Face Up to Your Monsters
The last (for now) of my Villain illustrations is based on one of the earliest of the Universal’s classic horror icons. The Phantom of The Opera was released in 1925 with Lon Chaney Snr portraying the title character.
Chaney was an ‘old school’ actor and applied his own make up. He was from a theatrical background and used those skills in his screen performances. But what Chaney accomplished was quite radical for the time. The Man of a Thousand Faces used tape and wire to distort his nose, pin back his ears, and wax to distort his facial features.
His transformation was considered so shocking that it was kept secret from the general populous until the movie’s release and his appearance was said to cause extreme fainting in audiences. Rumour has it that when he tested his Phantom makeup on a cameraman, he floored him with the shock. Another story suggests he threw abuse at his co-star, Mary Philbin, to gain her onscreen reaction.
As a testament to the stage building innovators of the movie, the set stood on Soundstage 28 for over ninety years and has only recently been demolished. It was used on major movies such as Dracula, Psycho, The Sting, Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean as well as a plethora of mainstream TV series such as Columbo and Knight Rider.
The movie was surrounded by a quality of production and complexity that few films had seen before and its longevity and critical acclaim are witness to that.
For me, my main illustration was also an extremely complicated piece to put together – worth the effort - but excruciatingly difficult to complete. I would like to know: what are the limits we will go to, like Chaney, to get a task completed to our own personal satisfaction?
