Tuesday, November 3, 2015

LON CHANEY JR.'S FIRST HORROR FILM MISFIRE


Lon Chaney was adamant about keeping his son out of the movie business. He had seen enough of it to know their were nobler vocations, such as his desire to see young Creighton master the art of the plumbing business instead of acting.

Nevertheless, Chaney the Younger was attracted by the Hollywood of his father and began his acting career in 1932.

In this snipe from "The Hollywood Times" March section of the April 1932 issue of MODERN SCREEN, Chaney is said to be under contract with RKO. The report is that his first talkie role would be a horror story by Edgar Wallace.



The "horror" story never materialized on screen. The announcement was most likely a result of over-enthusiastic publicists who wanted to, 1) capitalize on the fame of Lon Chaney, Sr., and, 2) also drop the name of Edgar Wallace, who was a very popular writer of mystery/thrillers at the time.

Appearing in a number of Westerns, Chaney would have to wait almost 10 more years to star in is first monster movie, when he claimed a role vacated by Boris Karloff in MAN MADE MONSTER (Universal, 1941).



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