Lon Chaney

Someone writing a column in The Times today refers to John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men" being popular GCSE material; also that the film with John Malkovich as Lennie, the subnormal friend of a normal man seeking work in the 20's or 30's America, is also popular in schools since it shows in dramatic form what it is they are reading. I prefer the old black and white film directed by Lewis Milestone (of "All Quiet on the Western Front" fame) made in 1939. In that film it had Lon Chaney Junior as Lennie and he was great.
Chaney's father was better known as a Hollywood star but he made only silent films. The son made a lot of films but due to his unglamorous appearance (just plain ugly some people might say) he was uaually cast as a villain or as a man possessed by some evil spirit or a man who changed his nature into something hoprrific and dangerous. I recall him as a werewolf, as an Iron Man - whatever that was - as many other wierd and wonderful B feature people. Then he made "Of Mice and Men" and he was superb. A trait he had often shown in his less memorable films was that of a man troubled by a conscience: an almost miserable look of someone possessed by an unwanted demon. Malkovich plays Lennie well but you can't help feekling that he's acting the part, that he's pretending to be an idiot; with Chaney you believed that he was this man; he seemed to understand the man's inner turmoil: that miserable expression of delusion and dismay at what he might do e.g. kill someone lived on him and in him.
He played another rather smaller part later, towards the end of his career: a man, troubled again by his incapacity to help the main character, Gary Cooper, in "High Noon". It was a small gem in a first-rate film.
There were two other roles in the 1939 "Of Mice and Men" film which deserve mention: Burgess Meredith as Lennie's friend George, the biggest part in the film, and Bob Steele as a nasty piece of work, Lennie's boss. Both these actors were always good whatever films they were in; Meredith usually had the big parts and Steele always small parts, always the villain: "The Big Sleep" as Canino; a killer in "The Enforcer" with Humphrey Bogart. One thing he always did well: die. He never just fell down, he staggered about, full of lead, clutching at his innards, making the most of his role, probably hoping for a supporting oscar award - which never, to my knowledge, came his way.
Became a successful business-man I heard. Like George Raft!