Hooptober... And Then There Were Nine

13th Kill

This film remains fairly well seen in comparison to others of its vintage, but I can only assume this is thanks to its famous star, Lon Chaney, and his incredible performance more than its timeless excellence as a crime thriller narrative.

The film starts with real impact - a boy has been badly injured in an accident of some sort, and we enter the narrative after a doctor has taken the decision to amputate both of his legs. Very quickly, we learn from the appalled reaction of this doctor's friend and mentor, that the amputations were actually unnecessary. However, the two of them decide to cover that fact up, and most importantly, the young Blizzard hears the whole conversation. Hence, the ostensible rationale for this boy to grow up to become the pyschotic underworld supremo of San Francisco is established. However, it's hard to ignore the common pre-code trope of physical disability leading to moral corruption and perversion rearing its ugly head once again, which is kind of a bummer, but what can you do?

What follows is a sort of revenge narrative where the now formidable Blizzard seeks to bring ruin down upon the head of the doctor who mangled him (and who has incidentally become one of the leading surgeons in the city, of course) - mainly by forcing his way into his daughter's affections via posing for a sculpture of Satan (he makes a good one of those in marble, too). Not to ruin things, but the plot takes a turn for the weirdly trite after all this diabolism, which is something of a let-down.

Chaney is phenomenal though. Not only does he look about ten years older than the character I just saw him play in The Unknown seven years later, his illusionism when it comes to acting as a man with two stumps for legs is frankly astounding. I was watching this thing and not quite being able to process what I was seeing. I can only assume he had somehow strapped his lower legs back up to his thighs but it must have been at a hell of an acute angle and I can't imagine that being anything other than torture!

Best Kill (may contain traces of spoiler)

This is about organised crime and bloody revenge so there must be deaths in it, but I can only remember one right at the end. I won't reveal who it is, but let's just say the whole thing doesn't stand up very well... In fact, you might even say we just ate Uter, and he's in our stomachs... right now!

Wait... scratch that one.