The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: The Man Who Laughs (1928) Run Time: 1H 54M

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Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a classic of Expressionist cinema: The Man Who Laughs, a dramatic tale of suffering and love. And also the inspiration for the comic book villain the Joker.

Reviews:

Letterboxd says:

Some have called this a horror movie, but to me, this film was nothing more than brutally sad. It is the story of a man altered cruelly as a child such that the society he is in will only accept him as a sideshow attraction. He makes a living there. He has a good heart, even as a child (he rescues a baby from the arms of her dead, frozen mother). He is a decent man, despite being tormented by his disfigurement.

Conrad Veidt plays this man with a skill only the old silent stars had. Using only his eyes (as his mouth is stretched into a hideous grin), he conveys every emotion modern actors can’t even get across with their full bodies and voices. And that’s really the key to how great the silent era films could be: its limitations forced the directors and performers and whatnot to use their imaginations, to find inventive ways, to do whatever they could to create the stories they wanted to tell. There are so many accolades these days for computer graphics and the wonders they bring us, but I will take the cheeziest of old school effects any day.

Even without flashy effects, though, just seeing this film’s depiction of the man who laughs was enough to choke me up a bit.

Roger Ebert says:

The image of Veidt’s face with its disturbing grimace became familiar to anyone who opened a film history, but the film itself was hard to find; I saw it for the first time at the Telluride Festival in 1998, where Peter Bogdanovich programmed a series from “Hollywood’s Greatest Year.” That was 1928, he said, when they had gotten silent films right and had not yet started to get sound films wrong. It was filmed just at the moment when Hollywood was uneasily experimenting with sound. Like many other films from the same year, it was conceived in silence and then a little sound was grafted on. The movie has no significant spoken dialogue but did have rudimentary sound effects, and the Kino DVD restoration includes a musical score, a song and some indistinct shouts during a mob scene.

“The Man Who Laughs” is a melodrama, at times even a swashbuckler, but so steeped in Expressionist gloom that it plays like a horror film. Everything centers on the extraordinary face of Gwynplaine, whose wide and mirthless grin inspired the Joker character in the original Batman comic books. Unlike the Joker and most villains who smile, however, he is a good and decent man, one so horribly aware of his disfigurement that he reveals it only on the stage, as a way to earn a living. The rest of the time he hides behind masks, scarves, handkerchiefs, or his own upturned arm. The blind girl, Dea (Mary Philbin), loves him, but he thinks that is only because she does not know his secret.

A.E. Pearsall says:

The film is interesting, incorrectly believed to be a horror film because of Veidt’s appearance, it’s actually a romantic tale about how love is something more than physical attraction. It seems a little cliched now to state that it’s also the tale of a clown who is crying on the inside, but it really is and it’s something that’s conveyed by Veidt’s amazing performance in every close-up of his eyes. It’s Veidt that shines in the film, not that the other actors don’t make an impact, but the character of Gwynplaine is so striking, and Veidt so expressive in the way he shows the inner turmoil of a disfigured man that everyone else appears ordinary in comparison.

The film was originally criticised for being too dark and too expressionist, if anything I think it’s not expressionist enough. With a film like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the fractured mind of The Somnambulist is shown in the distinctive set design, in comparison The Man Who Laughs is too everyday. It would have been interesting to focus on Gwynplaine more and see the world from his perspective. I am biased though, too dark and too expressionist are criticisms I’ve never thrown at any film.

My take: A fascinating movie and a good story. The Expressionists really knew how to set the mood of a film. It’s been viewed as a horror film and many disagree with that assessment. However, I think there is some truth to it, it can be considered body horror and well ahead of it’s time in that regard.

Director: Paul Leni

Writer: J. Grubb Alexander, Walter Anthony, Mary McLean, Charles E. Whittaker

Based on the book by Victor Hugo

Notable actors: Mary Philbin, Conrad Veidt

Plot (Spoilers!):

It’s the sixteen hundreds in England and the cruel King James II sits atop the throne. He is informed by his scheming court jester Barkilphedro that a rebel lord, Lord Clancharlie, has returned from exile to rescue his young son Gwynplaine (Veidt). But the boy has met with grievous harm. The King has had a grin carved upon his face by the evil doctor Hardquanonne as retribution for Clancharlie’s treachery. Clancharlie is captured and executed, leaving the boy without a family. He is the property of the Comprachicos, a wandering clan known for scarring children.

The King decides to banish the Comprachicos from the land and as they prepare to set sail they abandon the young Gwynplaine to his own devices. Making his way through a snow storm, the boy discovers a baby in the arms of a young woman who has frozen to death. Rescuing the child, Gwynplaine is in turn take in by Ursus, a showman. Ursus discovers that the girl, Dea (Philbin), is blind.

The years roll by. Gwynplaine and Dea are performers and Ursus writes the plays. The youth and Dea are in love but Gwynplaine is embarrassed by his permanently grinning face and cannot commit to her. They traverse the countryside where Gwynplaine has earned fame as “The Laughing Man”.

At the Southwark fair, Gwynplaine is recognized by Hardquanonne who hatches a scheme. Gwynplaine’s noble inheritance has been given to a Duchess Josiana and the evil doctor sees an opportunity to make some money. He tries to send a letter to the Duchess. But he runs afoul of a greater schemer, the jester Barkilphedro, who shows the letter to the queen and who has Hardquannone tortured to death.

The queen decides to make Gwynplaine marry the Duchess but he resists. He is arrested and Dea and Ursus are told by the vile Barkilphedro that he is dead. But Gwynplaine is very much alive and is inducted into the house of Lords to legitimize his position. But after a series of misadventures, he refuses the position and escapes the palace. Finding that Ursus and Dea are gone to the docks to leave England, he rushes there only to find their boat is disembarking. Ursus’s loyal dog Homo leaps off of the boat and swims to Gwynplaine just in time to maul Barkilphedro. Gwynplaine and Homo board the ship and the loving pair are reunited.