James Cagney gives an unforgettable performanceias the great film star Lon Chaney. Born to parents who were deaf and dumb, the extraordinary actor's upbringing is thought to have contributed to Chaney's remarkable expresive gift of mime. Although successful, the legendary film star led a life of a reclusive nature, earning him the reputation of "the man of mystery." Man of a Thousand Faces traces this course of this long-suffering talented genius through his marriage to an ambitious singer (Dorothy Malone) and his second wife (Jane Greer), his trials with his aging parents and his infant son, and recreated many of Chaney's most famous roles, including Quasimodo of Notre Dame, the legless beggar of The Miracle Man, and the Phantom of the Opera.