La terre a tremblé

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.

I love Chaney. He had an extremely expressive face, and the sort of body language that's seen all too rarely, especially these days. In this film, where his character is a hard-bitten criminal softening under the influence of small-town life, he really uses his talents. His ability to really LOOK disabled is amazing; the way he drags himself around on his hands, twisted legs trailing behind him, is fascinating.

This isn't one of Chaney's "thousand faces" roles - you can actually see what he really looked like - but well worth watching, for Chaney alone. It's a shame that the role of the leading lady wasn't fleshed out; she's so good and pure that she's completely boring; I couldn't understand why anyone could stand this woman's company for more than a few minutes, since she has no faults. Had she been a well-rounded character, his love for her would have been believable (not that there's anything wrong with Chaney's portrayal of tormented, unrequited love).

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.

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,

This film has a strong story and the 1906 San Francisco quake is well re created, mainly in miniature. The difficulty for me, as with several other Chaney films is that deformity and disability seem to be associated with criminality, though,of course, for many years this was deemed to be the case, just as disfigurement was assumed to lead to mental instability. Even though the story tells us that Wilse Dilling is capable of doing good, it makes it clear that this is against the normal run of his character. When the heroine is temporarily disabled by an accident, the other characters react as if this is a fate worse than death. Finally, Dilling's reward for his good deeds is to regain the use of his own crippled legs, thus making him worthy of the heroine and letting the audience know that all their physical shortcomings can be overcome, if only they really want it! It is interesting to note how film-makers of this period went for historical accuracy in terms of costume and scenery whereas in later years, glamour was seen as more important-compare the seedy shabbiness of "The Shock" with the elegance and brightness of "San Francisco"