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Lon Chaney:
Behind the Mask
(1996)

This Lon Chaney documentary, written and directed by Bret Wood, covers familiar ground but leaves us with few insights into the career or persona of the versatile actor. The presentation might have been lifted a bit with a different narrator. Ronald Gordon’s reading is so flat that it is detrimental to our engagement. Perhaps the highest value of the film is in the selection of film clips that include a few rarely seen productions unavailable in quality home video editions. If the clips are indicative of the survival state of these films, sadly, some have only survived in 16mm and 8mm reduction prints.

Kino Classics
2023 Blu-ray Disc edition

The Trap (1922), color-tinted black & white, 53 minutes, not rated,
with By the Sun’s Rays (1914), black & white, 11 minutes, not rated, and Lon Chaney: Behind the Mask (1996), color, color-toned black & white and black & white, 65 minutes, not rated.

Kino Lorber, K26226, UPC 7-38329-26226-6.
One single-sided, single-layered, Region A Blu-ray Disc; 1.33:1 aspect ratio picture in pillarboxed 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) 24 fps progressive scan image encoded in SDR AVC format at 6.2 Mbps average video bit rate; Dolby Digital (AC3) 2.0 stereo sound encoded at 192 Mbps audio bit rate; English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles; 4 chapter stops; standard BD keepcase; $29.95.
Release date: 18 April 2023.
Country of origin: USA

Ratings (1-10): video: 7 / audio: 6 / additional content: 7 / overall: 7.

This Blu-ray Disc edition of this Lon Chaney documentary was previously released by Kino in a VHS videotape boxset of Chaney films released in the late 1990s. The clips from Chaney films will vary in quality depending on their survival status.

Supplementary material includes a presentation of By the Sun’s Rays (1914), which has previously been offered by Kino on their Blu-ray Disc edition of The Penalty (1920).

Previously available on VHS videotape, this Blu-ray Disc is now the best available home video edition of the documentary.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.