The Man Who Laughs

[Foxbat]

Directed by Paul Leni
Made in 1928
Starring Conrad Veidt, Mary Philibin & Olga Baclanova
Based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo
Released on DVD by Kino

In 1690 Lord Clancharlie refuses to swear loyalty to James II of Great Britain. For his crime, he is sent to his death – but not before learning that his only son and heir has been sold to the Comprachico.

The Comprichico are a band of travellers who specialise in the mutilation of children. They surgically alter the faces and render the victim with a hideous and permanent grin – creating clowns for freak shows and travelling fairs.

Abandoned by his captors in a snowstorm, the mutilated young Gwynplaine stumbles across a blind child (Dea) and Ursus the philosopher. Together, they embark on tours and Gwynplaine (Veidt) is displayed as The Laughing Man where he is the object of ridicule to the masses.

As the years pass, he falls in love with the blind girl Dea (Philibin) but feels unworthy of her affections due to his physical deformity. She does not care what he looks like and their love grows, but fate works against them. Slowly, Gwynplaine’s true identity as heir to a title is revealed and his enemies begin to close about him.

Conrad Veidt (who played the Somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari) is magnificent in his role and Leni’s decision to bring this actor into the fold to replace the unavailable Lon Chaney was a masterstroke. The whole movie leans heavily into Veidt’s original genre (that of German Expressionist) and is all the more impressive because of it.

This really is a fine film that transcends its time period. Even today, much of what is here is relevant to modern audiences. This is a movie that does not deserve to lie forgotten in a dusty old vault - so well done to Kino for putting this out on DVD.


Thought provoking, touching, and one of Universal’s finest.

Highly recommended.

[j. d. worthington]

So very glad to see someone mention this film! I'd been wanting to see it since I was a very young child and ran across a reference to it in Forrie Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland. I ended up waiting nearly 40 years for the chance, and yet I feel it was very much worth the wait. A wee bit overdone with the chase at the end, I thought, but otherwise an almost flawless film, with superb performances.

Ray Bradbury talked about this one in the Kevin Brownlow documentary Universal Horror, on how it affected him as a child, how one identifies with Gwynplaine because "you're the one in pain", and how he went to see it fairly recently (as of 1998) and "the darned thing still works!"

He is so very right....

[andreyu]

It also inspired the Joker character in Batman...

[Allegra]

Will definitely look out for this one. Thanks for the review, Foxbat.