The Scarlet Car

The Scarlet Car is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney, Edith Johnson, and Franklyn Farnum. The film was written by William Parker, based upon the novel The Scarlet Car by Richard Harding Davis, which also served as the basis of a 1923 Universal film of the same name. A print of the 1917 film exists at the Library of Congress, and the movie is available on DVD. Clips from the film were used in the 1995 documentary Lon Chaney: Behind the Mask. A still exists showing Lon Chaney in his own make-up as the protagonist "Paul Revere Forbes". Like many American films of the time, The Scarlet Car was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors required a cut of slugging the man, the shortening of the fight scene in the lobby, and to flash the mob scene at the beginning of a reel.