The Man Who Laughs casts a veritable who's-who of classic horror film stars. Conrad Veidt (1893-1943) played Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and here takes on the role of Gwynplaine, the son of a rebellious nobleman who is sentenced to both execution and the knowledge that his son will be surgically carved with a permanent skull-face grimace. The carving is carried out by gypsies on the behest of English monarch King James II, and it was among the first makeup assignments for Jack P. Pierce who, just a few years later, would find his career really taking off with his work on Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931), and The Mummy (1932). In 1925 Mary Philbin starred alongside another toothy horror film icon in The Phantom of the Opera, and here she is once again a love-interest - but this time she is a much more willing (albeit blind) participant. Olga Baclanova would end up with a pivotal role as Cleopatra, the trapeze artist in Freaks (1932), and makes waves in this film as the Duchess Josiana. This might also be a good time to mention how atop the freedom the camera has at the pinnacle of silent cinema, there was also another kind of freedom going on before Hollywood imposed the Production Code of 1934, and this allows for some rather saucy scenes (although some of the risque material was culled from European sources and not part of the print circulated in the U.S.).
The dvd release of The Man Who Laughs by Kino Video presents the film in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio using archive film material that was restored by the Cineteca del Comue di Bologna at the laboratories of L'immagine Ritrovata. The original Movietone soundtrack is also restored and provided by Universal Studios. There is a wealth of bonus material, and this includes a 20-minute documentary on the making of the film, home movie footage showing Veidt at home with such guests as Greta Garbo and Emil Jannings, a gallery of rare photographs and art, an essay by the author of Conrad Veidt on Screen, excerpts of the Italian release version, and an excerpt from Victor Hugo's original novel. The film harkens to a different age that is full of menace and magic. It spins its audience from tragedy, and into carnivals, and then to a larger drama - and does so with ease and atmosphere to delight true cinephiles.
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by Pablo Kjolseth
