Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Released with sound effects and a music score that included the song "When Love Comes Smiling" by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack and Erno Rapee, Paul Leni's near masterpiece remains one of the silent era's last great romantic melodramas. Based on Victor Hugo's 1869 novel L'Homme qui Rit, The Man Who Laughs starred German import Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine, a carnival freak doomed to live life wearing a perpetual grin carved on his face by Dr Hardquannone (George Siegman because his father, Lord Clancharlie (Allan Cavan), had offended England's King James II (Sam De Grasse). Taken in as a child by Ursus, a mountebank (Cesare Gravina), Gwynplaine grows up alongside the beautiful but blind Dea (Mary Philbin). They fall in love but Gwynplaine refuses to marry her because his hideous face makes him feel unworthy. Queen Anne (Josephine Crowell), meanwhile, has ascended the throne and when she learns from her predecessor's evil jester Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst) that the recalcitrant Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova) is in possession of Lord Clancharlie's estates, she decrees that the royal femme fatale must marry Gwynplaine, the rightful heir. Josiana, who has caught Gwynplaine's act incognito and arranged a rendezvous, is at the same time sexually attracted to and repelled by the "Laughing Man," but Gwynplaine, who realizes that the duchess' attraction has legitimized his right to love Dea, renounces his title and follows his heart to the new World. Although Kirk Douglas was long interested in producing a remake, The Man Who Laughs was instead filmed again as L'Uomo che Ride by Italian director Sergio Corbucci in 1966. Corbucci, however, changed the setting from Queen Anne to the infamous sixteenth century Italian court of the Borgias. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Silent
• Screen: Black and White
• Features:
  • Original 20-minute documentary on the making of the film
  • Candid home-movie footage of Conrad Veidt and fellow European emigres Greta Garbo, Emil Jannings, and Camilla Horn
  • Gallery of rare photographs and art
  • Booklet essay by John Soister, author of "Conrad Veidt on Screen"
  • Excerpt of the Italian release version, with unique hand-painted title cards
  • Excerpt from Victor Hugo's original novel

AWARDS

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1998

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Conrad Veidt - Gwynplaine
       Mary Philbin - Dea
       Olga Baclanova - Duchess Josiana
       Josephine Crowell - Queen Anne
       George Siegmann - Dr. Hardqucinnone
       Brandon Hurst - Barkilphedro, the Jester
       Sam de Grasse - James II
       Stuart Holmes - Lord Dirry-Noir
       Cesare Gravina - Ursus
       Nick De Ruiz - Wapentake
       Edgar Norton - Lord High Chancellor
       Torben Meyer - The Spy
       Julius Molnar, Jr. - Gwynplaine as a Child
       Allan Cavan

• Director:

  Paul Leni

• Screenwriter:

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

• Book Author:

  Victor Hugo

• Cinematographer:

  Gilbert Warrenton

• Songwriter:

  Lew Pollack, Walter Hirsch, Erno Rapee

• Editor:

  Edward L. Cahn, Maurice Pivar

• Art Director:

  Charles Hall, Joseph C. Wright, Thomas F. O'Neill

• Intertitle Writer:

  Walter Anthony

REVIEW:

• German director Paul Leni's second film for Universal, The Man Who Laughs, remains a stirring experience. Begun as yet another fantastic vehicle for Lon Chaney, the drama instead stars Conrad Veidt, who possessed the one quality that Chaney perhaps lacked: sex appeal. With Veidt in the role, it is not totally inconceivable that Olga Baclanova's duchess, never mind how decadent, could be attracted to Gwynplaine despite his hideous deformity. No one but Veidt could add realism to as thoroughly melodramatic a character as Victor Hugo's unfortunate Gwynplaine. Of course, the perpetual grin forced the actor to perform with his eyes only, and the result is never less than magnificent. When performing in front of the rowdy country fair crowds, Veidt's eyes fit his carved grin perfectly, but at other times they convey embarrassment over his disfigurement, tenderness toward Lea (Mary Philbin), and at all times an aching sadness. Legendarily wooden as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Mary Philbin is much better here and handles her blind scenes in a surprisingly realistic manner. Always the most democratic of silent femme fatales -- her victims coming from all walks of life -- Olga Baclanova, in only her second Hollywood film, lolls about in slinky black negligees, but she too is well-directed and less broad than under more lenient directors. Veering at all times to just this side of the maudlin, Paul Leni created an unforgettable universe filled with romance, wickedness, and heartache. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi