The Penalty is an American psychological thriller crime film starring Lon Chaney and originally released in 1920 by Goldwyn Pictures.

The movie was directed by Wallace Worsley, and written by Philip Lonergan and Charles Kenyon, based upon the pulp novel by Gouverneur Morris.

This was the first of five films Chaney would make with director Wallace Worsley, the others being Ace of Hearts, Voices of the City, A Blind Bargain and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Chaney's leather stumps, crutches and costume from this film were donated to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, along with his famous make-up case.

One is to get revenge upon Dr. Ferris (Clary), whose blunder during a childhood operation resulted in Blizzard's legs being hastily and unnecessarily amputated; the other is to rally the Reds in his organization and loot the city of San Francisco.

When happiness comes in his marriage to Rose, his former confederate Frisco Pete (Mason), a drug addict fearful that Blizzard will reveal the identity of his gang of followers, kills him.

To play the role of the legless cripple, Chaney wore an apparatus to simulate amputated legs, which consisted primarily of two wooden buckets and multiple leather straps, was complex and incredibly painful.

"—The Wid's Film Daily[5] "Lon Chaney, whose work in The Miracle Man won so much praise, portrays a role that might have been written for him.

[7] Prints of The Penalty are in the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Turner Film Library.