Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Whenever there is someone needed to play the role of a mutilated or disfigured man I automatically think of the man of a 1000 faces Lon Chaney. But this time the title role is played by the German actor Conrad Veidt. I have seen Veidt in other great roles as Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and as Orlac in Orlac's Hands. That he would pull of a convincing Gwynplaine was in no doubt. He didn't disappoint and neither did Mary Philbin as the blind Dea. I already loved her in The Phantom of the Opera. She really is fitting for the role as fragile girl. But most kudos to Veidt, it must have been hard to have your face in a constant grin. Despite this permanent smile it was still possible to read Gwynplaine's real feelings, even when sad. I think only great silent stars as Veidt or Chaney could have pulled this of. That's why I love silent movies as the focus is so much on expression. The movie is filled with some exciting scenes just like the silent version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame with what seems a faithful setting of the England of the 17th century. The costumes seem to fit the time period. The story is gripping, tension until the very end even if it's a sentimental sweet ending I thought it was great. I also need to applaud Olga Baclanova for playing the licentious duchess and the dog who played Homo. I really loved the scene when Homo tries to lead Dea to her beloved Gwynplaine. And not to forget Brandon Hurst as Barkilphedro, wow he really has the face for playing such a mean character.

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928) is the tale of Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt), who was disfigured as a boy as retaliation for his father's refusal to pay obeisance to King James II. With a blind foundling, Dea (Mary Philbin), he grows up to become a traveling performer. Gwynplaine is involved in court intrigue when an evil jester discovers his existence and plots an arranged marriage to control Gwynplaine's fortune as the heir to a lord. Directed by Paul Leni.THE MAN WHO LAUGHS movingly portrays Gwynplaine's plight as a man who is marginalized by society. His disfigurement controls his life in many ways. Crowds laugh at Gwynplaine for his appearance, and he feels that no woman can love him because of his face (except for the blind Dea). The script touchingly conveys the love between Gwyplaine and Dea, who only sees the inner man. However, I felt that the exposition lacked clarity when the story dealt with Barkilphedro the jester's intrigue and the reasons for the arranged marriage. Was the jester planning to kill Gwynplaine and take the money as his own? His motivations are not fully clarified, except for the fact that he is evil. On the other hand, maybe it was a plan to rectify things for Gwynplaine. I wasn't sure. The narrative drags a bit in places but comes to a pretty epic and satisfying conclusion.As far as the performances go, Conrad Veidt is compelling as Gwynplaine, haunting and expressive even though required to hold his face in the contorted laugh to which the title alludes. Veidt is compelling, emotive and unforgettable in his role. For much of her role Mary Philbin doesn't get to do much other than smile and look pretty, but she does realistically portray a blind woman, a definite acting challenge. She does best in her scenes with Veidt. Olga Baclanova is very charismatic as Duchess Josiana, alluring, flirtatious and imperious. Cesare Gravina, who plays Ursus, the philosopher who takes Gwynplaine in, overacts in the Grand Guignol style, something that would be practically obliterated from film about two years later when the switchover to talking film was finally complete. The production is moody and evocative in the German Expressionist style, using light and shadow, as well as camera angles, to heighten the feeling of the film. I was able to watch the original version with a synchronized sound track. The music was appropriately vivid, and sound effects were added liberally to the score – especially crowd noise and clanging objects at the fair. This can be rather jarring at times, since these effects often play alongside the music, even during love scenes! However, it is an interesting artifact of the pre-talkie era, as Hollywood was learning how to incorporate recorded music into movies. Overall, the story was moving when it came to Gwyplaine's plight, although somewhat muddy when dealing with the intrigue. Conrad Veidt and Olga Baclanova give compelling performances, with good support from Mary Philbin, and the style of the movie is quite intriguing. A fine movie from the late silent era. SCORE: 8/10

I had been familiar with the image of Veidt grinning for years and had always presumed this film to be a horror/dark thriller picture.In actuality it's a sweeping costume epic but with an extraordinarily unusual central story.Written down the story would seem melodramatic, even corny ,yet the strangeness of it's performances,the bizarre beauty of it's imagery combine to make a truly unforgettable experience.My expectations of a creaking story with perhaps some interesting scenes were replaced by an awe struck entertainment.Afterwards i was surprised how well a reasonably complicated story was told without dialogue and a minimum of title cards,Paul Leni had developed a truly sophisticated visual story telling technique.Watching you realise how the advent of sound actually restricted the development of film in the following decade.Around three quarters of the way through the film looses its footing somewhat and becomes a little unfocused but rallies in time for a rousing climax. A film of stunning imagery and great performances.

Conrad Veidt stars in the movie based on Victor Hugo's novel, L'Homme qui rit. In this silent film, a boy is sold by the King of England to "comprachicos," a word made up by Hugo to represent people who buy children to deform them for the amusement of noblemen and crowds at carnivals. The boy is Gwynplaine (played by Conrad Veidt). Abandoned by the comprachicos, Gwynplaine and an infant girl find shelter with a traveling mountebank Hugo has called Ursus (played by Cesare Gravina) and his pet Homo the wolf (played by Zimbo the dog). The infant grows up to be a beautiful blind blonde they call Dea.*Gwynplaine is cruelly deformed by the comprachicos - his mouth is surgically altered into a permanent grin. Although Veidt may be best remembered as Major Strasser in "Casablanca," a role in which he appeared suitably dissolute, Veidt was a very attractive young man. His appearance here is bizarre because of the character's deformity, a deformity which makes Gwynplaine the object of ridicule and laughter, except of course to Dea, who cannot see him as he looks, but only as he really is. She falls in love with him, naturally; and just as naturally, Gwynplaine cannot accept her love because of his appearance: she'd laugh at him, too, if she could see him.It turns out eventually that Gwynplaine is the sole heir to a dukedom; King James murdered Gwynplaine's father and sold (or dontated) Gwynplaine to the comprachicos, and they abandoned him as a child. Queen Anne came to the throne, and in this story the Queen had it in for a duchess who lived in Gwynplaine's former estate. Gwynplaine is discovered, and the Queen restores Gwynplaine to his estate and orders the duchess to marry him. Gwynplaine is a laughing stock of his peers, of course, so he declines the offer, resigns his peerage, and takes it on the lam. The queen is incensed by his refusal to obey her commands, and she sends the beefeaters after him.Unfortunately, this is the only action in the movie. We know he'll escape to Dea and they'll live happily ever after, but the chase provides some much-needed interest. Most of the film shows us Gwynplaine in his misery, failing to make him sympathetic, heroic, or much of anything else. Produced by Universal, "The Man Who Laughs" was supposed to follow in the footsteps of its popular predecessors, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Phantom of the Opera," both of which starred Lon Chaney."The Man Who Laughs" was directed by the German Expressionist Paul Leni, who chose Veidt as his star since Chaney was unavailable. Leni's Expressionistic tendencies are obvious throughout the film in both set design and lighting. Unfortunately, American audiences failed to appreciate the look of the movie, and it was not a commercial success. I suspect the unsympathetic hero was also to blame. In "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," for example, Chaney's Quasimodo is a figure of horror, but still the audience roots for him and wishes Esmeralda would fall for him. Here we have no clue at all why Dea would love Gwynplaine. Gwynplaine fails entirely to interest us, much less to engage our sympathies. The reasons to see "The Man Who Laughs" have little to do with the story. Gwynplaine's appearance in "The Man Who Laughs" was the inspiration the Batman comic book villain, The Joker. Heath Ledger's character The Joker in 2008's "The Dark Knight" says his disfigurement was caused by intentional mutilation, a reference to Gwynplaine.Perhaps more important, the design of the movie was based on German expressionism. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is probably the most famous expressionist film, and it too stars Conrad Veidt who plays Cesare, the Somnambulist - another sideshow freak under the control of a mountebank. Although "The Man Who Laughs" was made in America by Universal Pictures, producer Carl Laemmle had been impressed with a German movie "Waxworks" and called on its director, German Paul Leni, to direct "The Man Who Laughs." The influence of expressionism on Leni is clear in the set and lighting designs, and this influence was not well received by American audiences who thought the lighting too dark and the sets too Germanic to be England. Later reviews of "The Man Who Laughs" praise it for its visual style, if not for its content. Leni was well-known in Germany for his works, and his American debut "The Cat and the Canary" was very well-received.Coming at the end of the Twenties, the movie also came at the end of the Silents. Its release was held up a year so that Universal could couple it with sound of a sort: a music sound track and some sound effects were added, although there was no attempt at coupling sound with the dialogue - the title cards were left in to convey the dialogue.Veidt himself is also of interest. He played Cesare, the Somnambulist in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and starred in Leni's film "Waxworks." Gwynplaine is a more difficult role because the immobility of his disfigured face prevents Veidt from doing much more than emoting with his eyebrows. Veidt seems to lack Chaney's talent for wringing pity from American audiences no matter what the make up was.*Hugo has a method to his naming. Ursus of course means bear, and Homo means man; Dea means goddess (Dea was played by Mary Philbin). There the method leaves me, as I cannot divine the meaning behind Gwynplaine (which may mean pale plane - or maybe not).