Customer Reviews

Lon Chaney, Jr. (Midnight Marquee Actors Series)

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The Svehlas of Midnight Marquee, Gary and Susan, have hit upon a unique way of publishing "biographies" in their actors series: by having a several experts on the person profiled contribute essays on various aspects of his career. "Lon Chaney, Jr." follows "Bela Lugosi," "Boris Karloff," and "Vincent Price," and is actually preferable to a recent full-length bio. The reason is the quality of the writing, which is always objective and never boring. Good work, folks!

After his short lived stardom resulting from his roles in horror movies (The Frankenstein Monster, The Wolfman, etc.), Lon Chaney developed into a character actor of distinction. That is what I got from this book of his movies and his life. Despite having to stand in the shadow of his father, despite many personal demons that haunted him, he made a name for himself as a character actor and played many roles alongside some major stars (for example, Gary Cooper in HIGH NOON) Since I have read the book, I have a new admiration for his talent. I enjoyed this book very much, and after reading it will watch Lon Chaney's performances in a much different light.

I think it's only fair to state that I too am one of the authors in this anthology. I wrote the review of "The Ghost of Frankenstein," and in spite of a few "glitches" that got past me when "proofing" the manuscript, I think the book on a whole is the best of the first three movie actor anthologies (Lugosi, Karloff and Chaney, Jr.) that Midnight Marquee has produced.

Lon,Jr.'s career is pretty well profiled with an overview of some of his early film career, his Westerns, his classic portrayals in "Of Mice and Men," "The Wolf Man," and "High Noon," the low budget "B" movies and shlocky films he made in his later years. There is something new to be learned in just about every article at Lon Chaney, Jr. Fans of the actor should be pleased at the affectionate, yet often very objective look at a large body of his film work. Those who tend to "put down" the actor, and begrudgingly admit that he made a few good films will be suprised about some good performances that may have gone un-noticed until now. It is a book that belongs in any "horror film" fan's library. General fans of "the golden age of Hollywood" might also want to purchase this book as well.

While I would like to re-edit my article and make a few points in a more coherent manner, I think that by and large, just about all the authors offer something new and refreshing about a film you might think you know all about. Read Gary Don Rhodes' review of "Of Mice and Men" or Cindy Ruth Collins Smith's review of "High Noon" for some scholarly yet supremely entertaining articles on these films. I think I've said enough. Go out and buy this book! - Leonard J. Kohl

I think the basic problem with the Midnight Marquee style is probably often commented upon: too much space to lengthy synophsis of the movie being examined.
On the somewhat charmingly offbeat subject of Lon, this book is well done and a lot of fun. Not a great actor, and a man who came to his trade in part on the strength of his family name; Lon still had great moments and won the affection of genre fans. Let's face it, Larry Talbot should have been a leading man type with great looks, Lon was really a charactor
type guy.

I really want to see the movie "Witchcraft" after reading this book; Lon went to England to make it and was bombed the whole time. "Dr. Terror", by the way, is really not David Hewitt's worst film, probably "Monster's Crash the Pajama Party would win.