Sunday, April 26, 2020

Lon Chaney Changes his Mind About Talkies

Hello my friends like many of you love Lon Chaney. There are few actors who define what the silent screen was more than him. His acting style is perfectly suited to silent movies. His movies show us that silent film acting was a true artform and he was a master. It is not like Kathy Selden said in Singin' in the Rain (1952), " I mean they don't talk, they don't act, they just make a lot of dumb show." Lon obviously expressed himself visually in a way that transcends words.

All this does bring up a question though, what were Lon's thoughts on talkies. Luckily there is the following 1930 article from Talking Screen Magazine. This article mentions that Lon Chaney's first talkie would be The Unholy Three (1930). It would also be his last, as he would die seven weeks after its release. If you have trouble reading the following pages, click on them and use your touch screen to zoom in.


















































-Michael J. Ruhland

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