s when Chaney was a Vaudeville performer in his 20s! His son was born in 1906 and he started working in films (as an extra) in 1912 or 1913 at the age of 30. Chaney divorced his first wife in 1913 and remarried in 1914. All of these events happened to Chaney before he was 31.While Cagney does give a good performance, he's so "too old" for the role, it's hard to get past it. The filmmakers try to hide it by having Cagney is clown make-up or or theatrical guise through a lot of the early part of the film when he's married to the first wife (Dorothy Malone, who's 33 here). With Malone out and the second wife (Jane Greer, also 33) in, Cagney looks like their father.There's a lot of lip service to Chaney's film career, which really took off with THE MIRACLE MAN in 1919. That film, which exists now only in fragments, starred Thomas Meighan and Betty Compson. Chaney had the showy supporting role of "the Frog" (a role originated on Broadway by Percy Helton). This is pretty well done. We see lots of drawings of Chaney's subsequent characters in films and two of the most famous are re-enacted.The main trouble with the re-enactments of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is that while Chaney created his characters with makeup, hooks, wires, and rubber so that his facial expressions were free. Cagney's disguises are mostly just Halloween masks and do not come close to the original creations.Irving Thalberg is played by Robert Evans, whom Norma Shearer spotted by the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel and promoted him for the role of her dead husband. Roger Smith plays Chaney's son. He was "discovered" by Cagney in Hawaii and promoted for the role of Chaney, Jr.Others in the cast include Jim Backus as the press agent, Marjorie Rambeau as the old-time actress, Marjorie Bennett as Vera the maid, and Celia Lovsky as the mother. This film is probably a fine biopic if you know nothing about Lon Chaney. If you do, then it comes across as a vanity production of the worst kind.

* 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.

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.

As biopics go, this 1957 film shows limited interest today. The legendary figure of Lon Chaney is examined by the same Hollywood where he went to make a legend out of his life. He was a giant in the world of silent films because of the disguises he created for the movies during his second career in the industry. Chaney was a man way ahead of himself as far as the creation of the special type of makeup he used for all the different characters he played.Lon Chaney's roots were in vaudeville, where he also was greatly admired. However, his lucky break came not in the theater, but in the new industry of the moving pictures that was starting in California. Mr. Chaney was able to bring something new to those pictures that sparked the imagination of audiences in the many films he starred in. His association with the legendary Irving Thalberg helped cement his own status in the movie business.His personal life though, was not a happy one. His first wife, the beautiful Cleva Creighton, showed she did not care from him and abandoned Lon and her young son without a second thought. Chaney received a big blow in the custody of the young son, Creighton, who was placed in an orphanage because he couldn't show means of support for the child. Being separated from his son Creighton was a big blow to the man who adored the young boy but couldn't get his custody until he made a name for himself in the film industry. His life with Hazel, his second wife, turned out to be a fine one without the ups and downs that affected his first one.The main attraction for watching this film was James Cagney, an actor who always gave an honest performance. In here, though, he seems to be playing a variation on his own "Yankee Doodle Dandy" in the first segment devoted to his life as an entertainer in the theater. The other half, his arrival in the movies, is not as interesting as the beginning.The film, directed by Joseph Pivney, doesn't break new ground in the way the narrative plays in the film. Dorothy Malone, who is seen as Cleva, has some interesting moments. Jane Greer is also effective as the sweet Hazel, the woman who always loved Chaney from afar.