Shadows
About Shadows
In the fishing village of Urkey, Daniel Gibbs leaves his wife Sympathy and is lost in a storm. Yen Sin, a Chinese survivor, is shunned after he refuses a Christian service on the beach, and he lives on a houseboat doing laundry. The new minister, John Malden, marries Sympathy. Banker Nate Snow, who wanted her, sends a letter pretending to be Daniel and demanding money. Their child is born while Malden is away, and he means to pay. Yen Sin, through a contact named Sam Low, exposes Snow from what he thinks is his deathbed. Malden forgives Snow. Yen Sin converts, says goodbye to the boy he calls Mr. Bad Boy, and sails the houseboat out to die at sea.
Cast & crew
More about Shadows
B. P. Schulberg produced Tom Forman’s film. Eve Unsell and Hope Loring adapted Wilbur Daniel Steele’s story “Ching, Ching, Chinaman.” Exteriors were shot at Balboa, Newport Beach, and Del Monte; interiors at the Louis B. Mayer Studios. Preferred Pictures released it on 10 November 1922.
Themes
Reviews
Harrison’s Reports said Chaney had never acted better. Moving Picture World called the makeup and the performance as realistic as that writer had seen. Film Daily called it probably the strongest performance of his career. Robert E. Sherwood named Shadows one of the best films of the year, and the National Board of Review placed it among the year’s top forty.
Look
Harry Perry photographed the exteriors at Balboa, Newport Beach, and Del Monte, and the interiors at the Louis B. Mayer Studios.
Music
Louis F. Gottschalk wrote the score. Eve Unsell wrote the lyrics.
Preservation
Prints survive in several collections. Blackhawk Films sold copies on the collectors’ market for many years.
Notes
- Lon Chaney plays Yen Sin. Marguerite De La Motte plays Sympathy. Harrison Ford plays John Malden. John St. Polis, billed as John Sainpolis, plays Nate Snow. Walter Long plays Daniel Gibbs. Buddy Messinger plays Mr. Bad Boy.
- Priscilla Bonner plays Mary Brent. Frances Raymond plays Emsy Nickerson.
- The next year, while preparing The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Chaney suggested De La Motte for Esmeralda. Patsy Ruth Miller played the part.
- Variety wrote that Chaney was dying through about 2,000 feet of film.
Scenes
- Yen Sin refuses the beach service for the drowned and is sent to live on a houseboat.
- Snow’s anonymous letter claims to be the dead husband and asks for money.
- From his bed, Yen Sin exposes the blackmail, then sails out to sea after saying goodbye to Mr. Bad Boy.
Influenced by
- Wilbur Daniel Steele’s story “Ching, Ching, Chinaman”
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Shadows (1922).webm)
- Blackhawk Films (collector prints)
