The Man Who Laughs (1928)

The Man Who Laughs

• I’ve been waiting quite a while to watch this, and when I recently saw it was on Tubi, I knew I had to jump on it before it left and I had to rent it. The biggest reason I wanted to watch it is because Gwynplaine (the main character) inspired the Joker’s look. He’s obviously not the Joker, nor is he related, but I loved seeing the origin of the Clown Prince of Crime’s iconic look. But on to this movie, it was a touching and tragic tale of a disfigured boy who grew up famous and ridiculed because of his look. It was kind of sad, but there’s a story of love throughout, which gave it a very nice touch. It does it in the silent movie style, with exaggerated facial expressions and body movements. I loved the way it was shot. All the characters were portrayed nicely, and their intentions are clear when you first meet them. You don’t have to bother trying to figure out who’s bad or good, you immediately know whose side you're on. For me, at least. I will say this though: even though I got invested in the story, it wasn’t as entertaining as I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked it, but not enough to give this an A- or higher. It felt slow, which I think is the only reason it was sometimes a tiny bit hard to pay attention to. But it doesn’t set it back a whole lot. All around it’s well crafted, with memorable characters and great relationships between the characters (both good and bad). I’ll definitely rewatch it, and I’d recommend it to all romance/tragedy fans, and especially if you love silent films. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go watch it now!