Jon Mirsalis on Piano Lon Chaney is often credited with eliciting compassion for sinister characters with a variety of physical disabilities which he portrayed throughout his career. But he can equally be charged with having imbued them with the monster image in the first place. The stereotype of the villainous, sexually perverse male disabled figure so common to the horror genre reached its apotheosis in his creations. In The Penalty he portrays the gangster Blizzard, who had his legs amputated needlessly as a child and spends the rest of his life avenging himself on society. Chaney, the son of deaf parents, was a master at communicating through body language. He was always concerned with the credibility of his performances, and the legend regarding this film is that the physical pain endured by performing with his legs tightly strapped added a compelling dimension to his portrayal of Blizzard. The film itself is a gem of the genre, expertly crafted and beautifully directed, its underground melodrama heightened visually by secret passages, subterranean arsenals and dens of various iniquities. In the context of our reading, The Penalty is also the embodiment of the revenge stereotype with the most dubious of happy endings, as a review of the time reflects: "The wicked one is restored to the world of decent men by an operation (on his brain!)...the happy ending is provided by the appearance of Mr. Chaney with his legs attached"...though of course he is dead. For death is always the fate of the disabled villain. Image for thought: Blizzard, playing the organ with the help of "his" woman, who squats beneath him in order to pump the pedals.