Definitely one for Henry B. Walthall fans, I notice this one has a range of reviews from the very top entertainment score to the very bottom. I'd place it a bit more than halfway. True, Alpha's black- and-white print is somewhat dupey, but at least it is complete and there are some good action scenes including a knockout-knockdown climax between villainous Chaney and heroic Walthall. Chaney fans, however, may well be disappointed that although Lon plays a really despicable villain, he does so with little charisma. Also, Irvin Willat in his capacity as both scriptwriter and director focuses his attention almost entirely on Walthall. Although Chaney's part is reasonably large, he is obviously secondary in the writer/director's mind. Also, to his admirers' dismay, for his role here as a really nasty German, Chaney is using very little make-up. Chaney's oft- repeated publicity claim that the only movie in which he appeared without special make-up was Tell It To the Marines (1926) is just that: Publicity! Aside from False Faces, I could cite at least three or four other movies, in which he appears without special make-up. Nevertheless, it's good to have this movie available at a very affordable price from Alpha.

The story for "The False Faces" is taken from a novel by Louis Joseph Vance based on a character he created called 'The Lone Wolf'. Films about WW1 made during WW1 are interesting. The opening stages of Irvin Willat's "The False Faces" hark forward six & eleven years to the battle sequences in "The Big Parade" & "All's Quiet on the Western Front" respectively. Indeed both King Vidor & Lewis Milestone must've viewed portions of this film. 1919 was a break out year for Lon Chaney with "The Wicked Darling", "Victory", and the hugely successful "The Miracle Man". "The False Faces" is Chaney's first film of 1919 so it was probably made while WW1 was still going on(before November 11 1918). The film actually stars Henry B. Walthall as a Sidney Reilly type spy, 'The Lone Wolf'. Quite possibly a double agent. The movie is a potpurri of a spy cheating officials and officials cheating the spy. Director Willat has scenes that occur on board a real passenger liner and later in a submarine. Amazing that Willat could obtain the use of a sub for his film. Chaney plays a man called Ekstrom in several disguises & whom 'The Lone Wolf' harbors a personal vengeance against. Ekstrom is a German w/spiked helmet, an officer on an ocean liner, a sub captain and a shaven adventurer in drawing room back on shore. An actress called Mary Anderson plays the sole female character in this film. A popular and pretty actress in the silents, she's all but forgotten today. Irving Willat's brother, Edwin Willat, is the cinematographer. The print of this film survives generally in good condition but some of the intertitles are so blacked out that they can't be read. Grapevine video actually replaced key titles so to hold the viewer to the story. The latter part of the film tends to get melodramatic. But the highlight scenes are on a real passenger liner(makes some think of the Titanic & Lusitania) and a real submarine with scenes that hark forward to 'Destination Tokyo' and 'Das Boot'. Most films about WW1 made during WW1 tend to be propaganda or over the top grotesque comedies aimed at Germans. This movie is a little bit of both but alas one of the more tamer films compared to others.

False Faces (1919) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Henry B. Walthall plays a spy known as The Lone Wolf who must sneak behind enemy lines and captures a cylinder so that he can get it back in Allie hands but it won't be easy because of a committed German (Lon Chaney). This film runs a short 76-minutes but it feels much longer because the film tries to do so much in so little time that the thing grows tiresome as it goes on. For the majority of the film we see The Lone Wolf trying to track down what he needs as it keeps getting passed from one set of hands to another and at times who has the item is rather confusing. Another problem is that some of the sets (just take a look at the submarine) are poorly done and aren't too believable. What does work is some very good use of tint, which helps bring the film to life somewhat. Another aspect that works is the use of ghosts to show the torment of one of the characters but this too turns somewhat sour when a ghost is killed by a gunshot. This here doesn't make too much sense no matter how you look at it. I was surprised at how well Walthall handled the role and thought he did a very good job with it. Fans of Chaney might be disappointed that he has very little to do here but he really sticks out with an intense performance. The film, once thought lost, was eventually found and remastered but a lot of the intertitles are very hard to read.

This is a forgotten film for the most part, but not hard to buy online. The late great Henry B. Walthall (best known as The Little Colonel from "Birth of a Nation") plays dashing Michael Lanyard, aka "The Lone Wolf" whose thieving ways have made him a target for the authorities all over the world.His skills as a thief enable him to get around several very sticky situations, as you will see in the film. The main storyline revolves around Lanyard's pursuit of Karl Eckstrom (played by Lon Chaney) who led a raid that killed Lanyard's sister and nephew. His seeking of revenge takes him from the battlefield of The Great War (WW1), in which he dodges the searchlights by dropping "dead" when the lights hit him, to the U.S.S. Assyrian, where he meets Cecilia Brooke and Lt. Thackeray, who entrust him with a cylinder containing important information which the enemy is willing to kill to get. Lanyard is ambushed by Eckstrom and Co., where the cylinder is stolen by Eckstrom, and Lanyard thrown overboard just prior to the ship's sinking. It is interesting to watch Walthall floating in the water seemingly to his death, when very slowly a submarine surfaces beneath him! This submarine was the cause of the ship's sinking, and its drunken captain was also the man behind the sinking of the Lusitania. Needless to say, Lanyard finds himself cracking into the submarine's safe and stealing money while left alone for a brief moment, then bearing witness to the murder of the captain. He escapes to New York, where he catches up with Cecilia Brooke (among the survivors of the Assyrian) and Eckstrom, which builds to a very interesting twist in which Eckstrom gets his just desserts, and Lanyard gets the girl.All in all, this is a wonderfully action-packed film where you get to see Chaney without makeup for the most part, and Walthall in one of his best roles of his silent career. There are a few laughs here and there, a lot of suspense, and a great cat-and-mouse game is played between the two main characters. If you're a silent film buff, you must see this!