Late Lon Chaney and Talkies

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 25

Late Lon Chaney and Talkies

W t HEN talkies revolutionised Hollywood, Lon Chaney, whose death occurred on August 25 as the result of an unsuccessful throat operation, was among those who said he “would never speak in films.’' Others of the same mind were Charles Chaplin, who has kept his resolution, Lilian Gish, who broke hers as soon as a good offer came along, and Mary Pickfcrd, who did likewise. Even Chaney was obliged to change his mind when silent films were definitely a drug on the market. Recently Chaney was engaged in making his first talkie. He may or may not have completed it before his fatal illness. He was the foremost character actor of the silent screen—an artist who specialised in queer macabre parts, many of which were the reverse of pleasant, though all were real and sometimes terribly convincing. Just before talkies came along he dropped his cripple, hunchback, monster and allied impersonations and appeared in “straighter" parts; on several occasions as an underworld character and once as a detective in

a crime drama. The latter study, though presenting Chaney simply as Chaney (as far as his appearance went) was one of the best things he ever did. One of Chaney’s more terrifyi n g roles

earned for him one of the grimmest and most curious compliments an actor ever received. Charged with murder some months ago, a London man informed the court that his crime was committed while he was in a demented state. “He had been frightened out of his wits by * seeing Lon Chaney in a current picture." The judge added to the publicity value of this novel plea by asking ingenuously: “Who IS Lon Chaney?" Chaney will be missed. His death causes a gap in the ranks of male stars that will not easily be filled.