American Cinematographer - January 2001 - 116

Man With

a

Camera
film stock. A brief film clip from a
makeup test for Road to Mandalay
(1926) still exists, giving us a hint of
what Chaney looked for during these
tests. James Wong Howe, ASC

Top: During their
visit to the MGM

studio in 1926,
Prince William of

Sweden

(left) and

Prince Gustav of

Denmark
were

(center)

remembered how the actor

caught on
by Chaney

was

acutely aware of the camera when
they worked together on Laugh,
Clown, Laugh (1928): "He was the
only actor I knew [who] could stand

film
and his 16mm
Filmo. This brief

meeting sparked
Prince William's
interest in home
movies. Bottom:

in front of the camera,

and

no

matter

what lens I told him I put on

Chaney shows a
family friend the

camera,

the

he could give me the side¬

title cards he
used in his home
movies. Hazel

lines at any distance
He knew exactly."

Chaney stands in
the background.

mances,

from the camera.

was in his perfor¬
makeup tests or his knowl¬
edge of cameras and lighting, Chaney
brought an absolute perfection to the
task that helped escalate him to the
status of screen legend. But his home
movies paint a different picture. The
actor who refused to sign autographs,
give interviews or attend movie
premieres suddenly appears to be an
everyday Joe. He is no longer the
deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame
or the haunting phantom of the Paris
Opera. In these home movies,
Chaney is the man who refused the
studio's pleas to work late, allowing
the extras to earn an additional day's
pay; the movie star who handed out
gift certificates at Christmas to all of
the studio employees; and the fellow

Whether it

who climbed

a

tree on

the studio lot

the

place some baby birds back in their
nest, begging a fellow actress not to
tell anyone. In a rare interview, he
once claimed that "between pictures,
there is no Lon Chaney." But as the
surviving home movies prove, there

and he

was

to

could enhance

particular shot.
the stage, he knew
that lighting would either help or
ruin a good makeup creation. He
once said that the key to the success
of his makeup for Phantom of the
Opera was attributable to the place¬
ment of the right shades of grease¬
paint in the right places - including
a

From his years on

some on

the less obvious

areas

of the

face.

By the late 1920s, Chaney was
acknowledged for his expertise on
114

January 2001

subject of makeup and lighting,
even authored a paper on the
effects of makeup under incandes¬
cent lighting. He was very exacting
when it came to doing makeup tests,
something he'd learned early in his
film

career.

While

at

Universal

Studios in the
had
ASC

early teens, Chaney
cinematographer Virgil Miller,
secure a camera

kinds of

to

film various

makeup so he could judge
which makeup techniques would be
acceptable on the orthochromatic

indeed

a man

sand faces who

behind the thou¬

was

ing and real

just as interest¬
of his screen

as any
characterizations.

Michael F. Blake,

■

an Emmy Awardwinning makeup artist, is the author of
three books on Lon Chaney.
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