I will mention the one tiny blemish in this book: it is plagued with typos and small grammatical errors. Riley goes on to reassure me that this is not entirely my fault, though. Immediately, of course, I was offended by the idea that I might have reviewed a less-than-original version of the film - I'm supposed to do all the versions of the story! - and sure enough, when I investigated my DVD, I discovered that it's short about 35 minutes of film that this book claims should be there, and other things (such as the inclusion of Carlotta's mother, remember that?) are elements that Riley states were added in the 1929 re-issue. The version of the 1925 film that is readily available to audiences today is not, in fact, the original rather, it is a heavily edited, cut, re-filmed, and expurgated version from 1929 that replaced the original in a re-release. The second, more (in fact, most) important thing to notice about this book is that it informs a largely unsuspecting populace that they have seen the wrong film. And, while I'm at it, I'd like to note that the book itself, which is almost a collage in style with its text often interspersed with images and photocopies seemingly at random, is excellently laid out despite the proliferation of varying material and various formats, it's laid out appealingly and makes every page interesting to peruse, even if Riley happens to just be talking about film processes (which he does, at length, and I'm pretty sure I would have been way more bored if the book hadn't been so busily awesome all around this discussion). I don't know photography from horseradish most of the time, but even I'm impressed by the phenomenal level of dedication that must have been required to find, acquire, and lovingly reproduce them all just where they complement the text the most. But these are not just the same five publicity stills of Lon Chaney that I've seen approximately eight kazillion times by this point they're a wonderful (and enormous) collection of images that includes film stills that were cut from the picture before it was screened, candid backstage and on-set photos, production and concept art, and even close-up comparison shots for detail. One of the first things to notice about this book is that it is positively brimming over with photographs. That's how excellent this book is at what it does. I've mentioned before that I'm not a film student, but now, I almost want to be. This book, which is a monstrous, painstaking, and in-depth look into the making and history of the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney, is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best examples I've seen of someone translating their love for a subject into a fantastic and informative treatise.
Find and love it.Īs always with nonfiction works, there's no grade, but I almost wish I were grading it, so I could give it a big sloppy A.
This book is absolutely fabulous and amazing.
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