La novela de un mujik

This little known title still manages to draw audiences thanks to Lon Chaney, although it is a bit hard to find. However, when found, it is a crowd pleaser thanks to a decent story, great acting, and nice production elements.

Chaney stars as Sergei, an unintelligent peasant who happens upon a woman (Barbara Bedford) while lurking in the forest in search of food. She requests that he accompany her to the city and to comply with whatever she says. His agreement of these terms becomes useful when revolutionists try to attack her. Sergei's actions in the situation make it possible for the two of them to reach the city, where he discovers that the woman is Countess Tatiana. In gratitude, she offers Sergei a job in the kitchen where she is staying under the direction of burly Ivan (Charles Puffy). He agrees and grows more and more fond of Tatiana and jealous of her relationship with soldier Dimitri (Ricardo Cortez) until he is driven to action by revolutionist Ivan.

As always, Chaney gives a stirring performance through a transforming makeup job. His character is rude and dirty, but we somehow sympathize with him even though we are brought to like both sides of the spectrum. Sometimes Lon is supposed to be sweet but sometimes he is supposed to be evil, but his character is realistic enough to be forgiven. Bedford is stunning as his love interest, first appearing dressed down in a Madonna-like fashion and then cleaning up to look Garbo-esquire.

The mechanics of the film are great too. It opens with an extreme close-up on Chaney's hungry hands searching through a dead soldier's effects. It follows him as he roams around. Lighting is used to highlight the scenes, especially toward the end of the film when lights flicker on and off constantly. These provide an added touch to make the film even better than it already would have been.