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Hello, this is Lon Chaney biographer
Michael F. Blake

and it is my privilege to provide this
audio commentary for one of Lon Chaney's

greatest performances
in 'He Who Get Slapped'.

The film is based on the play of the same
title by Russian playwright Leonid Andreyev

which premiered in the Moscow
Art Theater in October 1915.

In 1922, the play opened on Broadway,
with actor Richard Bennett

playing the lead role.

This 1924 film was the first major
release for the newly formed studio

Metro Goldwyn.

Louis B. Mayer's name would be added
to the studio title two years later.

MGM, as it was known to many,
was the result of a merger of

Metro Pictures and Goldwyn
Pictures in April 1924.

Metro, whose parent company was Loews
Theatres, was in need of more films

to supply to their theater chain,
but at the Metro studio facility in

Hollywood was not large enough
to handle additional productions.

Marcus Lowe wound up purchasing
Goldwyn Studios

in Culver City, which easily
could handle Metro's expanding film lineup.

In buying the property,

Loew also inherited all the films
from Goldwyn Pictures

produced or in production,
including 'Greed' and 'Ben-Hur.'

Loew also bought Louis B. Mayer
Pictures, hiring the studio

executive to oversee
the new studio's output.

Mayer quickly assigned his assistant,
Irving Thalberg, to handle

the production details,
as he had done at Universal.

Here we see Lon Chaney as a
struggling scientist, Paul Beaumont,

with Lon relying on a goatee to suggest
the character is a scholarly man.

Now, this dissolve that you saw
from the circus clown

to Lon was all done in the camera.

There were no optical printers
like we have now to do the job.

Instead, they would photograph the
clown, and then they would wind

the film back in the camera
magazine several feet.

Then they brought in Chaney
and filmed the shot with him at the globe.

Needless to say, the camera
assistant had to keep a strict

record regarding exposed footage.

Going back to MGM for a minute,

ironically, Sam Goldwyn never
had any ownership or connection

to the new studio, as he had stepped down
from his own company in 1922.

He remained an independent producer for
the next 37 years, producing such classics

as 'Stella Dallas, ' 'Wuthering Heights.'
and 'Pride of the Yankees.'

The MGM studio as we know it today --
Well, actually today now, it's now Sony,

but us diehards always
will call it MGM.

The studio property originally
housed Triangle Pictures,

and it boasted producers
Thomas Ince, D.W. Griffith,

and Mack Sennett that they
would oversee not only their

own productions, but other
productions produced by the company

The studio, built in 1915 on land
donated by developer Harry Culver,

who actually named the city
after himself, was located

on Washington Boulevard
in Overland Avenue.

Triangle's residency did
not last long,

as both Ince and Sennett
sold their interests in 1917.

Samuel Goldwyn bought the property
in 1919, and his logo at the beginning

of every Goldwyn picture was the
lion, which MGM adopted

and made famous,
known as Leo the Lion

In this film, many scenes are
a harbinger of things to come,

especially in the climax.

Here we see one when we sense
that there could be something

deeper between Beaumont's
wife, played by Ruth King,

and the Baron, played
by Mark McDermott.

Please check out the photo gallery
when you get a chance.

It has a lot of neat things.
Not only does it have a couple

of the lobby cards, which were
placed in the theater lobbies

for the audience to see, and a
window card, which would be

placed with the name of the theater
and the date it was playing in

various store windows.

But you'll also see a lot of photos,
and I have several

behind the scenes
photos of Lon on the set.

My favorite one is Lon Chaney with his
makeup case and Victor Sjöström.

And there's also several photos
of the deleted scene I mention

about when Paul Beaumont's
character goes to join the circus,

and that entire scene
was cut out of the film, but

there's several photos there
for you to take a look at,

as well as some great scene
shots, and I just think

if you're a Chaney fan,
you're going to love it.

Now, here we have Chaney
appearing before the Academy

of Sciences, where he's
going to present his work.

Pay attention to the way
the scientists are staged,

sitting in the booth behind
Chaney like that.

As you will see later in the film,
in the circus, the clowns are

situated in a very
similar way.

Victor Sjöström was really great
in directing this film overall,

but, of course, so many
of these scenes are played

so well and
so subtly.

And you see, you know, obviously
Chaney here, he realizes he's

being taken, that the Baron
has stolen his research

and material.

Marc McDermott was a terrific
actor at playing cads in the

silent era and does a wonderful
job here without overdoing it.

Sjöström was a terrific director
in the sense that he kept the actors

from overacting and
overplaying the scene,

which we will see here in
a moment with Chaney.

Now you'll start to see how
Chaney's character now will

emotionally unravel, especially
here, when the Baron slaps

Chaney in the face.

And the reaction of the academics.

This public humiliation of being
laughed at starts Chaney's

character's mental collapse.

And again, Chaney plays
this so well, he doesn't

chew the scenery. He
doesn't overdo it.

He takes it very slowly.

And how expressive of
course he is with his face

and his eyes.

And his being laughed
at by the scientists after

being slapped. The irony comes
in that he makes this act later

in the circus and becomes
popular by being slapped,

which kind of is a commentary
of the way people can act when

people slip and fall.
Some people laugh.

Certainly, if a rich person
gets hit in the face with a

custard pie, we all laugh.

Moe Howard of the Three Stooges
once said you can hit a dowager

in the face with pie, but you
can't hit a mother in the face

with a pie. It's not
as funny.

In this theme of Chaney's
character being broken,

by an emotional instance,
and also now he's

going to be betrayed
by the woman he loves,

it's a similar theme you can
find in many of his films

pre-MGM and certainly at MGM.

With the lost love and never

getting the girl. Really, there was
only one film where Chaney

actually gets the girl, and
that was 'The Shock' in 1923.

I guess we could also consider
'While the City Sleeps, ' because

instead of winding up with Anita Page,
Chaney's character winds up with

Polly Moran.

Now watch now how Lon
slowly sees what's going on

and the realization now comes.
He's still mad at the Baron.

Now, the realization of how
his wife has cheated on him.

By subtly playing this moment
here. Now, you'll see, he starts

to express things with his
eyes like a madman,

but he doesn't overdo it.
It's -- and then he starts

to laugh and he stops
himself.

It's a beautifully restrained sequence
that Chaney does here that is

just so artistically wonderful
and a great lesson in acting.

And in this scene, as Lon's
character is suffering this,

the audience reaches out
and offers its sympathy.

He wins the sympathy
of the audience off of this.

And they sympathize with him
and want to protect him.

And again, that is another theme
you will see in so many of Lon's films.

And you'll see here where
she calls him a fool and a clown

and inadvertently slaps him.

And it recalls his humiliation
in front of the Academy.

And then we see the
Baron watching this and

he gives a slight,
sinister little chuckle.

There. Right there,
just by smiling.

And this, of course, all
pushes Chaney's emotions

over the edge.

What I find very impressive
about this early part of the

film, when Lon is in the study
here and, when the Baron

and the wife take his papers
is, notice the lighting on it.

The lighting in this scene is very,
very interesting and very well done.

It focuses the light on the
main characters and certain

areas in the background.
For instance, the globe is

illuminated a little heavier
than normal.

It just gives an interesting
look to things and also kind

of, it puts your eyes to
certain areas on the set that

where you pay attention to it.
Like watch here now that

Lon takes all his work
and just throws it away

and it hits the globe.

And now we come into another great
camera work magic as Lon's

character suffers, a great
humiliation.

And now the camera will dissolve.

And you'll see the clown.

And then you'll see how
the clown is spinning this ball.

And then we do a dissolve
into the circus clowns coming

out of nowhere, down these ropes.

Now all this title cards here,

saying what happened to the character
Paul Beaumont, takes place because

Sjöström actually shot scenes
of Chaney going to the circus

and meeting the circus owner
and the clowns and gets

accepted into it, and all
that scene was cut.

You will see photos in the photo
gallery of the dissolve scene.

And now you see we've
got the globe going.

And now, as the clown blows, you
see the clowns descending.

Again, this was done with
shooting the globe first and

backing it up, and then
having the clowns, filming

the clowns separately,
coming down and sitting on

the ring, which you will see
dissolves into the circus ring.

And now we are at the circus.
European circuses, for the

most part, played in one place.
Like, say, for instance, a circus

played in Paris, and they played in a
building that had a single ring and,

behind there, was the,
dressing room areas and the places

for the horses in that they --
Most of European circuses

really didn't travel like the American
circuses did in the 19th and 20th

centuries.

Now, this is called Clown Alley.
Whether it was a European

circus or an American circus,
clown alley was where the

circus clown dressed
made themselves up.

They all had trunks with
their various costumes, wigs, shoes...

Now we'll see Ford Sterling,
who was well known as a Mack

Sennett comedian. He was one
of the original Keystone Cops.

That's Clyde Cook in the
background, sitting there.

Sterling was well known as
a comic, but he was also a

very good dramatic actor.

And most of these white heads
that the clowns would wear was

either made out of a rubber
or a muslin type of cap.

Like, see the one on Ford Sterling
that had holes there that would

fit over his ear and hold
in place that way.

In this period of the circus history
and the circus here, as we see

Ford Sterling making Lon
Chaney up, how about that?

All clowns wore white face.
They were all white face.

And it was a --
They used a term.

It was called 'neat white face',
in that the clown had

very minimal
makeup on his face.

There'd be like, you see here
with Chaney being made up.

His mouth is made up. The
color was always used was red.

Occasionally, they'd use black for
maybe the eyebrows or around

the eyes, but red and black were
the typical colors that were used

for clowns and it was called a neat
white face because it was very, very

minimalist.

Now, there's another term for
circus clown makeup

for white face, and it's called
'grotesque white face' and

that has, a more elaborate
look to it. For instance,

the best example is look at Lon
Chaney in 'Laugh, Clown Laugh.'

That makeup is what we would
call a 'grotesque white face'.

The -- It wasn't until the
late 19th century, early

20th century that clowns started
using -- Another clown came up

with a color called a 'ghost'.

It was more of a flesh tone, with black
around the mouth, white around the eyes.

Two of the more well-known circus clowns
that use that makeup was the great

Lou Jacobs and Greg DeSanto
of later years at Ringling Brothers

The tramp clown, as we know it, didn't
come in until about the Great Depression

period and, of course, the greatest
tramp clown was Emmett Kelly.

And other clowns came after that.
Mark Anthony. Otto Griebling.

And in later years, some evolved
into a combination of a tramp clown

and a character clown.
Scott Linker, in the 1980s

and early 90s at Ringling
Brothers. He was made up.

He had something. You know,
he had the dark around the face,

the white around the mouth,
but he was dressed as a usher,

so that was more of what we
would call a 'character clown'

versus a 'tramp clown'.

John Gilbert is here and this
is his introduction in the film.

And we're also seeing a new
young star by the name of

Norma Shearer. This film
introduced three of what would

who would become MGM's biggest
stars in the silent era

and Norma continued
on into the 30s,

and it was quite a great
big break for all of them.

Chaney, Gilbert, and Norma
Shearer.

Now, going back to talking about
European circuses for a minute,

European circuses were traditionally a
single ring, usually in a large building.

And, you had one single ring,
and the act took place there,

and the audience sat around it,
around the ring, as you will see

a little bit later
here in the film.

The first American circus
debuted in April 1793,

in a wooden-walled open
air ring in Philadelphia.

One of the audience members
who witnessed the acrobats,

horses and clowns at this time
was President George Washington.

The circus expanded to
two rings in 1872 under

P.T. Barnum, who called his circus
"The Greatest Show on Earth."

In 1880, Barnum merged with
Jim Bailey's Circus and the new

Barnum & Bailey Circus
now proclaimed 'Three Rings'.

The other famous circus was
owned by the Ringling Brothers,

and they started out in 1884.
23 years later, they took

ownership of Barnum & Bailey,
being billed as Ringling Brothers

Barnum & Bailey Circus,
The Greatest Show on Earth.

It would remain the major
American circus for the next

147 years, before ending
its historic run in May 2017.

Interestingly, both John
Gilbert and Norma Shearer

never made a film together
after this, although they

certainly had quite a presence.

Now you see Lon getting
his face powdered.

You would always set the clown
makeup with baby powder,

usually in a white sock. It was
just easier to absorb the colors

and you'd cover the entire face
with a baby powder and then

brush off the excess.

And here's something of an
ironic scene in that we see

Ruth King is having dinner with
the Baron and they look out

and they see the circus building,
and she laughs about a clown

getting slapped.

For his role in this film,
Chaney was, coached by

George Davis, who was a
professional circus clown from France.

Davis also appears in 'Phantom
of the Opera.'

But Davis coached him, showing
Chaney how to be a clown and

act a certain way.

Now, the gentlemen
in the waistcoats come

out and handle the horses
and that, in circus terms,

they're called in America
'Roustabouts'.

They aren't dressed at Ringling
Brothers they weren't.

Were not dressed
nearly as nice as this.

They all wore a blue jumpsuit,
with Ringling Brothers name

on the back.

Notice the symbolism in Chaney's
costume, where he's holding this heart

that is not perfectly in place
and needs to be sewn

and Consuelo will
do it for him.

It kind of plays into the clown
with the broken heart theme

that was so well known in
so many films and stories.

And now we see Consuelo's
father with a very rich man.

This fellow gets
around a lot.

Notice how Lon watches her
while she sets the heart in place.

She's mending his heart,
basically, is what we see

here, emotionally, because he
falls in love with her.

Now, in the act of 'He
Who Gets Slapped, '

you will see, later in the film,
Chaney's character is supposed

to be dead and Ford
Sterling rips his heart out.

This piece of the costume.

And of course, we could
see here that she's replacing

his heart and allowing
him to feel love again, possibly.

Holly Bane, who went to
work in the film industry

as a makeup artist, and as
an actor under the name of

Mike Ragan, remembered his time as
a boy when he was an extra in the

circus audience here. He
said he was sitting in the upper

part of the bleachers, next to
where the performers made

their entrances and exits. He
said, "I was looking over the

rail when I first saw
Lon standing in his clown

makeup and costume. Two men stood
in front of him, holding the stilts,

and he climbed onto them with such ease,
just like he had been doing it forever.

I was in awe of him. When he
got his balance on the stilts,

He looked over at me. As we
were eye level with each other,

he smiled at me and said,
'Hello, son.' All I could do

was nod at him, totally speechless,
with my mouth open.

Here was one of my favorite actors,
who talked to me, and all I could

do was nod at him."

Now in HE's act, he gets
slapped for saying silly things.

Which is kind of ironic.
It's really not something

you think people would laugh at,
but Sjöström is showing the irony of

what happened to Chaney's
character before.

And here we see the
distinguished scientists

that Chaney is now laughing
at as part of his audience,

as the clowns.

It's a very subtle, symbolic shot
here by Sjöström, which I think --

He handles it so well, it could
easily have been overplayed,

but it isn't, and it makes
sense to the audience.

Now, Victor Sjöström, he was
born in Sweden in 1879,

and he immigrated to the United States
with his parents when he was a toddler.

His mother died when he was seven,
and eventually relations with his

father and his stepmother
quickly deteriorated.

He returned to Sweden to live with
his uncle, who was an actor with

the Royal Dramatic Theatre
in Stockholm.

Young Victor became enamored
with the acting profession,

and by the time he was 20, his
performances were gaining critical notice.

He left the theater to work
in the growing film industry

in Sweden, joining the Svenska
Biografteatern as an actor,

but soon began directing films
noted for their fine stories

and subtle character
performances.

Eventually, he was brought to America
by Sam Goldwyn's company

and was absorbed into the
roster of directors for MGM.

At MGM, he made many notable films,
including 'The Tower of Lies' with

Lon Chaney and
Norma Shearer.

Sadly, it's now
considered a lost film.

'The Scarlet Letter' and 'The Wind, '
which are heralded as classics of

the silent era.

With the birth of sound film,
Sjöström made one sound

film at MGM, 'A Lady to
Love, ' in 1930.

Before leaving for Sweden.
He directed four more films

before he returned to acting
for the rest of his career.

He ended his career as an actor
in Ingmar Bergman's 1957

'Wild Strawberries, ' and he died
in 1960, in his native Sweden.

I remember showing this sequence
to a couple of my circus clown

friends in Ringling Brothers, and
they watched it and after it was

over, they said, "Yeah, that's
nice, but we'd probably have

to blow up something
to get a laugh."

You notice the scene where
Ford Sterling, before he takes

Chaney out into the ring,
he touches the heart

to make sure the small prop
heart is in its place.

This was an old theater custom
called "Check Your Props Before

You Go On."

There's certainly a great deal
of irony in this sequence, where

a fellow clown rips out a clown's heart
and everyone's laughing hysterically,

and then he buries
the heart in the ground.

And now comes the funeral

for HE.

Again, this is kind of odd, not
really something one would

think in the circus would be
very funny, but it does

It does give us something of an
ironic touch to the whole story,

that we laugh at somebody
when they're hurting.

Now see here the clowns crying,
and they're squeezing a hot water bottle

that has a tube that runs up
underneath their skull caps.

That is an old gag that dates
back to the late 1880s with

circus clowns and still can
be used to this day,

although most of the time
it hasn't been used in, oh,

probably in the
last 30 or 40 years.

But it was a standard gag for
many, many decades in the circus.

And now we see another old
standard circus gag where the

clown falls through
the stretcher.

This was a mainstay
routine for circus clowns

for decades, and still is
occasionally used.

I remember seeing it in 1984
with Ringling Brothers.

That gag was used.

Tully Marshall, who plays,
Norma Shearer's father,

was a veteran stage actor
for years before entering movies

and played a variety
of characters.

He appeared in Chaney's
'Hunchback of Notre Dame, '

and so many other films
and his career carried on

well into the sound era.
He, unlike some actors,

didn't have to worry about his
voice not recording well.

And he appears in 'The Big Trail'
with John Wayne as a grizzled

old scout.

And now Chaney is able to
get some modest revenge

with the Baron
under his makeup

and make fun of the rich man.

This is one of my favorite sequence
where the Baron says that he hates

clowns and look at Lon's
reaction and his reply.

And the Baron has no idea
who just insulted him.

Now that shot you saw of Norma
Shearer and John Gilbert riding,

the camera wasn't following
him around, obviously, because

they were not that accomplished in
the horse sequence here.

What they did is
they placed them on the set,

and they had a background that
ran backwards and forwards

to give it a sense of that
the horse was riding and they

would sit there and bounce
the platform they stood on to

give it the sense
of riding on a horse.

Lon Chaney was 41 when he
made this film.

This was made just a year after his
big hit, 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'

had been released.

He was born in Colorado Springs
on April 1st, 1883, to deaf parents.

His ability to communicate
to his parents using sign language

and facial expression was, of
course, a great asset to his

acting career.

After years of toiling in numerous
musical comedy companies --

Contrary to popular belief,
he never, ever played in vaudeville.

He only did musical comedies.

He was often playing several
parts on these shows,

serving as a stage manager
as well as a choreographer.

His entry into motion pictures
happened after his first wife, Cleva,

attempted suicide on April 30th,
1913, in the wings of a Los Angeles

theater while he was performing
on stage.

The ensuing negative publicity
of this tragic act forced Lon

to seek work in the growing
motion picture industry.

He worked steadily at Universal
from 1913 to 1918, even writing

and directing some
productions.

In 1918, he left Universal
over a salary dispute.

The gentleman who was in charge
of the studio at the time told

Chaney he'd never be worth
more than $100 a week.

Well, as he started to freelance,
he got his big break in the movie

'The Miracle Man, ' where
he played a fake cripple,

and it gave him his first big
attention to Hollywood

as one of the leading character
actors in the film industry.

Other roles that gave him
more attention to not just

the public, but studio
producers, was 'The Penalty, '

Fagin in 'Oliver Twist, '
the dual role as the gangster

and a Chinese in Tod Browning's
'Ouside the Law'

And the double role of
the mad scientist and his

half-ape/half-man in
'The Blind Bargain.'

His talent with makeup
knighted him the moniker of

"The Man of a Thousand Faces,"
and rightly so.

When Lon went to MGM as a
star, he was one of their major

stars between 1925
and 1930.

Of course, he did several films
with Tod Browning, notably

'The Unholy Three' silent
version, 'The Blackbird, '

and the wonderful
'The Unknown, ' a 1927.

But Chaney's biggest
moneymaking movie

was 'Tell It to the Marines' in
1927, where he wore no makeup

and he played a tough
marine sergeant.

His performance was so thrilled
by the Marines that they made

him an honorary member of
the Marine Corps for life.

Chaney eventually agreed to
make talking pictures,

In the beginning in 1930. He held
out primarily because he

felt he wanted to make sure
that sound equipment, sound

recording was good and
wouldn't harm his career.

He said, "Why should I try
and do something that may

die stillborn with the
way my box office is?"

In 1928 and '29, he was
voted the number one box

office male star.

Well, Chaney made a new deal
with a contract with MGM and he

agreed to do a remake of 'The Unholy
Three, ' using five different voices.

Several other films had been planned
for him, including 'Chéri-Bibi'

and 'The Bugle Sounds.'

But seven weeks
after the release of 'The Unholy Three, '

Lon died of lung cancer.

Irving Thalberg, who
knew Lon from their days

at Universal, hired him
to play the lead in this film,

and he told them that if 'He Who
Get Slapped' did well at the box office,

Lon would get a long term
contract with MGM.

Well, that deal was signed February
15th, 1925, and lasted until his death.

For his work in 'He Who Gets Slapped, '
Lon signed a contract

for just the run of the picture,
earning $2,500

a week for four weeks.

Norma Shearer she was born

in Montreal, Canada in 1900.

As a child, her parents gave her
dancing and piano lessons

and when her father's failing construction
business happened during World War I,

her mother took Norma and her
sister to New York in hopes

of getting them into show business.

After a failed audition
with Florenz Ziegfeld,

Norma eventually
found extra work

and occasional bit parts in movies
that were filmed in New York City.

Irving Thalberg had seen her
in a movie called 'The Stealers' in 1920,

and attempted to sign her under
contract when he was at Universal,

but she was in New York making
movies, and it wasn't until Thalberg

moved over to Louis B. Mayer's
production company that he

managed to sign her
to a five-year contract.

She became one of MGM's major
stars for the next 12 years,

appearing in such films as
'The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, '

'The Actress and 'The
Divorcee, ' for which she won

her only Best Actress Oscar.

She was married to Irving Thalberg
from 1927 until his death in 1936.

She made six more films at
MGM before retiring in 1942,

and she passed away
in 1983 at the age of 80.

John Gilbert, believe it or not,
was born as John Pringle

in Logan, Utah in 1895, and he
came from a show business

family. His father, who later
deserted his family, was a

leading comic in his
Pringle Stock Company.

Gilbert grew up backstage,
watching his mother perform

with numerous theatrical companies,
and he eventually got his start

in the film industry around
1915, playing extra roles in

many Thomas Ince movies,
before he moved up to bit

and supporting parts.

Oddly enough, in 1920, he and
Lon Chaney worked together in

Morris Turner's 'The Glory of
Love, ' which eventually was

released three years later
as 'While Paris Sleeps.'

Signed to MGM by Thalberg,
Gilbert's star burst on the

screen in 'The Big Parade'
in 1925. His pairing with

Greta Garbo in 'Flesh and the
Devil' was not only a major box

office hit, but the two stars fell in love
during the making of the film.

Although Garbo left Gilbert standing alone
at the altar for their planned wedding.

With the arrival of talking
pictures, Gilbert faced the

microphone with mixed results.
His voice wasn't bad, but it

really didn't match his screen
image and, at the time, a lot of

actors got caught up in that,
having to have that perfect stage

enunciation, so it made when he
would say lines like, "I love you,"

"I love you" which was later made
fun of in 'Singin' in the Rain, '

hurt his chances at
the box office.

He continued to make movies
until his contract with MGM

ran out in 1933, but his box
office hits were hardly there

and certainly not what
he had in the silent era.

He made only two more films before
his death in 1936, at the age of 38,

from a heart attack and
drinking himself to death.

'He Who Gets Slapped' was a risky
venture for a major studio's first release.

You have to consider its esoteric
subject matter, frequently presented in

symbolic scenes, could easily
have alienated the average moviegoer.

Instead, audiences
heartily embraced the picture,

and even today, it still
makes an indelible impression.

The movie succeeds with a
combination of poetic imagery

refined moods, and numerous
dissolves and superimposed images,

which give it almost a
mystical touch.

'He Who Gets Slapped'
was released on November

2nd, 1924, and the critical
reception was positive.

Chaney's performance was voted
as one of Photoplay Magazine's Best Picks,

and the production was chosen
as one of the top ten films of 1924

by Photoplay Magazine, Movie
Monthly, Motion Picture Magazine,

the Boston Post, the Los Angeles
Times, the New York Times, and

the New York News.

Photoplay Magazine noted
"'He Who Gets Slapped' is a

superb thing," and it lists Sjöström
to the very front ranks of directors.

"Lon Chaney does his best
work of his career. Here, his

performance has breadth, force,
and imagination."

Movie Weekly noted, "Occasionally
an exceptional picture comes along

which makes no attempt
to pander to the box office.

'He Who Gets Slapped' is one of
this sort, an artistic masterpiece.

Chaney's makeup, as usual,
is perfect, and he gives you a

magnificent performance, and
Metro-Goldwyn is to be

congratulated because of their
willingness to buy stories for

their sheer artistry."

The New York Times stated,
"At the Capitol Theatre

this week, there is a picture
which defies one to write

about it without indulging
in superlatives. It is a shadow

drama so beautifully told,
so flawlessly directed, that

we imagine it will be held up as
a model by all producers.

Mr. Sjöström has directed
this dramatic story with all

the genius of Chaplin or
Lubitsch, and he has

accomplished more than
they have in their work.

Never in his performance
before the camera has

Mr. Chaney delivered such a marvelous
performance as he does in this character.

He is restrained in his acting,
never overdoing the

sentimental situations, and
is guarded in his makeup."

'He Who Gets Slapped' began
filming on June 17th, 1924, and

completed production 37
days later, July 28th.

The circus sequences that we see in the film
took two weeks, and they were shot

on the studio's
biggest stage at the time.

The film was budgeted at $172,000.

Upon its release, the box office
gross was $881,000.

Earning the studio a profit
of $349,000.

The film broke a record
in its opening week in November

at the Capitol Theatre in New York
City, earning over $70,000

when ticket prices ranged
from $0.35 to $1.65.

This was the only outdoor
location for this movie,

likely on the outskirts of
Los Angeles.

Back then, there were
certainly a lot of open

spaces, a lot of trees
that they could shoot things.

Now, there was the old adage,
"A rock is a rock, a tree is a tree,

And we'll shoot it in Griffith Park."

and there was a reason for that,
because they went to Griffith Park

a lot because it was close to
the studios and easy to shoot.

Director Karl Brown once said
that it was better when shooting

outdoors, not to shoot anything
between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

due to the sun
being overhead.

As you can see in these shots
here, with Norma Shearer

and John Gilbert. Brown
felt that doing that, it took

away any kind of wonderful shading
you might get in a shot, so he never did.

Nowadays, you film no matter
what. You film in the rain, you film

pretty much in any condition now,
because time is money.

Back then, they had a little
bit more freedom to be

more artistic.

Now, we come to another
ironic scene in the film where

all we see is the Baron picking
up his hat, cane, gloves, and

he's leaving Ruth King.
Notice she's got a string

of pearls around her neck,
just like the one he --

Just like what he gave
to Norma Shearer's character.

Ruth King doesn't get a lot of credit
for her performance in this film

in reviews and that, probably
because it was something of a

minor performance, but I thought
she does a wonderful job with her

reactions, her facial reactions,
especially there looking at the

check as he walks out,
and I think she deserves

a little more credit for
that wonderful performance.

In the actual play, there is a
scene between HE and Consuelo

very similar to this, where
He sits here and he winds up

telling her that he loves her
and she laughs at him.

Something of an
ironic moment.

Again, here she is, stitching
up her heart for him, and

this is where his character
tells her that he loves her,

in all seriousness, but she
cannot not take him seriously.

Again, this is a theme
in so many of Lon's movies,

as I've mentioned before,
where he loves the girl

and she loves another,
and he either sacrifices himself

for the girl or lets her go
with the one she truly loves.

This is a nicely played scene
with the two actors here.

Lon becomes very intense about
her not marrying the Baron,

and how he tries to tell her he
loves her, and the more intense

that he becomes, you can
see Consuelo becomes

frightened, wanting to
pull constantly, pull away.

Again, this is a scene that,
under the direction of a,

shall we say, "less talented"
director than Victor Sjöström,

who knew how to handle his
actors, knew when to let them

play it to the hilt or
tone it down.

He does such a wonderful
job here with him.

And you feel for HE.
You feel sad for him,

and you know that all this
proposing his love to

Consuelo is not going to work
out for him. It's not going to

be beneficial for
what he wants.

And now you see Consuelo.
She can't take him seriously.

Begins to smile and laugh,
which, again, as she

playfully slaps him, pushes
him over the edge.

And she has no idea how serious
he was about professing his love.

And again, HE will hide
behind the clown's face,

masking his sadness.

And start laughing himself
to take away the edge and

then tell her, "Slap me
again. Slap me again."

Tully Marshall just makes
this role so wonderful.

He's such a sleaze, sell
his daughter out for money.

But again, like all the other actors,
he doesn't overplay it.

He plays it just right.
Just enough that you

hate this guy. You really
don't like him. You don't.

You want to see him get his
comeuppance as well as with

the Baron. Of course, back then,
in 1924, the Will Hays Office,

which was the censor board
for all films, demanded that a

villain or a bad person had
to be punished for their crime,

mostly resulting in their death
or conviction in a courtroom.

But then, how is that
going to happen?

How do you make
it happen?

In the play, it's almost a
Shakespearean tragedy

in the sense that Consuelo drinks
poison and dies, and HE follows her

and drinks poison and dies, much
like 'Romeo and Juliet, ' almost.

It was a very Russian play,
very heavy, very dramatic,

and, of course, Victor
Sjöström and Carey Wilson

did a wonderful, wonderful
job on the script here.

If they had done
the actual play itself,

it would have been too heavy handed
for an audience to sit through,

let alone embrace,

but with what they've
done here with the characters,

you have their sympathy.

And it's important
with characters such as

Chaney's or even
Norma Shearer's character,

that you have to win
the audience's sympathy

and you can't play it too heavily
to get that sympathy.

It's a very fine line between being
perfectly dramatic and then overdoing it.

Overemphasizing it,
overacting it.

Of course, you can see
that in several films

where you often think
gee, they should have --

The actor should tone down
their emotions a little bit.

It would have made
the film better.

But, Sjöström had a
great rein on the actors

here and was able to get them to
do what he needed and what he

wanted. Chaney liked
Sjöström very much.

He thought very highly of
him. He said his values

were very fine, and he liked
working with him a great deal.

It's kind of sad that they
only did two movies, one of

which is missing, where he plays a
Swedish farmer from a young man

to an old man.

I kind of wish he would have done
a couple more films with Sjöström,

because he was just such a great director
in getting that perfect performance

out of somebody without
letting them chew the scenery.

Lon stated one time that he was
very interested in how the lions

acted with the trainer and
then with the man who would

feed them. The trainer, they
would snarl at, like here,

because they didn't really like
him, because he cracked the whip

and such. But the man who
fed them, they were virtually

like a pussycat, because he gave
them what they needed, what

they wanted, and they showed their
affection and thankfulness by being

very kind to him and they never
once snarled or snapped at the man.

And you can see here as they're going
by, look in the background

of them on the horse. You can see
the faces are painted on a canvas,

so they were using a
backdrop for that scene.

Contrary to popular belief,
Chaney was supposedly quoted as

saying, "There is nothing funny
about a clown at midnight."

There's absolutely nothing I have,
in 50 years, uncovered a quote

like that from any kind of
interview or newspaper clipping.

It came years later, after
Lon had long passed away.

I believe years later, in
the 50s, it was being

quoted by a writer of science
fiction and horror that he said

Chaney said this, but I
have never found anything,

of Lon saying it.

Now we're going to come
up to a scene here where

you're going to have to think,
"How did they do this?!"

I know I was. As I was preparing
this commentary, I was watching

the film. Now, keep in mind,
I've been watching this film

since 1975. It's one of my favorite
of Chaney's works, and I never really

sat down to look at it
and try to analyze it, and

while we were preparing the script
here for this commentary,

I started watching it and I
caught on how they accomplished

this shot, with the lion in
the room with the three actors.

Now, you see here, we're
going to -- Let me jump off here.

You see, now they
do a reverse dissolve here.

So they shoot it. They
shot Chaney in the clown

makeup. Chaney steps out, takes
clown makeup off, puts the goatee

on, makes himself up. They shoot
him like that in the close up.

After they wound the film
back, he steps out.

They wind the film back again. He comes
back in in the clown makeup.

And that's how they
did the dissolve.

But for this scene here that
we're going to see where the

lion comes into the room
with the three actors,

obviously, you can't have the
lion in the same set with the

actors, because who knows if the
lion will turn on anybody.

So, it was a little bit
of camera magic, and

it was something they were doing
quite often back in that period.

Today, what they might do is
they might, have set up like an

'Indiana Jones and the Raiders
of the Lost Ark, ' when he's in the

Well of Souls there and
the cobra pops up.

Well, they had a glass plate
between Harrison Ford and

the cobra, thankfully.
Well, you couldn't do that

back then with the way this set
is set up and the shot is done.

So what they did is they
reversed to some camera trickery,

And what you'll see is when
the lion comes in, you'll see

Tully Marshall on the left
side of the frame, and

Lon and Mark McDermott
on the right side of the frame.

And in the center is the lion.
So how was that done?

They first shoot the three
actors, and what they do is,

in the center of the frame,
they block off the camera

frame with a black cloth.
They matte it out and they

expose the film with Tully Marshall
on the left side of the frame,

Mark McDermott and Chaney
on the right side of the frame.

When they shoot that, they
rewind the film back, just like a dissolve.

Now, what they do is they
remove the masking in the

center of the frame, and
instead they mask the left and

right side of the frame, and they
bring in the lion and expose

the lion and the center of the
frame, and then when the film is

developed, you see all three
in the same shot and it was a

very safe way, very smart
way and easy way of

completing this effect.

And it has always
surprised me, growing up and

as a budding film historian, how
much stuff they did with the camera

and within the camera. All these tricks
and the hanging miniatures or matte

shots and all this stuff,
and so much of that

was carried on into the sound era,
and so much of it is still used today

in many respects.

Now, the technology is a little
different. They don't do matte

glass shots like they used to.
Now, they do it all with a computer

but they still have to mask off
an area of the frame for that to

be on there. It's really quite
interesting how much we

developed in the silent era that
is still in use and still used to this

day. It's kind of like the apple
doesn't fall far from the tree,

and, it's really, when you think of
what they did back then with the

technology they had, not at all
like what we have to this day.

It's amazing when you see some of
these scenes, like this scene here.

You'll see in the moment with,
the lion in the scene, how they did it,

And it just gives such a great
sense of realism that you don't

get if you did a split screen
or if you just shot the lion and

then cut back to the actors, but
you don't see the lion and the

the actors in the
same set.

Now watch here,
you'll see...

There it is.
Now you can see,

almost to the right side there's
a line you can kind of see from

the floor to the bottom
of the table.

That'll tell you that's where
the center part was masked

off and then unmasked
when the lion came in.

Now, how did they do this
scene with Tully Marshall and

the lion? Tully ducks.
He gets out of the shot

real quick. They stop the
camera. The lion jumps in.

Again, you can see the background
there with the painted faces.

So you know that they're
not going around

circles in the ring
with the horse.

The folks at Flicker Alley have
asked me to give you a little

bit more background about
myself. I spent 20 years as a

kid actor, thankfully never robbing
a 7-Eleven, and thankfully never

successful, and then, when I was 21, I
switched careers and became a makeup

artist, and I was a makeup artist for
40 years, along the way picking up

two Emmy Awards, which I never
expected to get, and worked on

numerous shows. And my
interests in Lon Chaney

is what propelled me
into this career.

My dad was in 'Man of a
Thousand Faces, '

The film biography on Lon
Chaney, and I stayed up

one night when I was ten
years old to watch it.

I wanted to know more
about Lon Chaney, and

I wanted a makeup case.
Well, back then there were

no books written about
Lon Chaney.

So, over the next 40, 50
years, I started digging around

and trying to find out
information about Lon Chaney.

And I also wanted a makeup
case, and when I was doing an

episode of 'Marcus Welby, M.D., '
the makeup artist on the show,

who I had been working with
for five days, I just bugged him

constantly about what was in the
makeup case and everything,

and on my last day on the show,
he gave me his old makeup case,

and it was full of pansticks,
pancakes, all sorts of things.

And I promptly went home and
gave all the boys in the neighborhood

a Cary Grant tan, and I started to teach
myself and eventually, started at

Universal, the same studio Lon Chaney
started at, and that was my first three

and a half years of my career,
and it was a great time, and

my interest in Chaney
was just solely for myself,

and I was working on a movie
with Burt Lancaster, and we

talked about Lon Chaney
several times, and I told him

stories about things I knew,
and he said, you got to write

a book, and I had no faith
in myself as a writer, so

he said, "Well, then find
somebody, but do it."

Well, I took my dad's old vaudeville
advice and I did a single act,

and I wrote three pages, and they
were the most god awful pages

I've ever read, because I tried
to sound biographical, and

it was -- Watching paint
was more exciting.

So, anyway, a friend of mine
suggested, "Well, you talk

so well about Lon that you
know him so well. Try it that way."

And thanks to Kevin Brownlow and his
wonderful book, 'Parade's Gone By..., '

I liked the way he told stories,
so I kind of borrowed from him.

And there you go. Three books later,
I've written about Lon Chaney.

He's been a tremendous influence
in my life and I will never, ever

be able to repay him,
the debt he has given me.

And, of course, for HE, as he
hears the music playing for his,

his act, he must go on.
The show must go on.

Even though he is
fatally wounded here.

Now, you see the blood on the hand
of what's supposed to be Tully Marshall,

and then you'll also see when he
removes his hand from where he was

stabbed, you'll see the blood.

The blood was actually Bosco

chocolate syrup. It photographed
better than red fake blood would.

Red wouldn't come off as well on
Orthochromatic and Panchromatic

film stock, so they used
Bosco chocolate syrup.

Needless to say, it looked
great on camera, but it was

very sticky. Years later, Max
Factor came up with a great

blood called "Technicolor Blood"
that had a glycerin base

that was easier to clean up,
wasn't sticky, and then they,

when they stopped making it, other
people started coming up with

fake blood, and they used Karo syrup,
which again makes it really sticky.

I think Lon plays this scene
so very well. He's trying to

carry on his act of being
the jovial clown, and

when you get slapped here,
he sees people applauding.

The clowns are laughing.

He gets up and he talks about
how the clown comes out

to make people laugh.

But he can't get back up.

Notice how slowly the clowns and
the audience now kind of realize

something isn't quite right.

Of all the death scenes that Chaney
has done in his movies, I think this is

one of his best, just
so fillled with pathos, and just,

it's so real to me that,
you know, you understand

the character and you
see what's happening.

He stands up now,
they're applauding him,

and he wants to say one last thing,

and he looks at Consuelo.

Before he dies.

Of course, he dies in
Consuelo's arms.

And as we come to a close,
I would like to thank the folks

at Flicker Alley for allowing me
to share my commentary with you.

I hope you found it of interest
and enjoyed watching this film

as much as I have.
Thank you.