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Auction History Result 7j0732 PENALTY LC 1920 Lon Chaney Sr. as amputee criminal who steals his rival's legs, ultra rare! Date Sold 10/22/2024 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Theatrical Movie Lobby Card (LC; measures 11" x 14" [28 x 36 cm]) (Learn More) The Penalty, the 1920 Wallace Worsley silent romantic love triangle doctor amputation crime revenge thriller (this is among the most bizarre of Lon Chaney's movies, and if you have seen several of them, then you know that is saying a lot!; Tod Browning did not write or direct this movie, surely because he was working at Universal at this time, and this was an MGM movie, but it is very similar to the Browning/Chaney movies; Chaney became sick as a boy, and a doctor amputated his legs needlessly, thinking it was necessary to save the boy's life; when he grows up, he becomes a legless criminal kingpin, and he wants revenge on the doctor, and when the doctor's daughter, who is a sculptress, advertises for someone to pose for her bust of Satan, he applies, and he kidnaps her and tries to force the doctor to operate on her fiance, removing his legs, and grafting them onto Chaney's legless stumps!; there are more twists and turns to the plot, but you should see it for yourself!) starring Charles Clary, Doris Pawn, Jim Mason, Lon Chaney Sr., and Ethel Grey Terry. Note that in filming this movie, Chaney had his calves strapped to his thighs, and that allowed him to appear legless (with two wooden buckets strapped over his "stumps"), but this was very painful and he could only endure it for short amounts of time, and it caused permanent damage to his leg muscles (Jose Ferrer would do the same thing many years later when playing Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge). Most people agree it is one of Chaney's very finest performances! Finally, note that Lon Chaney Sr. made this movie for Sam Goldwyn, after having worked for Universal. Apparently, Goldwyn was afraid of how the public would react to images of a legless Chaney, because the advertising for the movie greatly de-emphasizes that aspect of the movie! NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography. Important Added Info: Note that we have only previously auctioned two lobby cards from this movie (two different cards that both showed a different scene from this, but they were both the same scene), and we have never before auctioned THIS great scene card, which likely has one of the best images in the set! Note that this card has been "gel backed". What does that mean? It means that a talented restorer backed the card onto a gel material, and they then performed restoration to the above defects, and then removed the gel backing, and afterward the card still looks and feels like an original card (and it is!), with no backing at all. Many collectors prefer this method of restoration to paperbacking or linenbacking, because with those methods the card no longer looks like it was not backed. Gel backing can't be used with cards that have major paper loss or other major defects, but for the cards it can be used on, it is really an excellent method of restoration! Also note that we have a scan of both the front and the back of this lobby card, which should greatly help you see what defects it has. What IS gelbacking? Learn More Condition: good to very good. The card was folded down the middle and had some tiny bits of paper loss scattered down that fold, with greater paper loss in the center of the top blank border, but almost completely in the blank border and light brown background area. It had some darkening in Chaney's cheek and tiny paper loss in the top of his cap. The card had some pinholes and tiny paper loss in parts of the rest of the borders. Overall, the card was in good condition prior to restoration. Given the card's defects described above, the restorer did a pretty good job, but you can see signs of the defects and the restoration, and the card displays pretty well (see our super-sized images to get a good sense of exactly how the card looks now). Learn More about condition grades 
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