The Man Who Laughs (Masters of Cinema) Blu-ray [2020]

Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt) is the son of disgraced nobleman Lord Clancharlie under English King James II. The king punishes the nobleman by turning the ten-year old Gwynplaine (Julius Molnar) over to Comprachicos, a band of gypsies who disfigure people and sell them. The king gets the idea from his sadistic jester Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst). The Comprachicos give Gwynplaine a broad, ridiculous grin. James banishes the Comprachicos from England but they leave Gwynplaine behind. Gwynplaine flees through the snows, discovering a baby cradled by a dead mother. He takes the baby and winds up at the house of Ursus the Philosopher (Cesare Gravina), who takes both of them in as his children. Ursus is also a traveling showman.Once the children are grown, the trio wanders England putting on shows featuring Gwynplaine as "The Man Who Laughs." The show is popular but Gwynplaine is ashamed of his disfigurement. The baby has grown up to be Dea (Mary Philbin), who is blind but still performs in the show. She loves Gwynplaine but he can't believe any woman would love him with the way he looks. They go to a popular fair near London where the doctor from the Comprachicos has his own freak show (including a five-legged cow!). The doctor recognizes his work. He also knows that the spoiled Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova) has inherited the Clancharlie estate. The doctor plans to blackmail Josiana. The plan doesn't work out because Barkilphedro, who has become a noble, intercepts the letter. He offers the information to Queen Anne so she can get rid of Josiana, or better yet, humiliate her by forcing her to marry Gwynplaine, who is now destined to wind up in the House of Lords. Tragedy ensues.Veidt's makeup inspired the look of Batman's arch-nemesis, The Joker. Barkilphedro seems more like the inspiration for Joker's personality. He's sadistic and vicious, ready to take advantage of anyone for his own benefit or even just his own amusement. Gwynplaine is a sensitive and caring man who can barely stand other people seeing his face. Veidt gives the character lots of pathos and delivers a great performance, though often only his eyes are visible. The rest of the cast is also good. The movie is a silent film and the actors use the typical exaggerated gestures common in the silent era.The sets are impressive, capturing the gloominess of the story and the roughness of the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century England. Leni's directorial style is nice, with occasional expressionistic flourishes that heighten the drama. I was a little worried when I bought this BluRay/DVD because the cover art looks unprofessional, but the film looks great and the score is fine.Recommended, highly for silent film buffs.

"The Man Who Laughs" is one of those near-forgotten silent films that deserve much more praise and attention, especially as it was well received in the late 1920s following the success of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Phantom of the Opera" which are in a similar category. In fact, Lon Chaney would have suited this role of yet another pitiful grotesque mutant, but due to his contract with MGM, the German-born producer, Carl Laemmle, chose a German crew which resulted in a definite German Expressionist flavour to this film. In the lead is Conrad Veidt, playing perhaps his best ever role as the mutilated man with a permanent grin on his face, and next to Mary Philbin, who starred in "The Phantom of the Opera", Veidt's performance is most moving and impressive. Unable to move his mouth due to the huge, grotesque grin, Veidt expresses the character's deep and strong emotions with his eyes and body language, for which the silent film is the perfect medium. The story for this unusual film is based on a 17th century French novel, but several changes were made to adapt it to the screen and win over American audiences especially. The scene is still 17th century with good sets and costumes of the period, and the overall mood is reminiscent of the gloomy, shadowy German Expressionist cinema of the 1920s, but Conrad Veidt's character demands viewers' full attention and almost detracts from the rest of the film's fine qualities. Working closely with fellow-German director Paul Leni (who directed "Waxworks", an earlier successful Expressionist film) Veidt manages to convey all the emotions of a man laughed at and treated like a clown due to his freakish face, at the same time struggling to feel worthy of a woman's love. Apart from this superb expressive character portrayal, the story is rich in royal court intrigues, not unlike stories such as The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask, with treacherous assistants to the King, and a reckless, seductive duchess. `The Laughing Man', as he is called in his circus/freak show, becomes a pawn for the corrupt characters of the royal house, which separates him from his love and his circus show partner, Dea; the blind girl. There are some very stirring and beautiful scenes between these two players, and one of them is highlighted with the original Movietone soundtrack song, which was becoming all the fashion in the late 1920s. Restored to good-as-new condition like the picture quality, this soundtrack made for the film is well-suited and sounds very much like the music of early sound films. There are also a number of bonus features on this DVD such as a 20-minute short "the making of" documentary, a short candid home video of Veidt and other European stars such as Jannings and Greta Garbo, as well as extensive photo galleries of stills, photos and all kinds of promotional material concerning the film. There is also an insert with a good article written by the author of various books about early films and Conrad Veidt so that anyone from serious fan to general curious viewer should be well satisfied. While not as popular as Chaney's films `the Hunchback' and `the Phantom', "The Man Who Laughs" definitely deserves a place up there along with other top quality productions from the late silent era.

*2 and a half out of 5*The Criterion Challenge9. A silent filmA late 20’s cult favourite silent film. Set in the 18th century, The Man Who Laughs follows Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt). Disfigured by a king as a child, he again becomes the pawn of royalty and star of the freak show of a travelling carnival.There is no doubt that the film is most known for inspiring the appearance of one of (if not) pop culture’s most iconic villains: the Joker. As well as the similarities between it and 2019’s Joker and getting a fantastic re-release by Eureka. The film boasts immersive sets and costumes, an impressive lead performance and a very fitting orchestral score. However it also features a largely dull, plodding, weak romance plot and largely uninteresting characters.A lot of people seem to immediately assume that The Man Who Laughs is a horror film. This is understandable as the marketing and memorable images are largely centred on the haunting pained grin of the protagonist and morbid shadow heavy iconography. Outside of a couple of shots and scenes, this is no horror film. It’s actually a melodramatic romance, which unfortunately failed to hold my attention and investment.The carnival centric sequences are the most engaging and atmospheric set pieces of the film. When the royal, heritage drama comes into play and weak romance take centre stage the film loses its quirky mystique and becomes like a typical period melodrama. At just under 2 hours I feel the film is simply too long for its material and the restrictions of the silent era don’t help with the engagement of the characters and dialogue.Visually the film is superb. The era is caught perfectly. From the riotous atmosphere of the carnival, the gargantuan and wealthy castles, and the garish prosthesis effects to achieve Gwynplaine’s now iconic grin. The shadows and lighting craft some impressive shots and there is some creative editing for the time.Conrad Veidt gives a brilliant lead performance. Perfectly capturing the tragedy, sorrow and pain of the protagonist and utilising his eyes and body language to convey emotions. Unfortunately the rest of the cast of characters aren’t particularly interesting or memorable. Olga Baclanova is probably the most notable though as the giggling, manipulative and strong presenced Duchess.The Man Who Laughs is a film I appreciate but didn’t enjoy. The visual style, impressive technical elements for the era and central performance are all strong. It’s simply the shuffling story pacing, the narrative itself, no real tangible thrills in the brief horror moments and lack of character substance and emotional investment all work to let it down for me personally. The Eureka blu-ray art is fantastic though as is the restoration.

Film was excellent, but the description said "like new" and scratches on the disc doesn't constitute "like new" in my book.Anyways excellent Kino version of the movie "The Man Who Laughs". Nice little collectors booklet. I haven't watched the extras yet but I will at some point. This is getting quite rare now and the prices are soaring. Someone else should really re-release this movie. However if you can get your hands on this version for a reasonable price then grab it whilst you can. Conrad Veidt is amazing in this film, as is Mary Philbins. It's a classic film. Less horror than perhaps someone of you might expect. More a Love story really. Recommended to all early horror movie fans.

I will say nothing about this truly great film itself - you can read that elsewhere. This release by Master of Cinema is truly gorgeous and a print that defies belief that this film is coming up for almost 100 years old. A beautiful and informative booklet make this my favourite release from MoC for quite some time. Simply sublime.

A great dramatic film.I don't know anything about the history of this film.. I'm a casual Prime Streaming viewer who's exhaused the B&W horror/monster flicks available and stumbled upon this cracker. I was interested to see in the credits that Victor Hugo wrote the original novel.Although the speech is displayed as text in a silent movie format, there's a fantastic soundtrack with loads of incidental and background sounds. Very strong characterisation and not TOO overplayed. Obviously, Gwynplaine the protagonist was well played but I thought The Queen was a standout as well. Of course, Homo is the REAL star!A really dramatic and quite thrilling film towards the end. A remarkable production.Best thing I've seen on Prime for a while.

Conrad Veidt excellent as always. Good picture quality for a film nearly a 100 years old. Historical romance drama about a disfigured man.