The Shock

While not nearly as well-remembered today as some of Lon Chaney's other films, "The Shock" is a good melodrama, and it gives Chaney a rather interesting role that shows he could give a convincing performance even without lavish disguises or costumes to work with. Here his character, Wilse Dilling, is a disabled career criminal who is forced by events to re-evaluate his life. Chaney gets good mileage out of his character's crutches and wheelchair, but more than that, he helps the viewer to see his dilemmas as he alternates between despair and hope.

The story is interesting and fairly involved. Wilse starts off under the thumb of the heartless crime boss "Queen Ann", who is using him as part of an elaborate scheme of crime and revenge. But Wilse softens as he gets to knows Ann's intended victims, and he soon becomes caught in the middle as a series of tumultuous events unfolds. Although the production is not of the same quality as in Chaney's best-known movies, it fits together pretty well, with only a couple of slow spots, and most fans of silent films should find it well worth watching.

Shock, The (1923)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Lon Chaney plays a cripple who has been used by a Chinatown gang to commit various crimes. He's sent away on his newest job where he falls in love with a girl but it turns out his job is to kill her father. As usual, Chaney gives a remarkable performance and I have no problem calling him one of the greatest actors ever. He perfectly captures all the right emotions for the role and his physical appearance of a cripple is remarkable. Two other highlights include a bank being blown up and an earthquake that happens in the film. The special effects are very good and the suspense and drama are very high.

I watched this on my Roku and apparently even tho these old silent films are in public domain, the music isn't. So there literally was no sound. It's a weird thing to watch when not accompanied by music of some sort.

The print was decent. actually fairly good for a movie that is nearly 100 years old! The short story upon which this is based was written by a fascist.

Chaney is good, although his work with Browning was always so much better.

Another reviewer commented on how the earthquake scenes look so real -- well alot of them WERE real. They were taken from archival footage. Still, the parts that are not archival -- and there are many, are really really really well done. Unfortunately you have to wait until there is like 6 minutes left of the film to see the big payoff.

Some of the film is rather hokey and overall it's slow moving. The ending is the thing to see,

Lon Chaney is brilliant (as always) in this very moving and uplifting drama about a crippled thug with a heart of gold. As Wilse Dilling, Chaney is immensely likeable and we root for him all the way. He is sent to San Francisco by the evil crime boss Queen Ann as part of a scheme to expose a banker who has been blackmailed into robbing his own bank. However, he falls in love with the daughter of the person he's supposed to expose. I think a title card says it best; he is 'torn between to woman he loved and the woman he feared.' What will he do? See this movie to find out; it is highly recommended.

Having recently been in Christchurch, New Zealand, during the Great Canterbury Earthquake, the earthquake in the film came, like the real thing, by surprise. I was impressed by how well and realistically they did the earthquake sequences (which must have cost a bob or two). The imperceptible shake which builds up to a massive shaking and rattling from which you cannot get away frighteningly familiar. Thankfully, the house I was in shook, but was undamaged. However parts of central Christchurch are quite old and look (or rather looked) very much like the two-storey townscape used in the film. The clip where the earth opened up was also very reminiscent of cracks left in the New Zealand landscape. Of the the filmmakers had probably lived themselves through the San Francisco earthquake.

There were some nice railway sequences (Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe I think). It was interesting that when they put the girl on her stretcher into the train, she is still lying across the vestibule as it pulls out.