Movielogr
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Directed by Paul Leni
Twitter Facebook Google+Most recently watched by sensoria, archstanton43
Overview
Gwynplaine, son of Lord Clancharlie, has a permanent smile carved on his face by the King, in revenge for Gwynplaine’s father’s treachery. Gwynplaine is adopted by a travelling showman and becomes a popular idol. He falls in love with the blind Dea. The king dies, and his evil jester tries to destroy or corrupt Gwynplaine.
Rated NR | Length 110 minutes
Actors
Mary Philbin | Conrad Veidt | Julius Molnar | Olga Baclanova | Brandon Hurst | Cesare Gravina | Stuart Holmes | Sam De Grasse | Josephine Crowell | Charles Puffy | Zimbo the Dog | Delmo Fritz | Deno Fritz | Henry A. Barrows | Richard Bartlett | Les Bates | Charles Brinley | Carmen Castillo | Allan Cavan | D'Arcy Corrigan | Carrie Daumery | Howard Davies | Nick De Ruiz | Louise Emmons | J.C. Fowler | John George | Jack A. Goodrich | Charles Hancock | Lila LaPon | George Marion | Torben Meyer | Joe Murphy | Edgar Norton | Broderick O'Farrell | Lon Poff | Frank Puglia | Henry Roquemore | Templar Saxe | Allan Sears | Scott Seaton | Louis Stern | Al Stewart | Anton Vaverka
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/19/2019 | Movie Screen | Film | Theater | 8 stars |
| (Average) 8 stars |
Viewing Notes
Movie 1 of the Box of Horrors. The chamber live accompaniment was outstanding and totally on point for this drama / thriller. Not really a horror movie but Ryan did say in his introduction that they wanted to push the boundaries of what horror is so I’ll go with it. Even in the film Gwywnplaine, the laughing man, is looked at either as amusement or derision. Not as a scary person even tho his appearance is horrifying.
I really like this movie and perhaps more than other German Expressionism films but I need to revisit the others. What I dig is the heart this has and how Gwynplaine just wants to be with his love Dea and remain w/the common people despite being the lost heir to the throne. Also it has one of the best movie dogs, a german shepherd, portraying a circus act Homo the Wolf. That dog got more cheers than anything else in the film.
Not sure why it took so long to see this one of the great German Expressionism horror films but I’m glad I was able to experience it w/the live score at MBT for a first viewing. Definitely an excellent film to kick off the marathon.
Also despite having seen his “look” in images prior to this, it’s really uncanny how much was taken from his look for the comic book look of The Joker. Like Bob Kane straight up lifted this appearance. Of course he had to come up w/the color scheme but wow it’s crazy to see in this movie, which apparently was painful for Conrad Veidt to do.
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