The Man Who Laughs is a 1928 American silent romantic drama film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. It is an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1869 novel of the same name and stars Mary Philbin as the blind Dea and Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine. The film is known for the grim carnival freak-like grin on the character Gwyn plaine’s face, which often leads it to be classified as a horror film.
About The Man Who Laughs (1928 film) in brief
The Man Who Laughs is a 1928 American silent romantic drama film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. It is an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1869 novel of the same name and stars Mary Philbin as the blind Dea and Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine. The film is known for the grim carnival freak-like grin on the character Gwyn plaine’s face, which often leads it to be classified as a horror film. It was one of the early Universal Pictures productions that made the transition from silent films to sound films, using the Movietone sound system introduced by William Fox. Many significant silentera actors appeared in minor or uncredited roles, including D’Arcy Corrigan, Torben, Edgar Norton, Frank Puglia, and Charles Pboo. The animal actor used for the role of Homo the Wolf was a dog named Zimbo. The Phantom of the Opera had been prepared to release another film starring Lon Chaney, but was rejected by the Universal executives. In its place was offered the lead role of The Man Who Misérables, which had been published in 1869, but rejected as too similar to Hugo’s The Man who Laughs, the subject of The Les Misérable. The company decided to release the film in its place, and it was released in April 1928, with sound effects and a music score that included the song, \”When Love Comes Stealing\”, by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack, and Ernö Rapée.
The film was completed in April 1927 but was held for release in April 28, 1928, and had a release date of April 30, 1928. It has been described as a romantic melodrama, similar to films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It was released by Universal Pictures as one of their first sound films. It had a budget of $10,000,000 and was released on April 29, 1928; it was the first Universal Pictures film to be released with sound sound effects, and the first time Universal Pictures released a silent film with a score of more than 20 minutes. It also had a running time of over two hours and was the company’s first silent film to feature sound effects. It went on to be a box-office success, earning more than $12,000 in the U.S. and $1,500,000 elsewhere. The movie is now considered one of Universal Pictures’ best-known films of the 1920s and 1930s. It remains a cult classic to this day, and was shown at the New York Film Festival in October 2013. It’s also one of only a handful of films to have been released on the Critic’s Pollock Releasing Company’s The Critic’s 50th anniversary retrospective, along with The Great Gatsby and The Great Gig in the Sky. In the UK, the film is still available on Blu-ray and DVD, with a new version of the film being released in November 2013.
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