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The Penalty (1920 film)

1920 film by Wallace Worsley

The Penalty is a 1920 film about a criminal mastermind who plans to seek revenge on the doctor who mistakenly amputated his legs.

Directed by Wallace Worsley. Written by Charles Kenyon, based on a novel by Gouverneur Morris.
Blizzard, master of San Francisco's underworld, legless, deformed--the weirdest character ever presented on the screen--you'll never forget him.  (taglines)

Blizzard

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  • Fate chained me to evil, for that I must pay the Penalty. - That is a great puzzle. Perhaps I am going to see it solved.
  • [to Barbara] Some excellent judges think that I resemble Satan.
  • Do I look like Satan? Before I am through with her and her father, they'll think I'm the devil himself.
  • Laughter burns a cripple like acid.
  • Once before a woman surfeited me with her caresses. She's dead!
  • You have worked in the dark long enough - this is the plan I have been developing for two years. At twelve noon on that day I shall loot the City of San Francisco. Your ten thousand foreign malcontents will filter into the city in small detachments. The signal will be an explosion. By fire and riots I shall draw the police and military into the suburbs. The heart of the city will be left defenseless - ours to loot at will. And then we shall vanish with our treasure.
  • Everything comes to him who waits.
  • I am the unhappiest beast in the world.
  • Rose, my dear! Under the piano, my darling - we'll have some music. I have a feeling I shall waft you into Heaven.
  • I've waked from a terrible dream! I was a devil - - I did things that I shudder to think of!
  • And I shall walk as men walk. I shall be the master of a city! And for my mangled years the city shall pay me - - - - with the pleasures of a Nero and the powers of a Caesar!

Lichtenstein

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  • I could get him for theft, arson, murder - - but his criminal machine would still grind on. Through the Master I must reach his slaves - the underground powers of the Reds. He's gathered up his dance hall girls and he's put them to work in his house - making hats - thousands of hats. I must know why!

Title Card

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  • In time the man would mangle the soul of the daughter, even as the father had mangled the body of the man.

Dialogue

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Doctor: Good God, you should not have amputated!
Dr. Ferris: What?
Doctor: You have mangled this child for life!
Barbara Ferris: How do you happen to know so much about Art?
Blizzard: My father, who shall be nameless, was a distinguished man. But he detested little boys with their legs clipped off. So at fifteen I hobbled out of his life.
Barbara Ferris: Why do you live in the underworld?
Blizzard: When Satan fell from Heaven he looked for power in Hell.
Blizzard: Better come out of that closet or I'll begin to shoot!
[Rose comes out, crying]
Blizzard: Crying won't help - talking may.
Rose: What's the use - - you're going to kill me anyhow.

Taglines

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  • Blizzard, master of San Francisco's underworld, legless, deformed—the weirdest character ever presented on the screen—you'll never forget him.

Cast

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