Spooktober 23: The Man Who Laughs (1928)

 

Paul Leni is one of my favorite directors, and Conrad Veidt one of my favorite actors. This 1928 send up of Victor Hugo's 1869 novel is one of the most influential and tragic films from the 1920's of any genre, and pairs the two with perfection. So influential was it, that it gave the world the visage of The Joker in the Batman comic book series from DC; not to mention a whole host of other characters by fans of the film who would go onto the make films themselves (see, for example, William Castle's Mr. Sardonicus). The film was released as fully silent film at first, only to be reworked as a partial sound film with an original score and sound effects a year later. There was never any added dialogue however. Veidt's on screen acting career would go on to hit a rocky road for a time with the coming of sound due to his thick German accent. His performance as Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs remains, however, one of the most well known and memorable in cinema history.