While Paris Sleeps (1923)
Lon Chaney plays a Parisian sculptor who falls in love with his model (Mildred Manning). She, however, cares nothing for him. The film is considered lost.
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Very well executed
the audience applauded
Excellent but underrated film
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Henri Santados is a sculptor living in the Latin Quarter of Paris. He is in love with his lovely model, Bebe Larvache, but she cares nothing for the artist. She meets Dennis O'Keefe, a wealthy American visiting France, and they are attracted to each other. Santados becomes insanely jealous over the affection Bebe shows Dennis and he plots with Father Marionette, the owner of "The Chamber of Horrors," a wax museum depicting gruesome crimes of history, to do away with him. Dennis' father objects to his son's affair with Bebe and he convinces the girl to give the boy up for his own good. Her one request is to have one final night with Dennis during the Mardi Gras festival. Dennis is to pick her up at the studio before the festival, but Santados tricks her into a compromising position when Dennis enters the studio. The young man leaves, heartbroken at Bebe's apparent infidelity, and is captured by Father Marionette who places him into a torture device in his wax museum. Marionette calls Santados and Bebe hears Dennis groaning in agony over the phone. Georges Morier, a friend of Dennis', arrives in time to save the boy. He is rushed to a hospital where his father finally consents to his marriage to Bebe. "The story is somewhat gruesome and exaggerated, although similar ideas have been used before in successful dramas. There are no doubt a considerable number of patrons who are fascinated by a strain of morbidity. For this class, the picture will provide thrilling entertainment." ---Moving Picture World