The Penalty - Lon Chaney (1920)

Lon Chaney in one of the early roles that marked him as a 'maimed' actor. The baroque logic that moves from debilitating injury to vengeful anarchic mastermind is compelling. Art plays a huge role in this villains life, using it to manipulate and humiliate women. Posing for a bust of 'Satan After the Fall' is a masterful stroke by the writers. Chaney's house of crime is filled with secret doorways, creepy peepholes, sweat shops and underground caches lending an early air of the Legion of Doom's hideout.