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There are a few truly iconic comic book characters. One of those is Bat-Man. Of the Caped Crusader’s vast and colorful rogue’s gallery, his most infamous and deadly opponent is the Joker. Anyone with even a little knowledge of comic book history can tell you that the Joker was based, at least visually, on Gwynplaine, the hero of The Man Who Laughs, a novel by Victor Hugo and one of the most influential silent films ever made.
In the late 18th century, near the end of the reign of King James II (Sam DeGrasse), the king is informed by his evil jester Barkliphedro (Brandon Hurst) about the capture of Lord Clancharlie (Conrad Veidt), who refused to kiss his ring. Clancharlie has returned for his son, and is informed that his son has been given to Hardquanonne (George Siegmann), who has carved a permanent smile on the boy’s face. Clancharlie is executed, and to get rid of the boy, the king orders all of the “Comprachios,” people of folklore who cripple children as a way to create circus performers, ordered out of England. They leave, but the boy, Gwynplaine (Julius Molnar as a child, then Conrad Veidt as an adult), is left behind.
Permanently disfigured, Gwynplaine searches for a place to fit in, he rescues a young child whose mother has frozen to death. He and the infant girl end up in the care of Ursus (Cesare Gravina). It is soon evident that the baby, Dea (Mary Philbin), is blind.
As it turns out, Ursus is a showman, and both Dea and Gwynplaine become a part of his act. Over time, the two naturally fall in love, something that Gwynplaine feels is true only because she cannot see his disfiguration. Because of his constant rictus of a smile, he is dubbed “The Man Who Laughs” by the people they perform for, and in his own way becomes something of a celebrity.
However, nothing can be perfect. England is now ruled by Queen Anne (Josephine Crowell), and Hardquanonne has returned to the country. He discovers Gwynplaine, the boy that he disfigured, and also realizes that one of the Queen’s favorites, Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova) has essentially been granted the old Clancharlie estates and titles despite Gwynplaine being the true heir. And so, Hardquanonne sets in motion a series of events that starts with attempted bribes for his silence and ends with Josiana’s upcoming marriage to Lord Dirry-Moir (Stuart Holmes) being cancelled in favor of forcing her to marry Gwynplaine to solidify her claim to the titles, and clearly against the wishes of Gwynplaine himself.
One of the more important aspects of The Man Who Laughs is that this is not really a true horror movie, although it definitely has a great deal in common with horror in general. Gwynplaine is something of a monster in the sense that he looks the part and also has many of the features of early cinematic monsters. He’s disfigured and misunderstood and simply wants to be loved. In these respects, he’s no different from Erik the Phantom of the Opera or Quasimodo. So, while this isn’t horror in the way that Nosferatu or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is horror, it’s definitely genre-adjacent.
This is also a film that turns entirely on the performance of Conrad Veidt. The rest of the cast is decent, if not very memorable in a lot of cases. Mary Philbin’s job is to be pretty and innocent, and she is. Olga Baclanova’s job is to be pretty and terrible, and she is. But all of the real emotional weight of the film falls on the shoulders of Veidt, and in a silent movie where facial expressions are everything, he is unable to do anything with the lower half of his face. The entire point of the Gwynplaine character is that he can’t have a different expression on his face. This means that all of his emotions need to be expressed from the nose up, and Veidt is absolutely up to the task. His performance is remarkable because he can only use part of his face and can’t use things like vocal tone to help.
The ending is also rather surprising for the time. This kind of film tends to end in a specific way, and while we’re going to get a “Hollywood” ending, it’s not going to specifically be the sort of thing that we tend to expect, and that works in the film’s favor as well.
Not everything in The Man Who Laughs has aged as well as it could. The entire plot point about Gwynplaine’s disfigurement being caused by the “Comprachios,” for instance, reads very much like racism. These are people who never actually existed, of course, but there very much seems to be a sense of them being essentially the same thing as the Romani. That comes across as ugly today.
The reason to watch this is for Conrad Veidt. Honestly, I’d love to see this one remade today—there’s the guts of a story here that would look great on a modern screen.
Why to watch The Man Who Laughs: Conrad Veidt gives a legendary performance.
Why not to watch: There’s some racism that hasn’t aged very well.
