The Shock
1923·70 min·US
Director: Lambert Hillyer
Drama
Lambert Hillyer's crime melodrama gives Lon Chaney one of his most physically demanding roles — a henchman for a San Francisco blackmail ring who is crippled, walking with a twisted, contorted gait that Chaney achieved through another of his legendary self-torturing contraptions. Sent to a small town to set up a banker for extortion, Chaney's character unexpectedly falls in love with the banker's daughter, and his loyalty to the gang begins to waver. The film's most remarkable sequence is a devastating earthquake — staged with impressive practical effects for 1923 — that serves as both literal catastrophe and metaphor for the moral upheaval in Chaney's character. Not among his most celebrated films, but a fascinating showcase for his physical acting and his ability to find humanity in characters defined by pain and disability.
Lambert Hillyer's crime melodrama gives Lon Chaney one of his most physically demanding roles — a henchman for a San Francisco blackmail ring who is crippled, walking with a twisted, contorted gait that Chaney achieved through another of his legendary self-torturing contraptions. Sent to a small town to set up a banker for extortion, Chaney's character unexpectedly falls in love with the banker's daughter, and his loyalty to the gang begins to waver. The film's most remarkable sequence is a devastating earthquake — staged with impressive practical effects for 1923 — that serves as both literal catastrophe and metaphor for the moral upheaval in Chaney's character. Not among his most celebrated films, but a fascinating showcase for his physical acting and his ability to find humanity in characters defined by pain and disability.
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