The False Faces
About The False Faces
During the First World War, professional thief Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf, is sent to steal a cylinder of information from behind the German lines and carry it to Allied intelligence. German agents hunt him, led by Karl Ekstrom, the man tied to the death of Lanyard's sister. Henry B. Walthall plays Lanyard. Lon Chaney plays Ekstrom.
Cast & crew
More about The False Faces
Irvin Willat wrote and directed from Louis Joseph Vance's novel. Thomas H. Ince produced it. Paramount released it in 1919. It runs 97 minutes. Jerome Storm was to have co-directed, but production slid from August to October and Willat directed alone.
Themes
Preservation
Complete prints are at the George Eastman House and the Turner Film Library. The film was treated as lost for years, then found and partly restored.
Notes
- Chaney is filmed gluing on a false beard, the only time a movie camera caught him applying his own makeup.
- He designed Jane Daly's makeup so she would look like a drowned woman to a haunted U-boat captain.
- Mary Anderson, Milton Ross, Thornton Edwards, and William Bowman are in the cast.
- A cover reproduction of the film's sheet music survives.
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheFalseFaces1919)
