Flesh and Blood (1922)
*** (out of 4)
Lon Chaney plays a man who escapes from prison after serving 15 years so that he can seek revenge on the one who sent him there. On the outside Chaney takes disguise as a crippled man and soon comes face to face with the daughter who believes his dead. His revenge idea takes a bump in the road when he learns that his daughter is to marry the son of the man who sent him to prison. There's a lot of good and a lot of bad in this film and I probably should have only given it a two-and-a-half star rating but the final fifteen minutes are so incredible that I went ahead and gave it a full three stars. The film only runs 50 minutes and the first twenty are pretty much standard revenge ideas. We see Chaney rant and raving and then we see him start to carry out his plan. This type of stuff had been done countless times before 1922 and that includes Chaney's very own The Penalty. The reason the film works so well is due in large part to the incredible performances. Chaney is wonderful here and it's nice to see him play a cripple since he probably didn't some of the same acting as in the lost film The Miracle Man. The supporting cast of Ralph Lewis (the man who sent Chaney up) and Edith Roberts (the daughter) add great strength. While the first part of the film is totally by the numbers stuff, the final act goes in a whole different direction and becomes very touching and moving. the ending alone makes this one worth searching for. Noah Beery co-stars.
