The Penalty (1920)

(YouTube Streaming, December 2022) As much as it will pain film historians to acknowledge this, there is an unspoken but real additional burden of proof required for much-older movies. Especially for titles from the silent era, which require more effort to watch (reading, eek!): why bother? Does it still have anything to say today? Is it still special, worthwhile, and compelling for us a century later? In The Penalty’s case, the answer is surprising: Not only do we have a grand-guignol revenge narrative going on, but we also have a mesmerizing acting performance from Lon Chaney as he plays a double leg amputee with a remarkable lack of special effects. (The real special effect is that, to supplement creative camera angles and a wheelchair apparatus, Chaney had his legs tightly bound behind him for lengthy periods of time while shooting—something incredibly painful and medically unadvisable.)  This visual spectacle, plus the film’s snappy 87 minutes running time and timeless genre plotting, make The Penalty far less painful to watch than many straight-up silent dramas of the era. Chaney is good enough to make anyone take notice (it would prove to be his breakthrough role) and there’s an audacity to the film’s production that still resonates today.