One of Browning's and Chaney's First Significant Collaborations!

Enjoyable and well made - albeit with two BIG asterisks

Excellent crime drama from writer-director Tod Browning.

Maybe the best fight scene I've ever seen in movies!

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

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Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean in Outside the Law (1920)

I knew you'd fall for that cop stuff - you dirty rat!

Lon Chaney, Priscilla Dean, Ralph Lewis, Wheeler Oakman, E. Alyn Warren, and Anna May Wong in Outside the Law (1920)

Lon Chaney, Priscilla Dean, and Wheeler Oakman in Outside the Law (1920)

"Outside the Law" Lon Chaney 1920 Universal **I.V.

Priscilla Dean

Wheeler Oakman

Lon Chaney

Gardner Bradford

Tod Browning

Lucien Hubbard

In this early collaboration with director Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks), Chaney delivers a dual performance of dramatic intensity, starring as Ah Wing, a kind-hearted student of Confucian philosophy, and Black Mike Sylva, a murde...

Outside the Law

Minor but solid early Browning-Chaney collaboration recommended to fans of their collective output

Not a stab at the movie&apos;s quality but (as with many Lon Chaney vehicles) it&apos;s worth a watch mostly for his typically electrifying performance. He plays another tough as nails gangster bad guy called Black Mike (and has a secondary role as Ah Wing, Chinese sage Chang Low&apos;s assistant) but instead of merely fulfilling his genre role as antagonist and villain, he brings a level of malevolence that elevelates his character to a whole other kind of grotesque not far from horror territory.

As is true for other films that Chaney received second billing, he&apos;s mostly in the opening and closing 15 minutes which are packed with explosive action. The middle deals with the mandatory romance between protagonist Molly Maddoc (played by the sashy Priscilla Dean who steals scenes) and Black Mike&apos;s right hand man Bill who double crosses his boss out of remorse and love for miss Maddoc. They spend the middle act holed up in an apartment after a successful jewel robbery, hiding from cops and Black Mike alike.

All in all Outside the Law is not a masterpiece of any kind but fans of silent films and especially Lon Chaney will find enough to appreciate.

Not a stab at the movie's quality but (as with many Lon Chaney vehicles) it's worth a watch mostly for his typically electrifying performance. He plays another tough as nails gangster bad guy called Black Mike (and has a secondary role as Ah Wing, Chinese sage Chang Low's assistant) but instead of merely fulfilling his genre role as antagonist and villain, he brings a level of malevolence that elevelates his character to a whole other kind of grotesque not far from horror territory.

As is true for other films that Chaney received second billing, he's mostly in the opening and closing 15 minutes which are packed with explosive action. The middle deals with the mandatory romance between protagonist Molly Maddoc (played by the sashy Priscilla Dean who steals scenes) and Black Mike's right hand man Bill who double crosses his boss out of remorse and love for miss Maddoc. They spend the middle act holed up in an apartment after a successful jewel robbery, hiding from cops and Black Mike alike.

All in all Outside the Law is not a masterpiece of any kind but fans of silent films and especially Lon Chaney will find enough to appreciate.

In this early collaboration with director Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks), Chaney delivers a dual performance of dramatic intensity, starring as Ah Wing, a kind-hearted student of Confucian philosophy, and Black Mike Sylva, a murderous rake of the San Francisco underworld.

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