Customer Reviews
Man of a Thousand Faces 
2008-10-12
Although, as Cagney himself pointed out in his autobiography, a great deal of this film is fictitious and, unfortunately, for very important reasons, this is still a fine piece of entertainment with a great cast -- the sort that, sadly, we don't seem to have these days. Pleasant enough as the young Chaney's eventual meeting, in the film, with his mother is, in reality, Cagney revealed that young Chaney did, indeed, once go to see his mother. A man answered the door and went inside to tell the woman her son was at the door. Chaney overheard her telling the man to let her son know she wasn't home as a means of getting rid of him. The hurt stayed with Chaney for the rest of his life and since Chaney was still alive when the picture was made, none of that could be included in the film.
John
CAGNEY IS REMARKABLE! 
2008-09-18
If you haven't seen this movie; it is PRICELESS! Cagney gives what might be the best performance of his life. He should have gotten an Academy Award for this touching yet strong role. Highly recommended!
Awesome every time 2008-09-08
Finally, this classic is available again on DVD. I've been waiting several years! This is a great movie starring Jimmy Cagney about one of Hollywood's legends, Lon Changey.
Chaney bio 2008-09-06
This was always a must see whenever it played on TV when I was a kid, so I'm very pleased to have my own copy that I can watch any time I desire. Jimmy Cagney gives a bravura performance as Lon Chaney, Sr. One of my favorite scenes is when he first gets to Hollywood and is taught what background extras do. He whips open his makeup kit to transform himself into a pirate. Great!
Only ONE reason to watch this DVD 2008-08-31
James Cagney was Great in this film, it stands out as one of my favorites of all time. It showcases the career of Lon Chaney and his tumultuous marriage to his wife, played by Dorothy Malone, who has a diffult time accepting Lon's folks because they are Deaf Mutes and an even more diffult time accepting the fact that the child she is carrying could end up the same way.
I have waited for years for this movie to make it to DVD and it is finally here and the transfer is excellent, but granted, I'm not as nit picky as some. I highly reccomend this one folks.
Oscar Performance By Cagney 2008-08-17
Academy Award winner James Cagney gives an unforgettable performance as Lon Chaney in this fascinating true story that follows the life of one of the most iconic and mysterious stars in Hollywood history!Known as the "Man of a Thousand Faces" silent film star Lon Chaney captured the imagination of the world through his incredibly expressive and transformative roles such as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Phantom from the original Phantom of the Opera. Behind the scenes however this long-suffering talented genius' life was filled with trials and tribulations that helped shape some of his most groundbreaking roles.The Academy Award -nominated Man of a Thousand Faces captures the dramatic private life of a humble vaudeville clown who rose to become one of the biggest stars the world has ever seen!System Requirements:Running Time: 122 minutes Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/SILENT Rating: NR UPC: 025195032582 Manufacturer No: 61104080
Man of a Thousand Faces 2008-07-17
This is a fantastic bio. Thank your lucky stars that Universal reissued it. I only wish that the makeup dealing with Lon Chaney was not underplayed. James Cagney was terrific and so were Dorothy Malone and Jane Greer. If you haven't seen it, SEE IT!
Cagney - Man Of A Thousand Parts 2008-04-01
MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES is one of Hollywood's better films about Hollywood! Produced by Universal International in 1957 it recounts the life and times of one of filmdom's most famous sons - Lon Chaney.
From an excellent Oscar nominated screenplay by R. Wright Cambell, Ivan
Goff and Ben Roberts it was directed with a deft hand by Joseph Pevney.
Pevney - a supporting player in such movies as "Body & Soul" (1947) and
"Street With No Name" (1948) - directed some of Universal's biggest productions i.e. "Away All Boats" (1956), "Tammy" (1957) and one of Errol
Flynn's last efforts "Istanbul" (1957).
Playing the leading role in this marvellous biopic is James Cagney who gives an outstanding measured performance as Lon Chaney, the strange tortured character actor of the silent screen and who, ironically, died from throat cancer with the advent of talking pictures.
Crisply photographed in black & white Cinemascope by the great Russell
Metty ("Touch Of Evil") the picture carries a strong sense of time and place. Expertly evoked is Vaudeville in the early part of the century where Chaney began as a song-and-dance man (Cagney delighting us with his
stylish brand of hoofing) and early Hollywood where he became an Extra
at Universal studios. Then with the help of his make-up box and his
uncanny facility to alter his appearance - sometimes resulting in great pain - he became known as The Man Of A 1000 Faces.
Notable reconstructions of Chaney's creations are quite brilliantly achieved in the picture. Cagney excels as the cripple being cured in a reworking of Chaney's famous scene from "The Miracle Man" (1919) and the phantom being unmasked in "Phantom Of The Opera" (1925) but especially noteworthy is Chaney's "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame" (1923). Here Cagney is totally unrecognisable as he replicates Chaney's interpretation of Quasimodo being whipped on the punishment wheel in the village square. It is an intense moment in this picture and a remarkable achievement for Cagney the consummate actor. Watching him in this movie it is little wonder the great Orson Welles declared in the seventies that Cagney was the screen's greatest actor.
Others in the cast of this splendid film are Dorothy Malone, giving an
excellent performance as the singer and Chaney's first wife Cleva Creighton, Jane Greer as his second wife, Jim Backus as his Press Agent and Robert Evans as the boy wonder of the Motion Picture business, Irving Thalberg.
The picture also boasts a terrific music score by the underrated and now
wholly forgotten composer Frank Skinner (1897/1968). Skinner was composer in residence at Universal for many years and scored most of their prestigious productions such as "Tap Roots" (1948), "Magnificent Obsession" (1954), "Madame X" (1965) and "Shenandoah" (1965). "Man Of
A 1000 Faces" was, however, his greatest achievement. A soundtrack album of his music from the film - issued at the time of the picture's release - is now a much sought after recording.
A wonderful movie on DVD presented in a sharp black & white widescreen format that every collector will want to own if only for Cagney's amazing performance. His Lon Chaney is just as powerful and just as memorable as his George M. Cohan, Cody Jarret and Marty "The Gimp" Snyder!
Perhaps Cagney's finest performance in a mature role 2008-03-23
Cagney plays Lon Chaney in this film about the great imitator's life. Chaney himself was a very private person, prefering the quiet of hearth and home to the wild Hollywood night life. Hollywood was where he worked, not a way of life. In this way both he and the man who plays him (James Cagney) have much in common.
Cagney and Chaney looked totally different, yet Cagney makes this role work. In Cagney's biography "Cagney on Cagney", he admits that the story takes certain liberties with Chaney's life as most biopics do, but there are many actual events in Chaney's life that are in the movie. Chaney was indeed the child of two deaf mute parents - he got his gift for pantomime in communicating with them. His first marriage was a rocky one, just as the film portrays. Whether the trouble started over his first wife believing that their child would be deaf and being horrified by the possibility as is portrayed in the film I don't know, but given early 20th century attitudes toward disability it is entirely possible.
The film whether accurate or not, was a loving tribute to Chaney that was instrumental in a revival of interest in his films. I consider this to be possibly Cagney's best performance in a mature role with maybe the exception of 1956's "These Wilder Years", also not on DVD, or VHS for that matter.
There are no details on extra features at this point.
Universal will release this film on DVD in June 2008 2008-03-20
Ten years to the month after Image Entertainment released Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), Universal will come out with a new release. The Image copy is out of print, so don't despair at the high current price. The new release will retail for just under twenty dollars. No further details at this time other than this link to the new product at this site - Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) (Ws Sub Dol). This film was probably Cagney's best performance in a mature role, so I'm certainly looking forward to this.
