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When Chaney died, Hollywood stopped production for the day. So it was only a matter of time before the studios got their minds set on memorializing the man in a biopic.
James Cagney stars as Chaney in this dutiful yet engaging biopic, which tells Chaney's story beginning with his upbringing by deaf-mute parents and his riotous early Vaudeville acts to his completely crazy first wife (she tried to commit suicide by drinking acid) and his rise fame in Hollywood. Ultimately he dies from throat cancer, and we're there from start to finsh.
Cagney does a good enough job with the part, though he has far fewer than the requisite 1,000 faces and, it should be said, he looks absolutely nothing like Chaney here. Reportedly this film plays it fast and loose with the facts, which is unfortunate, because getting some insight into the actor would have been nice; instead it plays, like so many biopics do, like a greatest hits rundown of the man's life -- though in all fairness he certainly had a few knockout moments.
More worthwhile is Dorothy Malone, who plays Chaney's nutjob of a first wife with such fire that you practically want to get a restraining order in her yourself.
