Flesh and Blood
About Flesh and Blood
David Webster breaks out of prison after fifteen years, framed by his old partner Fletcher Burton. Li Fang, who owes him a debt, hides him in San Francisco's Chinatown. With Detective Doyle hunting, Webster moves through the streets as a crippled beggar on crutches. He reaches his wife as her coffin is loaded, and meets his daughter, known at a mission as the Angel Lady, without telling her who he is. She asks the beggar to play violin on "Just a Song at Twilight," a tune of her mother's. He forces a written confession from Burton, then burns it so Burton will allow the girl to marry Burton's son Ted. Webster goes back to prison on his own.
Cast & crew
More about Flesh and Blood
Irving Cummings directed and produced. Louis D. Lighton wrote the story and scenario. Western Pictures Exploitation Company released it. AFI lists July 1922; a Chaney filmography gives August 27, 1922. Six reels, 5,300 feet.
Themes
Making
Chaney plays the escapee and the beggar as the same man, switching to crutches and a bent walk so Doyle will not spot him on the street.
Look
Conrad Wells photographed it. The fable Li Fang tells is the color sequence inside an otherwise black-and-white film.
Preservation
A print is held at George Eastman House.
Notes
- Lon Chaney is David Webster. Edith Roberts is the daughter. Noah Beery is Li Fang. Ralph Lewis is Fletcher Burton and Jack Mulhall is Ted.
- When Li Fang tells Webster a Chinese fable, that passage is in color. The rest of the print is black and white.
- A print is at George Eastman House.
Scenes
- Webster plays "Just a Song at Twilight" for the daughter who does not know him.
- He destroys Burton's confession once the marriage is allowed.
