Mockery. 1927. Directed by Benjamin Christensen.

(9/14/99)

Overall, I found this a tedious picture. Certainly, the action scenes were tedious. However, there was one nugget of real gold in it. That was the scene in which, after Lon Chaney practically attacked Barbara Bedford, he is caught and would be executed depending on what she says about him. She is asked the question: "Has he been loyal?" It is a great moment of decision. As she looks at him she sees the scars on his chest from the whipping he got when he did not betray her. She answers yes, he has been loyal and in fact he was the only one who stayed to protect her. That moment worked beautifully for me.

There are interesting aspects to the film. Chaney is a Russian peasant who thinks that if everybody is made eual he will possess the Countess. It is quite obvious to the audience, however, that she is not going to be attracted to him romantically no matter what. When he believes the Countess is a peasant she tells him that they will always be friends. Once her true identity is revealed she becomes condescending towards her friend--well-meaning, but condescending. Once when he goes to speak to her she cuts him off. So we can sympathize with how rank divides people, how it comes between them, while at the same time realizing how unrealistic his hopes are.

After the Countess lets him live in that moment of decision, he defends her and, in fact, dies defending her. So her choice of the high road is rewarded. There is a very strong moral sense in both this film and The Devil's Circus.

There are some very moving shots of Chaney as the Russian peasant. One does miss an element of the macabre or grotesque in a Chaney picture and is a little bit disappointed--or I was, anyway. I think if the whole film had worked better it wouldn't have been a disappointment. There were some interesting things about this picture, but on the whole I still found it tedious.