The Penalty Reviews

Not as celebrated as The Hunchback of Notre Dame or The Phantom of the Opera in the Lon Chaney canon, The Penalty is still a melodrama with plenty of action, hokey dramatic ironies, and, of course, a magnetic performance by its lead. To play the double amputee Blizzard, Chaney had his legs folded up behind him and strapped to his body; he proves amazingly agile getting around with a pair of cut-down crutches. The glowering Chaney mug is well used here, too, as his character inspires a young artist looking for a model to resemble the devil himself. The story offers several mismatched pairs: the bad doctor who maims Blizzard and his more idealistic protégé; the woman secret service agent gone bad and the idealistic woman artist who resists Blizzard's allure; and the criminal Blizzard and the reformed man, who is ironically cured of his evil ways during an operation that was supposed to restore his legs.