Lon Chaney in "Shadows" (1922)

In a small quiet English fishing town, Sympathy Gibbs (Marguerite De La Motte) lives with her physically abusive brutish fisherman husband Daniel Gibbs (Walter Long). Daniel leaves his wife to go on a fishing expedition with other villagers from their village, and after a great storm, Daniel's ship is lost at sea, and he is believed dead. Only two men survive, one villager and a mysterious, gentle, old hunchbacked Chinese immigrant, Yen Sin (Lon Chaney). Being Chinese and refusing to take part in a Christian service held on the beach for those lost, this stranded stranger is treated like an outcast. Since Yen Sin has nowhere else to go, he sets up business on a small houseboat moored in the harbor. He trying to make a life for himself washing clothes, doing laundry from his boat. Yen Sin is soon greeted by the hamlet's new minister, John Malden (Harrison Ford), who tries unsuccessfully to convert him. At first, the local kids play tricks on Yen Sin. Sympathy defends him against several white kids she sees taunting him cruelly in the street. But, eventually Yen Sin’s good nature win their respect, befriending one of the kids (he calls "Mr. Bad Boy") who had taunted him, by giving the lad candy. Malden continually tries to convert Yen Sin to the ways of Christianity, but the Chinaman steadfastly retains his "heathen" philosophies. Nevertheless, Malden and Yen Sin become close friends, and the minister visits him often to discuss philosophy. Reverend Malden is attracted to Sympathy and love blossoms. Believing her husband dead, the young widow eventually agrees to marry the reverend, and they are soon wed, to the chagrin of the town's wealthy banker, Nate Snow (John Sainpolis). Snow concocts a blackmail scheme, writing an anonymous notes to Malden, now married, claiming to be Sympathy's lost husband who supposedly died in the shipwreck, saying he is alive and will expose Sympathy as a bigamist, and demanding payment to keep quiet. Malden receives the letter just before going on a trip with Snow, not knowing Snow wrote the lette), and leaves the now pregnant Sympathy at home.Yen Sin tells Malden to be sure and get his laundry done while he's away on the trip by using his Asian friend in that other city named Sam Low, who is planning to act as an informant for Yen Sin. While he is away, their baby is born, and Malden, upon his return, is so distraught that he resigns from the ministry, and asks Snow if he can borrow money from him to pay off Daniel Gibbs. Snow does not get to enjoy the benefits of his deception however, as Yen Sin falls gravely ill, and calls several of the townspeople to his boat, revealing everything he knows from his deathbed. There, in order to vindicate the young couple, he exposes the vile blackmail plot by Nate Snow, the local banker and jilted suitor of Sympathy's, who has been forging the letters from Daniel Gibbs. Malden and Sympathy realize that their fears were only "Shadows" and Snow is denounced. Malden forgives Snow for all the trouble he caused him and his wife, and when Yen Sin witnesses this act of forgiveness, he agrees to convert to Christianity. Dying, Yen Sin asks that his boat be cut loose so that he may float out to sea. Wishing to die at sea with his ancestors, he sails off in his houseboat at the end, disappearing into the sunset. Before he leaves, he bids farewell to his young friend Mr. Bad Boy, who cries as he watches Yen Sin sail away. A dramatic 1922 silent film directed by actor-turned-director Tom Forman, produced by B.P. Schulberg, screenplay by Eve Unsell and Hope Loring, based on the short story, "Ching, Ching, Chinaman", by Wilbur Daniel Steele, photographed by Harry Perry, starring Lon Chaney, Marguerite De La Motte, Harrison Ford, Walter Long, Buddy Messenger, Priscilla Bonner, Frances Raymond and John Sainpolis. This 7 reeler, Preferred Pictures, Inc. production was released by the Al Lichtman Corp. The year following this engrossing melodrama, as Chaney was preparing to star in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923), he suggested Marguerite De La Motte for the role of Esmeralda, but the part went to Patsy Ruth Miller instead. Some scenes were shot on location in Balboa, Newport Beach and Del Monte, California, and the interior scenes were shot at the Louis B. Mayer Studios. "Lon Chaney as 'the heathen' assumes a role that tempts overacting; but he subdues this temptation to the extent that this Chinaman grips you with a human chain that is unbreakable. This role clinches the claim of friends of Chaney that he is the greatest character man on the screen, for his is as fine an example of realistic acting and makeup as this writer has seen reflected on the sliver sheet." ---Moving Picture World "A decidedly grim and morbid tale, directed and presented without any lighter relieving moments...Lon Chaney as the Chinaman gave a corking performance and successfully withstood the strain of dying through about 2,000 feet of film." ---Variety