The Penalty
1920
Dir: Wallace Worsley
Starring: Lon Chaney
Along with the previous year's The Miracle Man, The Penalty helped launch Lon Chaney's career. Though technically not a horror film The Penalty brilliantly illustrates the horror of crime and Chaney who plays Blizzard, the crime syndicate's diabolical head, imparts a ruthless, evil character, yet manages to create sympathy for Blizzard as well. The fact of a sculpture of a Blizzard poses for is fashioned in the image of Satan is not lost on the audience as Chaney's Blizzard seems to be the living embodiment of the devil.
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The police inspector Lichtenstein comments "It's always Blizzard- that cripple from Hell"
SPOILERS:
The story begins tragically when a young boy, who has been in an accident, has his legs amputated by a surgeon. When he awakens from surgery, he overhears the surgeon's superior telling the surgeon the surgery was unnecessary but he would cover for him. The boy's real injury was a "contusion at the base of his skull." The boy tries to tell his parents the doctors were lying but nothing is done. The boy grows up to be Blizzard.
Blizzard is motivated by revenge. He is determned to bring suffering to Dr. Ferris, the surgeon who amputated his legs and has since become a famous surgeon. Part of his revenge is to bring harm to his daughter who he has decided to model for as she is a sculpting a bust of Satan.
Blizzard leaves a wake of death and violence wherever he goes. Women are in particular peril. Women he fancies are brought into his private quarters to push the foot pedals on his piano as he plays. If they don't perform well, they are disposed of.
The police inspector recruits Rose, a police woman, to go undercover and go to work for Blizzard. She quickly finds herself as pushing the pedals of Blizzard's piano. While he is away, she tries to find evidence of Blizzard's underworld dealings. He discovers her investigations but can't bring himself to kill her. She is the best he has ever had at helping him produce his music. They are falling in love.
The fiance of Dr. Ferris' daughter is caught in Blizzard's trap and in order to save his daughter, Ferris is ordered to amputate her fiance's legs and graft them onto Blizzard. Instead, Ferris surgically removes the lesion on Blizzard's brain which has been causing his violent and malevolent tendencies. Blizzard awakens, sorrowful for what he has done. He resigns as head of the underworld but is killed by his former underlings. He dies in the arms of Rose.
Much has been said of Chaney's incredible makeups which will be explored more when I cover The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera but in this film, Chaney, instead of using special effects to give him the appearance of an amputee, he opts to wear a special harness that his knees fit into and drew his legs up behind him. This enabled him to walk on his knees, and an oversized jacket hid the bulge on his back side. He could only wear the device for short periods because it caused him severe pain and discomfort, yet we not only see him walking around but displaying athleticism in a variety of ways throughout the film.
Anyone desiring to see the movie can find it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBas0RE1C-o&feature=PlayList&p=DC6C9C941898FF47&index=0&playnext=1
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Colts 19 Chiefs 9
This is one you're glad the Colts came away with a win, but the Colts didn't look all that great doing it. Give the Chiefs credit; there game plan was to drop 8 back and make it difficult for the Colt's passing game. It was effective and the Colts seemed to be out of sync throughout the game. The problem for the Chiefs was that their offense played very poorly and it appeared to me it was more a problem with their offense rather than the Colts defense being stout.
I'll leave it at that. The Colts need to play better.
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"From Terror To Testimony"
Mark 5:1-20
Pastor Mike Gatliff
Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."
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