Movie Review: The Man Who Laughs (1928)

This movie’s definitely best remembered for being inspiration to the comic book character of the Joker. And holy shit, does he look awesome. Jack Pierce, the master behind the looks of Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, and so many others, does an excellent job here.

Now this isn’t really a horror movie, but it is really creepy throughout, in part because of the look of Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt, who also played Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and maybe even more so the look of the film overall. It’s clearly inspired by the German expressionist movement going on at the time, and it’s a beautiful film to look at.

The visual style is a lot more compelling with the story. This is apparently one of Victor Hugo’s least regarded novels, so I guess that makes sense, but I also don’t claim to know how close of an adaptation this movie is.

So it’s good, but far from perfect. I enjoyed it.

Rating: 6/10