I know that every movie in the silent era is often referred to as a classic and it gets old and often disappointing so I hesitate to use that word, but it's the only one that fits. A true classic horror masterpiece. Lon Chaney is hardcore, there has not been any actor since who can measure up to his level of devotion and obsession. The entire cast is very talented, but they're all overshadowed by Mr. Chaney's literally epic performance, for better or worse. Nothing is lost by the age of this movie, the atmosphere and energy transcend technology's advancements.
A word of warning, however. If you decide to check it out, spare yourself the misery of horrible, horrible music editing (I use the word "editing" very loosely) and don't get one of the random cheap copies. The Ultimate Edition is your best bet because seriously, some people out there slapped awful orchestrations onto this public domain film and utterly ruined it.
The only thing stopping this from being an easy 10 star movie is the ending, where a film that has otherwise stayed admirably true to the book suddenly slips into a parallel universe worthy of the internet's worst fan fiction. I understand that they had to do this because audiences of that day were enraged at the thought of this villain not getting his due justice and in defense of the film, Mr. Chaney plays through the horrid rewrites like the pro he was.
Strong 9 stars.
A word of warning, however. If you decide to check it out, spare yourself the misery of horrible, horrible music editing (I use the word "editing" very loosely) and don't get one of the random cheap copies. The Ultimate Edition is your best bet because seriously, some people out there slapped awful orchestrations onto this public domain film and utterly ruined it.
The only thing stopping this from being an easy 10 star movie is the ending, where a film that has otherwise stayed admirably true to the book suddenly slips into a parallel universe worthy of the internet's worst fan fiction. I understand that they had to do this because audiences of that day were enraged at the thought of this villain not getting his due justice and in defense of the film, Mr. Chaney plays through the horrid rewrites like the pro he was.
Strong 9 stars.