The Man Who Laughs (1928)

When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.

Director:

Paul Leni

Writers:

J. Grubb Alexander (adaptation), J. Grubb Alexander (continuity),

Stars:

Mary Philbin, Conrad Veidt, Julius Molnar Jr.

Cast

Credited cast:
Mary Philbin	...	Dea
Conrad Veidt	...	Gwynplaine
Julius Molnar Jr.	...	Gwynplaine as a child
Olga Baclanova	...	Duchess Josiana
Brandon Hurst	...	Barkilphedro
Cesare Gravina	...	Ursus
Stuart Holmes	...	Lord Dirry-Moir
Sam De Grasse	...	King James II
George Siegmann	...	Dr. Hardquanonne
Josephine Crowell	...	Queen Anne
Charles Puffy	...	Innkeeper
Zimbo the Dog	...	Homo the Wolf (as Zimbo)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Deno Fritz	...	Sword Swallower

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

1690s | jester | clown | nobleman | revenge | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

4 November 1928 (USA)

Also Known As:

O Homem Que Ri

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) (musical score and sound effects) Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Claims that Lon Chaney was cast and/or walked off the set are incorrect. Although he was the first choice for Gwynplaine, Chaney was under contract with another studio and so could never cast to begin with.

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Goofs

When Barkilphedro first reads the blackmail note from Doctor Hardquanonne, we are shown a shot of the full text of the note. Toward the bottom, it says, "You are rich...". Seconds later, we see close-ups of the note. Words have been rearranged on the page to make the close-ups more readable and the lower portion now says, "You will be penniless," - a phrase that didn't appear anywhere in the original text.

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Quotes

Dea: God closed my eyes so I could see only the real Gwynplaine.

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Connections

Referenced in Holy Batmania (1989)

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Soundtracks

"When Love Comes Stealing"
(uncredited)
Written by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack and Erno Rapee

User Reviews

Grotesque, Macabre, and Influential Silent Classic

Like most artistic "isms," expressionism is somewhat difficult to define; in general, however, it refers to a style in which the artist is much less interested in capturing external realities than in portraying emotional and psychological states; consequently, expressionism is often fantastic in a visual sense--and when it combined with the darker edges of Germanic folklore it gave rise to a series of classic and near-classic silent films, including THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, NOSFERATU, THE GOLEM, and WAXWORKS.

Over time, the style began to creep into American film. This was most particularly true of films made at Universal Studios, which had major successes with such Gothic-inflected films as THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, both of which starred Lon Chaney. Drawn from a minor work by Victor Hugo, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS was first intended as a Chaney vehicle; by the time it began production, however, Chaney had decamped to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer--and Universal assigned Conrad Veidt to the starring role under director Paul Leni. Both men had been deeply involved in the German expressionist movement, and the resulting film was a melodrama so deeply steeped in the grotesque that it came to be regarded as a horror film.

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS concerns a child named Gwynplaine who is caught up in royal intrigue and is deliberately disfigured, his mouth cut into a ghastly, inflexible grin. Abandoned, he rescues an blind infant girl; both are taken in by the kindly Ursus (Cesare Gravina.) Years later, and entirely unaware of his aristocratic origin, Gwynplaine (Veidt) and the beautiful blind maiden Dea (Mary Philbin) are popular carnival actors, appearing in a play written by Ursus--but although he loves Dea, Gwynplaine is deeply humiliated by his eternal grin and feels he can never marry. Ironically, it is not until he is once more caught up in a royal powerplay and recognized as a peer that he realizes the depth of Dea's love.

In some ways the plot is simplistic and occasionally too much so, but the look of the thing is relentlessly fascinating. Director Leni endows his world with grotesque faces, vulgar sexuality, and deliberately twisted visuals--particularly so in the first half of the film, which is greatly famous for the sequence in which the abandoned child stumbles through a snow storm beneath gallows bearing rotting corpses to find the infant Dea. Veidt's hideous grin, an early creation by make up genius Jack Pierce, is remarkably effective; the performances are memorable, and although the second half of the film is excessively predictable the whole thing goes off with a bang.

Although it was hardly a failure, in 1928 THE MAN WHO LAUGHS proved too gruesome for many audiences, and the rise of sound films drove it into a too-rapid obscurity. Even so, it would cast a very long shadow: it is an important link in the chain between German expressionism and the great Hollywood horror classics of the early 1930s. The Kino DVD presents a reasonable but far from flawless transfer of the film, along with several bonus features, most significantly a "making of" documentary that details the film's stylistic importance. Recommended for fans of classic horror.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer