Re: MT VOID, 05/23/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 47, Whole Number 2381

On 5/25/25 7:56 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928): "Comprachicos" is a term coined by
Victor Hugo in the novel THE MAN WHO LAUGHS to describe people
known in European folklore to steal and disfigure children for
commercial gain, but their actual existence in Stuart England is
questionable at best.  (The setting is straight from Hugo's
novel.)  I'm not sure where in England one would have a blizzard
like the one shown at the beginning.
 The film is best known for Conrad Veidt's performance.  Made in
America five years before Veidt fled to Britain from Nazi Germany
in 1933, it established him as an international star, and he had a
very successful career in Britain, and later in the United States,
where he is remembered primarily for his final role, Major
Strasser in CASABLANCA.  In THE MAN WHO LAUGHS, his mouth is fixed
in a permanent grin, meaning he can act only with his eyes, which
he does magnificently.  So striking was his performance that it
served as the inspiration for The Joker in BATMAN.  And the love
story seems to have inspired Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS.  (This
is just my opinion, though).

_The Man Who Laughs_ may also have served as an indirect inspiration, through a book illustration that was quite different from the movie Gwynplaine, for Alfred E. Newman.
For me and many others, Veidt's most memorable role was the sleepwalking murderer in _The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari_.

 Oh, an the ending is not Hugo's ending.

You can tell because the protagonists survive.
--
Gary McGath    http://www.mcgath.com