Mr. Wu (1927)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Lon Chaney plays a duel role as Mr. Wu and his grandfather. In the film, Mr. Wu (Chaney) believes in an old Chinese custom of marrying his daughter (Renee Adoree) into another Chinese family but the girl has fallen in love with an Englishman (Ralph Forbes). When the Englishman leaves the girl, Wu must seek revenge by killing the man, his family and his own daughter. For the first seventy-minutes this is a love story between the two kids with the vengeance aspect just showing up for the final twenty. Overall I was pretty disappointed with the film, although there's some good stuff in it. I think this is one of the weakest performances from Chaney that I've seen because he seems to forget the performance in exchange for the brilliant make up. Chaney's make up effects as the grandfather are simply marvelous and you can't even tell that it's Chaney under all that make up. Adoree comes off very well bringing an innocence that's easy to connect with. Forbes is also very good in his role and the supporting players are nice as well. I think the film would have benefited with a tighter script that kept the action moving better because the middle of the film is rather dull with not too much going on. Had this middle section been as entertaining as the first and third acts then the movie would be much more memorable. As it is, this movie is mainly watchable due to the great make up work from Chaney.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Lon Chaney plays a duel role as Mr. Wu and his grandfather. In the film, Mr. Wu (Chaney) believes in an old Chinese custom of marrying his daughter (Renee Adoree) into another Chinese family but the girl has fallen in love with an Englishman (Ralph Forbes). When the Englishman leaves the girl, Wu must seek revenge by killing the man, his family and his own daughter. For the first seventy-minutes this is a love story between the two kids with the vengeance aspect just showing up for the final twenty. Overall I was pretty disappointed with the film, although there's some good stuff in it. I think this is one of the weakest performances from Chaney that I've seen because he seems to forget the performance in exchange for the brilliant make up. Chaney's make up effects as the grandfather are simply marvelous and you can't even tell that it's Chaney under all that make up. Adoree comes off very well bringing an innocence that's easy to connect with. Forbes is also very good in his role and the supporting players are nice as well. I think the film would have benefited with a tighter script that kept the action moving better because the middle of the film is rather dull with not too much going on. Had this middle section been as entertaining as the first and third acts then the movie would be much more memorable. As it is, this movie is mainly watchable due to the great make up work from Chaney.