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Tod Browning, Universal, 1921. Priscilla Dean is Molly Madden, a crook’s daughter trying a straight life after a jewel job. Lon Chaney plays both Black Mike Sylva, who wants her back in the racket, and Ah Wing, the Confucian who talks her father down. Anna May Wong has a small turn as a gang accomplice. Chinatown is a Universal back lot with the usual yellowface. The last gunfight in the apartment is the Browning room: too many people, not enough trust. Dean was still the name above the title.
In three programmes
Sixteen, a gang accomplice, a few scenes in a Chinatown built on a Universal lot. Chaney is doing two parts; Wong is doing one, small, in the same frame as him. Watch where her eyes go when she is not the subject of the shot.
Chaney twice: the gangster who wants Molly back and the Confucian who talks her father down. Dean above the title, Wong in a corner. The last gunfight is staged in an apartment too small for the number of guns. Watch which of Chaney's two faces the camera believes.
Lon Chaney: The Man of a Thousand Faces
Two faces in one film: Black Mike, who wants Molly back in the racket, and Ah Wing, who talks her father down. No hump, just a change of walk and a change of eyes. Watch the last gunfight in the apartment. Both Chaneys are in it, and one of them shoots the other.
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