let give tod brown a hand . he risk life and limb to make this movie . anyway and i never think i would like a silent movie but this be one you can not turn away from . the performance be amaze and lon chaney be so good that you can read his mind and you almost do not need the word . and let me just say this about joan crawford represent she never look good than she do in this movie . lithe and svelte and and statuesque and she glide through the movie like a ballet dancer and and her body be as taut a a leopard . it difficult to describe her youthful attraction without bring to mind the caricature she become later in life with her shoulder pad and thick eyebrow and but in this movie she be simply stun . her eye be so intense that they do not look real . the story itself be very simple and sure people can describe it to you and but chaney alonzo be so carefully flesh out that he practically pop off the screen and you have to see it to believe it . he seethe with anger when the hunky malabar make a pas at nanon . nanon pathological aversion to be touch by men be match only by alonzo pathological obsession with nanon . this be where the power of the movie lie . when the fickle nanon man hand phobia evaporates after spend several week with the anxious and ever patient malabar and she announce their engagement to alonzo and his psychotic behavior explodes . you can read the mixture of irony and rage and and madness that simultaneously wash over chaney face . brown let this powerful scene go on for several minute and and every moment be wrench . a alonzo teeter on the edge of madness and lament his dearly depart arm and malabar and nanon join in his laughter and thinking he be happy for them . it a horrible thing to see and it like watch a train wreck in slow motion . if you only watch one silent film in your life and let this be the one . it really weird and cool .