4 Star

The Afflicted, The Cursed and Love.

Dicrector Paul Leni (Sleeping Beauty, Waxworks, The Cat and the Canary) takes Victor Hugo‘s (Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) 1869 novel of the same name and creates a film that is not a horror, but you can’t get closer to one than this macabre love story. The Man Who Laughs (1928 film) has been brought back to life courtesy of Universal Pictures and brought to the small screen as #236 in the Masters of Cinema collection.

England the 17th Century and King James II (Sam De Grasse, Blind Husbands) is on the throne and his court jester Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Thief of Bagdad) has some good news for his King, they have caught the rebel Lord Clancharlie, a man who refused to kiss the Kings hand. There is only one punishment for such a crime, but first he must hear the fate of his young son Gwynplaine (Julius Molnar, No Greater Glory) who has been sold to the comprachico Dr. Hardquannone for a fate worse than death. Now the Lord is off for a date with the Iron Maiden.

After that King James decrees that the comprachico’s are banished from England. The Doctor wants his prize to go with them, but the rest of them want nothing to do with the incriminating boy, so he is cast to the icy winds of winter in Cornwall.

He wanders blindly in the blizzard until he comes across a woman in the snow, dead from hypothermia, but in her hands is a swaddling babe. He takes the child with him until he comes across the little caravan of Ursus (Cesare Gravina, Madame X, The Family Secret) the philosopher. He takes them in and shelters them until they are young adults and their love for each other has grown as much as they have.

Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt, Casablanca, The Legend of William Tell, The Beloved Rogue) has got quite a reputation as a strolling player with Ursus troupe with Dea (Mary Philbin, The Phantom of the Opera, The President, After the Fog) who has grown up and is used to her blindness. People come to their shows mainly to laugh at the cursed man.

As they try to get on with their lives there are always things and people who have their own agendas for their rise in the new Queen Anne’s court and that involves the long-lost heir to the Clancharlie estate.

“God closed my eyes so that I could see only the real Gwynplaine.”

The Man Who Laughs is a dark and creepy tale, but it has love as its central character and is a film that has been spared the ravages of time on Blu-ray. A definite must for classic film buffs and those people who like something out of the ordinary.

The Man Who Laughs is Available on Blu-ray

LIMITED EDITION O CARD (2000 UNITS)
1080p presentation on Blu-ray from Universal s 4K restoration
Uncompressed LPCM 2.0 (stereo) score by the Berklee School of Music
Uncompressed LPCM 2.0 (mono) 1928 movietone score
A brand new interview with author and horror expert Kim Newman
A brand new video essay by David Cairns and Fiona Watson
Paul Leni and “The Man Who Laughs” featurette on the production of the film
Rare stills gallery
A collector s booklet featuring new writing by Travis Crawford, and Richard Combs