Link to Richard Flint’s presentation slides.
Once again, our indomitable, classic horror film fan extraordinaire, Richard Flint is offering three films that push the edges of classic horror for this year’s October salute to the classic horror film genre that we call Horrorween.
Last night, we saw The Unknown starring silent film star giant, Lon Chaney, and a very young Joan Crawford. During Richard’s presentation before the film, we learned a number of fascinating facts about Lon Chaney, director Tod Browning, and even a bit about young Joan!
For instance, did you know that Lon Chaney can credit some of his prodigious talent for expressive body language to his need to communicate with his parents, who were both deaf? His mastery of special effect makeup and body props (some that were outright tortuous to wear) were part of his method acting to getting into a role. For The Unknown, he actually wore the restraining corset that restricted his arms around the set and between takes to maintain his character. Joan Crawford has “stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anything else in her career. ‘It was then’, she said, ‘I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera, and acting.’ 1 With this film, Tod Browning entered into a new and controversial stage in horror film history by making his “monster” too realistic — and too reflective, of the kind of maiming that people had experienced during and after World War 1. Richard pointed out that Irving Thalberg championed Browning’s films and the need for the studios to be willing to explore the darker side of human nature.
In next week’s film Freaks, Tod Browning pushes the envelope so far, that even today, there are people who have a hard time with it. — But more on that next week! 😉
To get a sense of what Richard had to say at last night’s film, click on the movie’s “film clip” graphic to go to Richard’s slides.
1. The quote from Joan Crawford was taken from Wikipedia‘s article on Joan Crawford.
Just Between Frames - Lisle Library's Film Group 