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The Man Who Laughs (1928 film)
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The Man Who Laughs (1928) is an 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. 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."
The Man Who Laughs is part of a genre of Romantic melodrama, similar to films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).
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Encyclopedia
The Man Who Laughs (1928) is an 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. 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."
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, using the Movietone sound system introduced by William Fox. The film was completed in April 1927 but was held for release in April 1928 with sound effects and a music score that included the song "When Love Comes Stealing" by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack, and Erno Rapee.
Plot summary
Taking place in England in the year 1690, The Man Who Laughs features Gwynplaine, the son of an English nobleman who has offended King James II. The monarch sentences the man to death in an iron maiden, and calls upon a surgeon, Dr. Hardquannone, to disfigure the boy's face into a permanent rictus grin. As a title card states, the King condemns him "to laugh forever at his fool of a father."
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 Gwynplaine falls in love with Dea, but refuses to allow himself to marry her because he feels his hideous face makes him unworthy. The three earn their living through plays based upon the public's voyeuristic fascination with Gwynplaine's disfigurement. Their travels bring them back into the 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.
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 seen Gwynplaine's act, arranges a rendezvous, and is at the same time sexually attracted to and repelled by the "Laughing Man" image. Gwynplaine, made a Peer in the House of Lords, refuses the Queen's order of marriage and escapes, chased by guards. He finds Ursus and Dea at the docks, sailing from England under banishment, and joins them on the boat. 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.
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. The title role was originally meant for Lon Chaney (who starred in the previous Universal films), but he was under a long-term contract with MGM Studios.
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 Veidt, who played a prominent role in Waxworks, to star. Veidt had also previously starred in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
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.
Cast
Uncredited
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. In recent times, the assessment has been more positive. Critic Roger Ebert declared it "One of the final treasures of German silent Expressionism".
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 16th century Italian court of the Borgias.
Influence on other works
DVD
In 2002, Kino Entertainment released a Region 1 DVD .
External links
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