Author Archive: Retro

Crippled gunman working for a heartless crime boss falls in love with a banker’s daughter and must save her father from a scandal. Dir. Lambert Hillyard.

Unjustly imprisoned lawyer is released to find his wife has died. Enraged, he assumes the guise of a crippled beggar to seek revenge on those who framed him.

In the film Chaney portrays another of the character roles that dubbed him The Man of a Thousand Faces, a Chinese laundry worker who is caught in a tangle of extortion and small-town prejudice.

For the love of one woman, two men are willing to give their lives, leaving the holder of the Ace of Hearts to lose.

First version of the Victor Hugo novel of a tortured, deformed bellringer at the Notre Dame Cathedral who falls in love with a gypsy woman. One of Chaney’s most famous roles.

Minister tries to convert a Chinese community in New England to Christianity. Dir. Ford Beebe.

French artist’s son goes off to WWI and eventually infiltrates enemy lines as a spy when his village is shelled by the Germans, causing his girlfriend to go insane from the loss of her family. Produced by D.W. Griffith. Dir. William Christy Cabanne.

Another sweeping epic by Griffith, this time during the turbulent times preceding the French Revolution, as two sisters are separated and raised in opposite worlds, one by thieves, the other by aristocrats. Written by D.W. Griffith. Dir. Sam Katzman.

Young Russian girl’s aunt and uncle try to sell her into marriage to a wealthy scoundrel, but she is in love with a peasant boy. Dir. Harry Fraser.