Tonight at Northwest Film Forum, James Morrow (who I have been writing about a lot this week) will be presenting two Lon Chaney, Jr. movies starting at 7 pm. I’ve never seen the two movies in question—the Ghost of Frankenstein and The Mummy’s Curse—but I can tell you that Morrow has loved these movies for his whole life, and he’s done a lot of research on Chaney’s work for his most recent novel, Shambling Toward Hiroshima. Morrow will provide some commentary on the films, and I can guarantee that his commentary will be funny, enlightening, and probably profane.
And it’s only 5 bucks for two movies. (Admittedly, the movies are only about an hour apiece, but still: Gotta love the recessionary pricing.) I don’t want to post trailers for the two movies (I find as a rule that classic trailers give way too much away) but I did find this creepy clip of Chaney starring as Frankenstein’s monster in a live TV production to whet your appetite.
It is at once cheesy and creepy and touching, like much of Chaney’s work.
and wooden…don’t forget wooden.
“He Who Gets Slapped” got me bugged out on Chaney back in the silent days.
Man, that was terrifying the way he grabbed that kid!
Creighton Chaney, a.k.a “Lon Jr” , doesn’t hold a candle to his father, Alonzo “Lon” Chaney. He was a much better air conditioning salesman.
Purportedly Cheney was completely drunk during this performance. At one point he picked up a piece of furniture he was supposed to smash and then set it down saying “Break later.” Apparently he thought it was still the dress rehearsal.