The False Faces

Henry B. Walthall stars as Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, a notorious master thief who went legit when War was declared in Europe. After Lanyard's sister and nephew are killed by German agent Ekstrom (Lon Chaney), Walthall joins the war effort as a spy, but with the primary motive of tracking down and killing Ekstrom. His road to vengeance leads him back across the sea to America and to a nest of the Kaiser's spies in New York.

There are enough big action moments and suspenseful situations in this to make me think it could have been a condensed serial, but it's not. There are shoot-outs, fisticuffs, swapped identities, a sought-after MacGuffin, and, as the title implies, no one is who they claim to be. Walthall is really terrific here, and judged along with his other roles from the period that I've seen, makes a strong case for best actor of the 1910's. Chaney gets to be really dastardly, and also gets a few disguises of his own.

The story for "The False Faces" is taken from a novel by Louis Joseph Vance based on a character he created called 'The Lone Wolf'. Films about WW1 made during WW1 are interesting. The opening stages of Irvin Willat's "The False Faces" hark forward six & eleven years to the battle sequences in "The Big Parade" & "All's Quiet on the Western Front" respectively. Indeed both King Vidor & Lewis Milestone must've viewed portions of this film. 1919 was a break out year for Lon Chaney with "The Wicked Darling", "Victory", and the hugely successful "The Miracle Man". "The False Faces" is Chaney's first film of 1919 so it was probably made while WW1 was still going on(before November 11 1918). The film actually stars Henry B. Walthall as a Sidney Reilly type spy, 'The Lone Wolf'. Quite possibly a double agent. The movie is a potpurri of a spy cheating officials and officials cheating the spy. Director Willat has scenes that occur on board a real passenger liner and later in a submarine. Amazing that Willat could obtain the use of a sub for his film. Chaney plays a man called Ekstrom in several disguises & whom 'The Lone Wolf' harbors a personal vengeance against. Ekstrom is a German w/spiked helmet, an officer on an ocean liner, a sub captain and a shaven adventurer in drawing room back on shore. An actress called Mary Anderson plays the sole female character in this film. A popular and pretty actress in the silents, she's all but forgotten today. Irving Willat's brother, Edwin Willat, is the cinematographer. The print of this film survives generally in good condition but some of the intertitles are so blacked out that they can't be read. Grapevine video actually replaced key titles so to hold the viewer to the story. The latter part of the film tends to get melodramatic. But the highlight scenes are on a real passenger liner(makes some think of the Titanic & Lusitania) and a real submarine with scenes that hark forward to 'Destination Tokyo' and 'Das Boot'. Most films about WW1 made during WW1 tend to be propaganda or over the top grotesque comedies aimed at Germans. This movie is a little bit of both but alas one of the more tamer films compared to others.

Universal Studios Vice President Irving Thalberg felt veteran movie director Tod Browning would have good chemistry with rising actor Lon Chaney when he paired them up in February 1919's "The Wicked Darling." Thalberg's intuition was spot-on as the two clicked right away, delivering a powerful performance by Chaney as a small-time pickpocketer. Chaney, who wouldn't become a household name until later in the year, dialed into his devious character by presenting a scary portrayal of a thief who would kill for a pearl necklace.

Actress Priscilla Dean, who had worked with Browning in the past and be one of the director's favorite actresses in the future, plays a guttersnipe who spots a pearl necklace a lady has accidentally dropped, and proceeds to scope it up and run. Trouble is, Chaney sees her performance, setting off a one-man hunt for the necklace.

Most viewers know Browning as the director of the Beli Lugosi's 1931 "Dracula," cinema's first talkie horror film. "The Wicked Darling" falls under Browning's "crooked melodramas," a grouping of his movies involving petty thieves and swindlers. His fluid editing and camera angles stands in contrast to Chaney's other film released in February 1919, "The False Faces," directed by Irvin Wallit.

Chaney plays a familiar role in "The False Faces" which he had played in the past: an evil, murderous German intelligent agent during World War One. At the time "The Faces" was produced, movie studios didn't feel a need to hire full-time makeup artists. Actors had to rely on either theater makeup personnel to apply their cosmetics or learn to do it themselves. Chaney was one of the few who had learned the craft of sophisticated makeup: in all his roles he did his own characters' cosmetics. His marketability increased by the knowledge he could apply different, convincing disguises.

There's a scene in "The False Faces" where he makes himself in the guise of a bearded professor-type person, the only time in his career showing him applying make-up on himself on camera. Chaney also lent his expertise with other cast members: he made up actress Jane Daly to look like a "sea-corpse" when she springs up in the scene to scare the bejesus out of the haunted U-Boat captain.

False Faces (1919)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Henry B. Walthall plays a spy known as The Lone Wolf who must sneak behind enemy lines and captures a cylinder so that he can get it back in Allie hands but it won't be easy because of a committed German (Lon Chaney). This film runs a short 76-minutes but it feels much longer because the film tries to do so much in so little time that the thing grows tiresome as it goes on. For the majority of the film we see The Lone Wolf trying to track down what he needs as it keeps getting passed from one set of hands to another and at times who has the item is rather confusing. Another problem is that some of the sets (just take a look at the submarine) are poorly done and aren't too believable. What does work is some very good use of tint, which helps bring the film to life somewhat. Another aspect that works is the use of ghosts to show the torment of one of the characters but this too turns somewhat sour when a ghost is killed by a gunshot. This here doesn't make too much sense no matter how you look at it. I was surprised at how well Walthall handled the role and thought he did a very good job with it. Fans of Chaney might be disappointed that he has very little to do here but he really sticks out with an intense performance. The film, once thought lost, was eventually found and remastered but a lot of the intertitles are very hard to read.

Henry B. Walthall (Michael Lanyard, also known as The Lone Wolf) struggles to get an important document from behind the German Lines to British Intelligence in New York with help from US operatives Mary Anderson (Cecilia Brooke) and Thornton Edwards (Lieutenant Thackery). However, they must evade German Intelligence agents headed by the dastardly Lon Chaney (Karl Eckstrom).

Made as anti-German propaganda during the war starting from a pulp fiction story. Lon Chaney fans may be disappointed since he mainly plays a secondary role.

The reconstructed print was mode from very good materials and is wonderfully tinted. Unfortunately, some of the titles are hard to read.