Cheap The Lon Chaney Collection (The Ace of Hearts/Laugh, Clown, Laugh/The Unknown/Lon Chaney - A Thousand Faces) (DVD) (Wallace Worsley) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Lon Chaney Collection (The Ace of Hearts/Laugh, Clown, Laugh/The Unknown/Lon Chaney - A Thousand Faces)

MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES - DVD OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS
Lon Chaney was perhaps the greatest cinematic contortionist in the history of cinema. His gimmick was to use make up as camouflage, thereby appearing in each film with a completely different and unique look; most of them hideous. In this box set we get three of Lon's chameleons; The Ace of Hearts, Laugh, Clown, Laugh and The Unknown - where Chaney convincingly plays an armless knife throwing circus performer opposite Joan Crawford.
THE TRANSFER: Each film is presented in its most complete surviving version. The B&W and tinted color elements are remarkably pristine, considering the vintage. Though age related artifacts are present throughout they do not distract and quite often vanish into the backdrop of each engrossing story. Shadow and contrast levels are perfectly balanced. Image flickering and film grain are kept at their minimal levels. As these are "silent" movies we get a newly remastered 5.1 scoring that is amply presented across all channels of one's home theater set up.
EXTRAS: A wonderfully comprehensive documentary on Chaney's life, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, as presented on Turner Classic Movies. A reconstruction of "London After Midnight" a film that no longer exists in any form other than still photographs. Also an audio commentary track for each of the feature films in this box set.
BOTTOM LINE: This is an incredibly well done tribute to the silent cinema's haunted man of immeasurable mysteries and one that is well worth your time and your money.

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Chaney RULES (And not the Vice-President)
This is an EXCELLENT set of Lon Chaney DVDs! All I will say about the three wonderful features here is that unlike most silent films that date badly and put you to sleep, each of them will draw you in until you can't stop watching them until they're over. Great stories and Chaney in my opinion was the KING of "method acting."

The DVD of the Chaney documentary is a great way to learn more about the master after wathcing the three of these films. Look out for the extremely rare clip from "The Miracle Man" (1919). Most of that film remains lost, unfortuantely.

However, the still photographic reporduction of the lost "London After Midnight" is a bit much. In this day of computer graphic animation, this could have been done better (hint for possible future packaging).

But in either case, watch and enjoy the works of the master. After this, check out DVDs of "Sparrows," "The Penalty," "The Hunchback," and "The Phantom" (provided you get one with the color footage). Hopefully, "Zanzibar" and "He Who Gets Slapped" as well as the sound and silent versions of "The Unholy 3" will soon make it on to DVD. In the meantime-enjoy.

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Awesome!
"The Lon Chaney Collection"is one of the best DVD's of 2003.I'm a 14 year old Lon Chaney fan,and this will defintely be one of the best things I'll own my whole life. "The Lon Chaney Collection" has two discs. Disc one has an introduction by Robert Osborne and the Lon Chaney movies "The Ace of Hearts" and "Laugh,Clown,Laugh". Disc two has the Lon Chaney movies "The Unknown" and the "lost" 1927 film "London After Midnight". Also included is "Lon Chaney:A Thousand Faces", a documentary about the life and films of Lon Chaney. The best film on "The Lon Chaney Collection" is "Laugh,Clown,Laugh". "Laugh,Clown,Laugh" is about a man named Tito (played by Lon Chaney) whose job is playing Flik,a circus clown who entertains people and makes people laugh. One day, Tito finds a little girl who has been abandoned. Tito asks his partner to take care of this abandoned little girl- but he refuses- because he believes women bring bad luck. So Tito takes care of this little girl, and soon she becomes a woman. Tito and his partner fall in love with her, and there is a dispute over who is going to love her. The most interesting film Lon Chaney ever made-it's my all time favorite Lon Chaney movie. The best part of "The Lon Chaney Collection" is the "lost" 1927 film "London After Midnight", where a man is found dead in his London home. Investigators aren't sure if the death was murder or suicide-but then get some evidence the supposed victim is still alive. "London After Midnight" was released in 1927 and was "lost"in a fire in 1962. Because of this, there is a photo reconstruction. "The Lon Chaney Collection" is a must have for all silent film fans.