The Man Who Laughs (1928 film)

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The Man Who Laughs
Directed by	Paul Leni
Produced by	Paul Kohner
Written by	Book Author: Victor Hugo Screenwriters: J. Grubb Alexander Walter Anthony Mary McLean Charles E. Whittaker
Starring	Conrad Veidt Mary Philbin Olga Baclanova Josephine Crowell George Siegmann
Cinematography	Gilbert Warrenton
Editing by	Edward L. Cahn Maurice Pivar
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	New York Premiere: April 27, 1928
Country	United States
Language	Silent film English intertitles
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Man Who Laughs is a 1928 American silent film directed by the German expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. The film is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel of the same name and stars Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine and Mary Philbin as the blind Dea. The film is known for the grim Carnival freak like grin on the character Gwynplaine's face which often leads the film to be credited to the horror film genre.^[1] Film critic Roger Ebert stated "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."^[2]

The Man Who Laughs is part of a genre of Romantic melodrama, similar to films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). The film was one of the early Universal Pictures productions that made the transition from silent films to sound films; it was released with sound effects and a music score that included the song "When Love Comes Stealing" by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack and Erno Rapee.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Production 3 Critical reception 4 Influence on other works 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Plot summary

Taking place in England in the year 1690, The Man Who Laughs feartures Gwynplaine, the son of an English nobleman who has offended King James II. The monarch sentences the parent to death in an iron maiden and the son to a lifetime of public humiliation through extraordinary mutilation. The King calls upon the skills of a surgeon, Dr. Hardquannone, associated with a band of ostracized and feared Gypsies, the Campracichos, the boy's face is horribly fixed into a permanent rictus grin. As a title card states, the King condemns him "to laugh forever at his fool of a father."^[3]

The homeless Gwynplaine wanders around in a snowstorm and discovers an abandoned baby girl, the blind Dea. The two children are eventually taken in by Ursus, a mountebank. Years pass and Dea and Gwynplaine fall in love but Gwynplaine refuses to allow himself to marry her because he feels his hideous face makes him feel unworthy. The three earn their living through plays based upon the public's voyeuristic fascination with Gwynplaine's mangled facial features. Their travels bring them back into path of the deceased King's successor, Queen Anne. Here, Queen Anne's jester, Barkilphedro, discovers records which reveal Gwynplaine's lineage and his potential inheritance of his father's position in the court.^[3]

Gwynplaine's deceased father's estate, currently owned by the Duchess Josiana, is in her possession, and Queen Anne decrees that the royal duchess must marry Gwynplaine, the rightful heir to make things right. Josiana, who has caught Gwynplaine's act in disguise, arranges a rendezvous, and is at the same time sexually attracted to and repelled by the "Laughing Man" image. But Gwynplaine, who realizes that the duchess' attraction has legitimized his right to love Dea, renounces his title of the heir and follows his heart to continue his life with Dea.^[3] The film thus leaves off the tragic ending of Hugo's original novel, in which Dea dies while the group is sailing away from England, and Gwynplaine drowns himself.

(The scenes featuring Olga Baclanova as Duchess Josiana were rather daringly suggestive for the time, and included brief glimpses of nudity in a bathing scene.)

[edit] Production

After Universal Pictures had large hits with Gothic dramas such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), the company encouraged film producer Carl Laemmle to produce a follow up in a similar vein. Laemmle decided to film Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs.^[4]

Being of German ancestry, Laemmle had connections with the German film scene, which gave him an inside track when negotiating with some of Germany's filmmakers and actors. Laemmle had seen director Paul Leni's Waxworks (1926) and was impressed with the movie's sets and ominous stylistics. Laemmle chose Leni to accept the challenge of crafting the film adaptation. In addition, Laemmle pursued Conrad Veidt, who played a prominent roll in Waxworks, to star. Veidt had also previously starred in the classic of German expressionism, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).^[4]

Universal put over $1,000,000 into The Man Who Laughs, a very large amount of money to use on an American film at the time.^[4]

[edit] Critical reception

Initially, the critical assessment of The Man Who Laughs was mediocre, with some critics disliking the morbidity of the subject matter and others complaining that the Germanic looking sets didn't evoke 17th century England.^[4] In recent times, the assessment has been more positive. Critic Roger Ebert declared it "One of the final treasures of German silent Expressionism".^[2]

Although actor Kirk Douglas was long interested in producing a remake, The Man Who Laughs has only been refilmed once in the sound era, as L'Uomo che Ride by Italian director Sergio Corbucci in 1966. Corbucci, however, changed the setting from Queen Anne's England to the sixteenth century Italian court of the Borgias.^[5]

[edit] Influence on other works

• Veidt's character has been listed as one of the inspirations for Batman's archnemesis The Joker.
• The 2006 Brian de Palma film The Black Dahlia shows scenes from The Man Who Laughs and incorporates some related plot points.

[edit] External links

• The Man Who Laughs Indepth review
• The Man Who Laughs at Rotten Tomatoes

[edit] References