The Penalty (1920 film)
The Penalty is a 1920 film about a criminal mastermind who plans to seek revenge on the doctor who mistakenly amputated his legs.
- Directed by Wallace Worsley. Written by Charles Kenyon, based on a novel by Gouverneur Morris.
Blizzard, master of San Francisco's underworld, legless, deformed--the weirdest character ever presented on the screen--you'll never forget him. (taglines)
Blizzard
[edit]- Fate chained me to evil, for that I must pay the Penalty. - That is a great puzzle. Perhaps I am going to see it solved.
- [to Barbara] Some excellent judges think that I resemble Satan.
- Do I look like Satan? Before I am through with her and her father, they'll think I'm the devil himself.
- Laughter burns a cripple like acid.
- Once before a woman surfeited me with her caresses. She's dead!
- You have worked in the dark long enough - this is the plan I have been developing for two years. At twelve noon on that day I shall loot the City of San Francisco. Your ten thousand foreign malcontents will filter into the city in small detachments. The signal will be an explosion. By fire and riots I shall draw the police and military into the suburbs. The heart of the city will be left defenseless - ours to loot at will. And then we shall vanish with our treasure.
- Everything comes to him who waits.
- I am the unhappiest beast in the world.
- Rose, my dear! Under the piano, my darling - we'll have some music. I have a feeling I shall waft you into Heaven.
- I've waked from a terrible dream! I was a devil - - I did things that I shudder to think of!
- And I shall walk as men walk. I shall be the master of a city! And for my mangled years the city shall pay me - - - - with the pleasures of a Nero and the powers of a Caesar!
Lichtenstein
[edit]- I could get him for theft, arson, murder - - but his criminal machine would still grind on. Through the Master I must reach his slaves - the underground powers of the Reds. He's gathered up his dance hall girls and he's put them to work in his house - making hats - thousands of hats. I must know why!
Title Card
[edit]- In time the man would mangle the soul of the daughter, even as the father had mangled the body of the man.
Dialogue
[edit]- Doctor: Good God, you should not have amputated!
- Dr. Ferris: What?
- Doctor: You have mangled this child for life!
- Barbara Ferris: How do you happen to know so much about Art?
- Blizzard: My father, who shall be nameless, was a distinguished man. But he detested little boys with their legs clipped off. So at fifteen I hobbled out of his life.
- Barbara Ferris: Why do you live in the underworld?
- Blizzard: When Satan fell from Heaven he looked for power in Hell.
- Blizzard: Better come out of that closet or I'll begin to shoot!
- [Rose comes out, crying]
- Blizzard: Crying won't help - talking may.
- Rose: What's the use - - you're going to kill me anyhow.
Taglines
[edit]- Blizzard, master of San Francisco's underworld, legless, deformed—the weirdest character ever presented on the screen—you'll never forget him.
Cast
[edit]- Charles Clary — Dr. Ferris
- Doris Pawn — Barbary Nell
- James Pier Mason — Frisco Pete
- Lon Chaney — Blizzard
- Milton Ross — Lichtenstein
- Ethel Grey Terry — Rose
- Kenneth Harlan — Dr. Wilmot Allen
- Claire Adams — Barbara Ferris
External links
[edit]
Encyclopedic article on The Penalty (1920 film) on Wikipedia
Works related to The Penalty (film) on Wikisource
Media related to The Penalty (film) on Wikimedia Commons- The Penalty quotes at the Internet Movie Database
- The Penalty at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Penalty at Allmovie
