The False Faces

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' (there's no 'THE' in the film's title) is being marketed on video as a Lon Chaney movie. Buyer beware! Chaney plays a small role, having far less screen time than Henry Walthall and Mary Anderson. That wouldn't be bad if this were a good film. 'False Faces' LOOKS like a good film, possessing elaborately tinted colour sequences and some highly artistic intertitles, sometimes superimposed on live backgrounds. Many of these intertitles are so elaborate that they're difficult to read. (But we can clearly read the name of producer Thomas Ince in SIX different places in the credits: Ince was notorious for this shenanigan.) A far worse drawback is that this film has a plot which is both dull and extremely overwrought.

'False Faces' exploits the events of the Great War, and the movie's sympathies are very clearly drawn. The war is characterised as 'the armies of civilization beating back the wolf-hordes of a blood-crazed king'. Hmm, guess which side is which. All the Americans are extremely virtuous and resourceful, and there's no mention at all of the British (whose B.E.F. Tommies had far higher casualties than America's doughboys, and who were in the war longer). All the Germans are sub-human 'Huns', as the intertitles cry them. Don't mistake me: I quite agree that the Allies were (and still are) the good guys, but I'm deeply annoyed at attempts to demonise villains like the Kaiser or Hitler or Osama bin Laden. It's a cheap easy tactic to depict such people as inhuman monsters, because we don't want to contemplate why human beings could be capable of such hideous acts.

Henry Walthall, a very dull and stolid actor, plays American super-agent Michael Lanyard, alias the Lone Wolf. When I saw the name 'Lanyard', I got ready to make puns about Walthall's hero stringing us along, but this movie ain't worth the trouble.

The plot is downright incoherent, and features one of the most blatant examples I've ever seen of a 'McGuffin': a cylinder, allegedly containing some sort of microform, that's constantly passed back and forth among the characters. Doesn't mean a bloody thing, but everybody wants it. By the way, although Hitchcock popularised the term 'McGuffin' (which he credited to Angus McPhail), he did not create the concept that it represents. Pearl White, the queen of silent serials, had a McGuffin in many of her films, but she called it a 'weenie'.

Sure does LOOK a good film, though. Near the very beginning, there's an impressive dissolve shot in which several of the male cast members (including Chaney) are shown as disembodied heads, who suddenly sprout false whiskers that look very realistic. But this is just a camera stunt that doesn't advance the story. Much more impressive is a later sequence in which a German submarine commander (allegedly the man who sank the Lusitania) is haunted by the ghosts of his victims. First, some tiny people materialise on his table. Next, he sees children's corpses floating outside his porthole. When a ghost materialises in front of the hatchway, he shoots it ... and the ghost falls over. (This must be the only ever film in which bullets stop a ghost.) As in Rex Ingram's 'The Conquering Power' (which may have been influenced by this movie), it's clear that the 'ghosts' are manifestations of the villain's guilt complex rather than actual supernatural spooks. This sequence in 'False Faces' is excellent, but has a contrived payoff. All the scenes aboard the submarine feature spacious roomy sets, with high ceilings (not overheads), and nothing belayed nor bolted down. And if you're aboard a submarine and you want to sink it, just open the convenient hatch in the floor. Deck? No, this one is definitely a floor. The hatchways are regular doors, the overheads are regular ceilings. If the script didn't say this was a submarine, I'd think we were on a movie set. Somebody open the window.

Lon Chaney is my favourite actor, but -- unlike many people I've met whose Chaneyphilia borders on fanaticism -- I'm capable of admitting that Chaney sometimes gave a bad performance. He gives an utterly lousy one here, but that's the fault of the script and direction. Cast as a German spymaster, Chaney isn't allowed to portray the role as a human being. The character is written as a one-dimensional Hun, so that's how Chaney plays it. This film was made shortly before Chaney's stardom, when he was a hard-working utility actor who grabbed every role he could get.

The climax is so utterly bad that it's laughable, with Walthall slathering make-up on the semi-conscious Chaney. This scene puts Henry Walthall alongside Ford Sterling (in 'He Who Gets Slapped', a much better movie) as one of the few actors who had the great honour to apply make-up to Lon Chaney. Walthall and Chaney had a genuinely affecting rapport together on screen in 'The Road to Mandalay' (in which they played brothers), but not here. I realise that Chaneyphiles will want to see every Lon Chaney movie they can find; fair enough, but make 'False Faces' a very low priority on your list of the Thousand Faces of Lon Chaney. I'll rate this dull movie only one point in 10, for that atmospheric ghost sequence.

At the front during World War I, Michael Lanyard, aka "The Lone Wolf," makes it to the Allied trenches and claims he has secret information on the Germans. In a flashback, we learn that some time ago, a German force led by Karl Eckstrom had murdered Lanyard's sister and her child. Now Lanyard wants to get to America, and also get even with Eckstrom, who is currently a member of the German Secret Service. Lanyard books passage on a steamship, where he meets Cecilia Brooks. One night he rescues her when a stranger accosts her. Cecilia gives Lanyard a small cylinder which she claims is vital to the Allied cause. Later, Lanyard is attacked in his stateroom by thugs who demand he turn over the cylinder. He manages to overpower one of them, and recognizes the other as Eckstrom, who escapes with the cylinder. Lanyard gives chase, but Eckstrom throws him overboard. A German submarine fires on the steamship. Lanyard, drifting in the water, finds himself on top of the surfacing submarine. He tells the Germans he is a German spy, thus sparing his life. The sub heads for Martha's Vineyard, where the Germans have established a secret base. Lanyard eventually makes his way to New York, where he discovers that Cecilia and others have survived the submarine attack. Meanwhile, Eckstrom, posing as The Lone Wolf, turns over the cylinder to the British Secret Service in New York, pocketing a ransom of $10,000. Lanyard witnesses the transaction. Eckstrom later returns to the office, intending to take back the cylinder. Lanyard lies in wait. The two enemies scuffle, and Eckstrom escapes. Later, Eckstrom kidnaps Cecilia, and Lanyard rushes to her rescue, setting up the final showdown between the two.

Because of the lousy print (with an even lousier organ score which I eventually turned off), I didn't enjoy this as much as I probably should have. A few scenes were completely unviewable, and many of the title cards were difficult to read. Still, one could get the sense of what was happening, and most of what I saw was entertaining. The film, for the most part, faithfully follows the novel (which is itself a good read). There is a much cleaner version on YouTube, but it's about 20 minutes shorter.

It was fun to see a rather spry and handsome Henry B. Walthall running around, engaging in a few stunts, and even getting into a good slugfest with Chaney. There is an interesting moment in the film when the commander of the submarine and one of his officers have an argument. The officer, who is from Prussia, tells Lanyard that the commander is a "Bavarian dog." This seems to be an attempt to show that not all Germans were rats. This point is hammered home even more when we are informed that the German commander is the same guy who sunk the Lusitania. Boo. Hiss. Another interesting scene occurs later in the film, when Lanyard breaks into the safe in the British Secret Service office in an attempt to retrieve the cylinder before Eckstrom can get it. As he goes through the contents, Lanyard (a former jewel thief) discovers a necklace, and temptation strikes.

The acting, direction, and sets are pretty good. I would have liked to have seen more of Mary Anderson; she doesn't get enough screen time, and she seemed to be spunky.

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.

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.