![]() ![]() Beyond the screen, it was Conrad Veidt’s performance as the ever-grinning Gwynplaine that gave birth to DC Comics’ iconic villain, the Joker. ![]() Universal’s success with the film paved the way for their adaptations, Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), ushering in the era of Universal Monsters and forever changing the commercial horror movie. Paul Leni’s silent film, based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name, is a romantic melodrama steeped in German expressionism and body horror. Though often classified as a horror movie, The Man Who Laughs (1928) stretches wider than that. This second clown, Gwynplaine, bows his head into shadows, masking the permanent grin stretched across his face in a failed attempt to convey, if not sadness, then anything other than mirth, joy and laughter. “What a lucky clown you are! You don’t have to wipe off your laugh,” one clown says to a second. ![]()
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