“What
a lucky clown- you don’t have to rub off your laugh.”
A lord named Clancharlie has been arrested by King James
II. The royal jester is no good and in on many evil plots. He wakes the King in
the night to tell him that Clancharlie has been brought in. The doomed lord is
told that his young son has been given over to a group of gypsies called
Comprachicos who perform evil surgeries. The poor boy was given a permanent
smile. The lord is sent into a device called the Iron Lady and killed. Meanwhile,
his son is left behind by the gypsies who are forced to leave England. It is
cold and snowy. The boy, Gwynplaine, walks away from the water’s edge.
Gwynplaine sees a woman with a baby. Unfortunately the woman has died but her
baby is alive. He takes the baby and finds a house. The old man Ursu lets the
boy and the baby inside. Ursu sees the baby is blind. Gwynplaine took off his
scarf he was hiding his face with and Ursu keeps telling him not to laugh at
the blind baby.
Years later Ursu has taken Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt) and
the girl Dea (Mary Philbin) with him as part of a traveling group of
performers. Gwynplaine is known as The Man Who Laughs and is the most popular
part of the show.
Even though the King died years prior, the jester is still
part of the court. He causes trouble by creating scandals. His newly created
scandal concerns the duchess Josiana and a duke. The jester also brings to
attention that Josiana’s money is running out and she will only gain money if
she were to marry Lord Clancharlie’s heir.
Josiana goes to the fair to see The Man Who Laughs since
the whole of London is talking about him. Everyone finds Gwynplaine funny. They
do not know that he a tortured soul. Dea, since she cannot see his face, is the
only one who truly loves Gywnplaine. What Josiana sees of The Man Who Laughs
she likes and wants him to come to her that night. He is brought to Josiana’s
home and as soon as he is brought to her she immediately tries to seduce him. At
the same moment Josiana receives a letter stating that Gwynplaine has been
found to be the lost heir and that she has to marry him to keep her money.
After his meeting with Josiana, Gwynplain feels terrible
for what had happened. He goes to Dea and for the first time lets her touch his
face. Dea at first scowls at what she feels and then tells him “God closed my
eyes so I could see only the real Gwynplaine” and he loves her all the more for
that.
The Duke who was supposed to be marrying Josiana comes to
the fair to arrest Gwynplaine. He is taken to a prison that is notorious for
people going in and never coming out. Ursu tells everyone not to tell Dea that
Gwyplaine has been arrested and has the people pretend that Gwynplaine is going
on stage. Gwynplaine is fortunately not brought to jail. Since he is a lord he
has to be made to look like one and brought to the House of Lords and presented
to the Queen. Gwynplaine is immediately laughed at by the other lords. A man
had brought Dea to the House of Lords to hear the people laugh at the man she
loves. She cannot take their cruelty and collapses and taken away. Gwynplaine saw
what happened. He has enough, he does not want to marry Josiana, he does not
want to be forced to marry someone not even by the Queen. He runs away out of
the House of Lords and to the docks where he has learned that Ursu and the fair
are to leave England from after being banished. The lords and other people
chase after Gwynplaine for what he has done.
Gwynplaine manages to get to the boat with the fair and
Dea. As soon as Dea sees Gwynplaine she is revived and better.
I was not crazy about The
Man Who Laughs. I found it to be a bit too long. The plot was boring. I
feel like with most stories that deal with fairs or circuses and weird looking
people are all the same. Lon Chaney’s films, to me, are mostly like that. I
suggest watching The Man Who Laughs only
if you are a fan of Conrad Veidt or Mary Philbin.
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