23 thoughts on “Lon Chaney Movies”

1. FYI
   Estimated Domestic B.O. data from Variety.
   Estimated 60-75% of known actual total.
   Note includes any reissues or shorts released during random years.
   Just for Fun

   Voices of the City/The Night Rose $51,500.00 Leatrice Joy Lon Chaney  1921
   The Trap $61,000.00 Dagmar Godowsky  Lon Chaney 1922
   A Blind Bargain $6,700.00 Virginia True Boardman Lon Chaney 1922
   Shadows $48,800.00 Marguerite De La Motte Lon Chaney  1922
   Flesh and Blood $12,567.00 Edith Roberts  Lon Chaney  1922
   The Hunchback of Notre Dame $1,028,998.00 Patsy Ruth Miller  Lon Chaney 1923
   The Shock $40,150.00 Virginia Valli  Lon Chaney 1923
   While Paris Sleeps $1,667.00 Mildred Manning Lon Chaney 1923
   He Who Gets Slapped $374,169.00 Norma Shearer  Lon Chaney 1924
   The Tower of Lies $208,550.00 Norma Shearer Lon Chaney 1925
   The Phantom of the Opera $696,741.00 Mary Philbin  Lon Chaney  1925
   California Straight Ahead $113,513.00 Gertrude Olmstead Lon Chaney  1925
   Frivolous Sal/Flaming Love $105,400.00 Mae Busch Lon Chaney  1925
   The Blackbird $362,483.00 Renée Adorée Lon Chaney 1926
   The Road to Mandalay $357,436.00 Lois Moran Lon Chaney 1926
   The Trap(1922) $55,676.00 Dagmar Godowsky  Lon Chaney  1926
   Nomads of the North(1920) $10,300.00 Betty Blythe  Lon Chaney  1926
   Tell it to the Marines $651,953.00 Eleanor Boardman Lon Chaney 1927
   London after Midnight $515,550.00 Marceline Day  Lon Chaney 1927
   Mr. Wu $306,633.00 Louise Dresser Lon Chaney 1927
   The Unknown $285,950.00 Joan Crawford  Lon Chaney 1927
   Flesh and Blood(1922) $16,000.00 Edith Roberts  Lon Chaney 1927
   Shadows(1922) $7,300.00 Marguerite De La Motte Lon Chaney 1927
   The Trap(1922) $3,000.00 Dagmar Godowsky Lon Chaney 1927
   Phantom of the Opera $2,300.00 Mary Philbin  Lon Chaney 1927
   Nomads of the North(1920) $375.00 Betty Blythe  Lon Chaney 1927
   Mockery $430,300.00 Barbara Bedford Lon Chaney  1927
   The Shock(1923) $11,950.00 Virginia Valli Lon Chaney  1927
   West of Zanzibar $537,950.00 Mary Nolan Lon Chaney 1928
   The Big City $528,300.00 Marceline Day  Lon Chaney 1928
   The Unholy Three(1925) $1,150.00 Mae Busch Lon Chaney 1928
   While the City Sleeps $592,600.00 Anita Page Lon Chaney  1928
   Laugh, Clown, Laugh $481,750.00 Loretta Young  Lon Chaney  1928
   Hunchback of Notre Dame(1923) $50,400.00 Patsy Ruth Miller Lon Chaney  1928
   Phantom of the Opera(1925) $12,000.00 Mary Philbin  Lon Chaney  1928
   Where East is East $480,500.00 Lupe Velez  Lon Chaney 1929
   Thunder $368,500.00 Phyllis Haver Lon Chaney 1929
   The Phantom of the Opera(1925) $213,150.00 Mary Philbin Lon Chaney 1930
   The Unholy Three $448,750.00 Lila Lee  Lon Chaney  1930

   Reply

   1. Hey Mike. Great information. I will have to add the missing movies into the page when I get home. Good stuff as always. Hope the Easter weekend.

      Reply

2. Further research by me does suggest that the Lon Chaney biographic film Man of 1000 Faces was indeed Cagney’s final serious box office hit. For example 1961’s One Two Three has a respectable Cogerson adjusted domestic gross of $89 million and a high review rating of 86%; but Wikipedia states that [because of a high production cost for its day] the film “did not do well” at the box office except in Germany.

   Reply

3. It is therefore likely that of the old silent-era Giants today only Chaplin’s name might resonate with audiences apart from movie historians and devoted film buffs.

   Indeed his legend seems to be the one that has survived the most from the silent days: for example AFI lists him as the 10th greatest movie legend of all time; and in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century which embraces noted personalities from all walks of life and from all branches of entertainment and sport [such as Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, JFK and Muhammad Ali] Charlie is the only big-screen performer per se to be mentioned apart from Monroe, Brando and Sinatra.

   Accordingly the Cogerson site does well to have given us over the years run-downs of the careers of some of the great silent movie icons and I have found this Chaney page of considerable interest as I know Lon’s persona only through the 1957 James Cagney film Man of 1000 Faces with Jimmy as Lon – and I can remember little of the story in that movie and anyway Wikipedia says that the movie incorporated a number of serious inaccuracies. So this Chaney page is “Voted Up!”

   LOOSELY RELADED TRIVIA: Man of 1000 Faces was likely Cagney’s final solid hit in his half-century career. 73% rated by Bruce it has a Cogerson adjusted US gross of around $112 million and is Cagney’s last-ever film to break the Cogerson magical $100 million barrier.

   Jimmy’s final film was 1981’s Ragtime which Bruce credits with a 75% rating and an adjusted US gross of approx $85 million. That figure does reflect reasonably-respectable audience attendance but its massive budget the equivalent of around $90 million in today’s money means that it is unlikely to have turned much if any of a profit especially given that cinemas normally grab half or more of any movie’s takings before ethe producers get a return on their investment.

   Reply

   1. Hey Bob. I thought about including The Man With A Thousand Faces in the table. That is actually how I know the most about him. Granted I have not researched him that much. As for Cagney, it was one of his last roles. It was made in 1957 and he retired in 1961. Good stuff as always.

      Reply

4. Historically every era chooses its own great entertainment stars and the silent era of the cinema, which introduced motion pictures to the world, was of course no exception.

   And the main artists from those times who always spring to my own mind are Lon Chaney Sr, Chaplin, Doug Fairbanks, Buster Keaton, Lilian Gish and Mary Pickford who was nicknamed America’s Sweetheart though on THIS site that accolade seemingly belongs to a woman who was the regular screen partner of William Powell as well as being the mistress of a little dog!

   In fact Chaplin who detested Little Mary re-nicknamed Pickford “Bank of America’s Sweetheart” and indeed the hyperbolic presentation of The Thin Woman’s personal box office figures on this site may well suggest that the site’s moderators feel that she too should have that nickname!

   About 50 years ago a survey of university students in the US revealed that only half of them knew who Clark Gable was-and HE was once called The King of Hollywood and!

   And even as relatively-recent as 25 years ago at a seminar of young people that I attended none of them knew who Marlon Brando was until someone [ME sitting in shock so that I couldn’t speak!] mentioned The Godfather and then his identity did resonate with most of them.

   When I was growing up in the 1950s, which of course was the 3rd full decade of talkies the great silent stars were largely back-numbers [inhabitants of The Stone Age in our minds!] and few among the man-in-the-street ever mentioned those silent-era Gods; and I have only ever seen a small handful of the movies of any of them on re-runs.

   Indeed I think that the only silent-era thespian that I have been in any way really-familiar with on the screen has been Lilian Gish; but she is only a shadow of her former self in the movies concerned being confined to just supporting roles in films like Mitchum’s 1955 The Night of the Hunter, 1960sThe Unforgiven starring Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn and 1955’s The Cobweb featuring Richard Widmark.

   Reply

   1. Hey Bob. Thanks for the thoughts on the era of silent movie stars. You have listed some acting legends in your comment. Happily we have UMR pages on all of them. I have not seen many of his movies, but his name has been known to me for as long as I can remember. As for Pickford, she was the first great movie actress. Even bigger than Hitler’s greatest foe…one Ms. Loy. Good stuff.

      Reply

   2. The Bob, great fun. thanks for commenting.

      Reply

      1. HI BOB the 2nd!

         Thanks for the response . How are YOU keeping these days? – reasonably well I hope.

         Reply

5. Historically every era chooses its own great entertainment stars and the silent era of the cinema, which introduced motion pictures to the world, was of course no exception.

   And the main artist from those times who always spring to my own mind are Lon Chaney Sr, Chaplin, Doug Fairbanks, Buster Keaton, Lilian Gish and Mary Pickford who was nicknamed America’s Sweetheart though on THIS site that accolade seemingly belongs to a woman who was the regular screen partner of William Powell as well as being the mistress of a little dog!

   In fact Chaplin who detested Little Mary re-nicknamed Pickford “Bank of America’s Sweetheart” and indeed the hyperbolic presentation of The Thin Woman’s personal box office figures on this site may well suggest that the site’s moderators feel that she too should have that nickname!
   About 50 years ago a survey of university students in the US revealed that only half of them knew who Clark Gable -once called The King of Hollywood.

   And even as late as 25 years ago at a seminar of young people that I attended none of them knew who Marlon Brando was until someone [ME sitting in shock so that I couldn’t speak!] mentioned The Godfather and then his identity did resonate with most of them.

   When I was growing up in the 1950s, which of course was the 3rd full decade of talkies the great silent stars were largely back-numbers [inhabitants of The Stone Age in our minds!] and few among the man-in-the-street ever mentioned those silent-era Gods; and I have only ever seen a small handful of the movies of any of them on re-runs.

   Indeed I think that the only silent-era thespian that I have been in any way really-familiar with on the screen has been Lilian Gish; but she is only a shadow of her former self in the movies concerned being confined to just supporting roles in films like Mitchum’s 1955 The Night of the Hunter, 1960sThe Unforgiven starring Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn and 1955’s The Cobweb featuring Richard Widmark.

   Reply

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