Added: 4 years ago
From: silentfilmdemocracy
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  • "But all his jests were cruel and his smiles were false... you could say he was something of an asshole." :P

  • u know why right, nobody knows the name of the joker, except that his first name is Jack, that's about it.

  • @GinTheHallow Jokers full name is Jack Napier

  • @yonoko465 Only in the 1989 version of the movie and some of the cartoons, as far as I know. The Joker's name isn't really Jack Napier

  • @CoruscantSunset yeah i know, i just like to think of that as his full name because it...i guess keeps me more sane when thinking about the jokers origins. Even though there are so many variations of his origin i just follow his origin in the Killing Joke and call him Jack Napier cause he is such a mystery

  • @yonoko465 In the Burton film and the animated series from the 90's; nowhere else.

  • @MaskedMan66 YEAH I KNOW ALREADY

  • @celestestialangel61

    just fixing my comment, I think it was chaney in London after Midnight who inspired the makeup for this

  • Another classic movie showing the genious acting and makeup skills of Lon Chaney

  • Thank you for uploading this! I've been dying to see this classic!

  • This is where the Joker came from :D DC even admit it

  • Homo the wolf is a pretty terrible name for today but it means 'same' so maybe it was sort of a metaphor to humanity...?

  • @TimothyMably Actually it means human.

  • @rushzful Human the wolf?

  • @TimothyMably Actually, "Homo" means "Man" in Latin. Ursus named his wolf Homo as a pun on the Latin saying, "Homo homini lupus", which translates to "Man is a wolf to man".

  • @TheaterRaven Interesting; thanks.

  • That people so cruel, I tell parents to stop the boy and over the parents ignore these people! I would not leave if they abandoned my child like a dog, ¡¡¡¡the poor boy is not to blame¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡the parents have¡¡¡¡

  • you are the person in need, you are the person in agony,

    you are the person with a permanent smile - Ray Bradbury

  • @coolbrett Lmfao xD iThought The Same& Couldn't Stop Laughing When iSaw Your Comment (x

  • I teared up when the father knelt down and the part when he said "My poor little son- God help him!" :'(

  • O Homem que Ri = filme que inspirou a criação do Coringa! arqui-inimigo do Batman.

  • aahhh, the inspiration to the Joker :)

  • "Homo" the wolf?....uh.....

  • This is such a good movie. Great for Halloween season. 

  • Why so serious?

  • 1925

    

  • It's interesting that Gwynplaine is such a sympathetic character; unlike The Joker for the most part. The first Joker story I ever read was a reprint from Batman #1 (his first appearance) and I grew up on Joker stories and his mythology, and really always wanted to see this film that inspired Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson to create The Joker, when I first saw TMWL I was expecting a terrifying villain with that iconic Conrad Veidt smile, instead I got a sad noble touching character. Beautiful film

  • Aaaaa, 17th century England. What a grand time to be alive! :P

  • homo the wolf? wtf?

  • @logandh2 Don't display your ignorance.

  • i recently realized i love silent films even more than regular films.

  • @DirkTheDooDooMan

    Same here :D

  • THIS INSPIRED THE CHARACTER "THE JOKER"

  • 1920 movies creep me out.

  • vsauce

  • @cougarmanification what does vsauce have to do with it?

    

  • It's the Joker!

  • This is a great melodrama. Watch it.

    Little known facts. Homo won best actor for his climactic neck bite. The Dutchess won best actress for 1) the bath sceen, 2) the scene with the drunks groping her, 3) the scene with her groping Gwynplaine, and 4) her monkey scene. Veidt did not use a big toothed upper denture...he was one of the first to use Botox.

    Enjoy.

    Doug

  • It was a movie just begging to be made in sound, but the 'silence' does give that creepy, dark mood to the film. Just think if Frankenstein had been a silent movie, a title card reading "It's alive!"!

  • @gusisgr Frankenstein was a silent movie. Search Frankenstein 1910.

  • @UltimateTibu i know but i was talking about the 1931 version

  • @gusisgr o.o oh.

  • Zimbo's star making performance as homo the wolf.

  • lol my mom walked in and said "you know...they have talkies now."

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  • Does anyone have this film for trade on dvd?

  • I'm watching this because I love German silent Expressionism.

  • ...I'm not watching it because of the Joker, I'm watching it because Mary Philbin is in this, and she was in the Phantom of the Opera <3

  • Thank you so much for uploading this.

  • I'm watching this because.. I read somewhere that this character was the inspiration of the joker.. and the scare face that I see on google

  • Thank you for uploading this <3

  • You know whats even odder (in relation to Conrad being the Joker's inspiration)? When we first see Conrad, he is playing Gwynplaine's father, but what immediately struck me, was that he is with 2 people (who look like crooks) and Conrad's face is hidden under a hood......hm? Like the Red Hood?....Anyone else notice?

  • I swear, if I see ONE MORE "Look, the father of the Joker!" comment about Gwynplaine . . . Don't get me wrong, I love the Joker and yes, Bob Kane WAS inspired by this film to create him, but for God's sake, Gwynplaine was NOT HIS FATHER. If Dea had a child sired by Gwynplaine who grew up to be the Joker, that would be a horror movie waiting to happen. And I know people don't LITERALLY mean Gwynplaine was his father, but come on, guys, they're two totally different characters. I'm just sayin'. :)

  • @TheaterRaven "Look, the father of the Joker!" :P

  • @TheaterRaven Besides, that would make the Joker over 200 years old.

  • @MaskedMan66 Actually, I think that would be hilarious. Imagine it, a senile Joker!

    ". . . Remind me, why do I hate the nice flying man in the bat suit who saves people? And can someone PLEASE tell me how I got these scars? And does anyone know if the nursing home cafeteria serves pudding on Wednesdays? I hate pudding!"

  • @TheaterRaven LOL "Oh, except when that cute li'l psychiatrist with the pigtails calls me 'Puddin'.'"

    

  • @MaskedMan66 Hahaha, yeah, really. Okay, they need to make a senior citizen edition of Batman! XD

  • @TheaterRaven Frank Miller did; it's called "The Dark Knight Returns." :-)

  • @TheaterRaven And you can't inherit a disfigurement!

  • @MaskedMan66 Exactly, although, if you look at Cesar Romero's Joker, it's like they weren't even TRYING to make him look different from Conrad. He bascially looks exactly like Gwynplaine except he has green hair.

    I think the only thing that would be worse than the Joker being Gwynplaine and Dea's child is if the Joker somehow slipped into 18th century England and started masquerading as Gwynplaine. Poor, poor Dea!

  • @TheaterRaven Well, they wanted him to look like the Joker of the comics, and he looked just like Gwynplaine. The only other difference (apart from the hair color) was the mustache-- but of course, nobody was supposed to notice that!

    Oh, and don't give DC Comics any ideas; they're really turning out horror comics these days already!

  • @MaskedMan66 Well, I'm not a comic book reader, but I did enjoy "The Dark Knight" very much. Heath Ledger stole the show for me, incredible actor, so sad we lost him so soon.

    I'd love to see Gwynplaine comment on the Joker!

    "In what odd universe does a Glasgow smile immediately make someone a psychotic killer? And what chemicals contort the face and dye it to instantly look like a clown? God help children everywhere if the Comprachicos got their hands on such a substance!"

  • @TheaterRaven If you ever decide to read comics, stick to Twentieth Century stuff; the current crop of comics is dreadful. As for the Joker, he apparently had the flesh of his face cut off recently...

    Ledger was brilliant, except for his very lame "laugh."

    That sounds like something Gwynplaine would say!

  • oh shit its the jokers grandfather

  • @EpicF4iLx23 Only if the Joker's over 200 years old; this takes place in the 1800's.

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  • And thats when The Joker Was Born..... BATMAN!!!

  • Oh how the Universal Pictures intro has improved

  • I read that this was meant to be the first "horror talkie' but the makeup that Veidt wore made him unable to speak.

  • Thank you for posting these videos! This is fantastic!

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  • thats the movie which inspired bom kane to creat the character of joker !

  • @romas1995 yeah every single person watching's known that for years

  • @superjubblies oh dear... not another know-it-all youtube geek. :-(

  • @ocky88 aw crap...not another coon on the internet :C

  • @superjubblies "coon"?! Lol. Righteous? So lemme get this straight, you are not only a youtube geek, but an outdated racist, too?! Why, you must be quite the hit with the ladies! Haha

  • @superjubblies and with a fat chick fetish?! Now you are just creepy....

  • @ocky88 aw crap...not another coon on the internet :C and it can read????

  • @superjubblies hun, you are 1) a geek 2) a racist and 3) probably beating off to videos of fat women lubing up their potbellies like the one on your page. I can't continue to converse with you. That kinda shit rubs off you know? ;)

    Good evening, sir.

  • @ocky88 aw crap...not another coon who wont shut up while im trying to watch stuff!

  • @superjubblies hay shocking relization, no one gives a shit man.

  • @metal9535 HAAAY shocking realization mind your own damn business

  • Reminds me of those old Movies made of the Edgar Poe stories.

  • so awsome this is on u tube! this is great!!!!!

  • Is this considered a horror film? The only reason I ask is because I;ve hear dit described that way before.

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  • Lon Chaney was originally cast as Gwynplaine, but at the last minute, he withdrew.

  • I liked this movie. Since I started to see it, I haven't stopped to think about a Tim Burton's version.

  • now that's funny, Homo the Wolf.

  • lol you are right!

  • Such an awesome movie! LOVE it!!!

  • Awesome, this is my favourite movie! Thanks for uploading.

  • gwynplaines dad always looked like Heathcliff to me

  • "Gwynplaine" Thats an interesting name, and a boys name ?

  • I'm officially in love with Conrad Veidt and Brandon Hurst (the joker).

  • He never played Joker. He played the role who inspired the role figure Joker.

  • @xxxxxxkarlaxxxxxx Although it seems the joker is not the batman joker because at that time did not exist

  • homo the wolf lol

  • is this wot th joker is based on?

  • @alip2310 yes actually. Bob Kane was inspired by this and created the joker off of this movie and novel. Without the man who laughs we wouldn't have the great Joker one of the greatest villains of all time.

  • 3:18 WTF that scared the crap outta me....mayb its cuz im in dark room n my laptop is the onli, and its 1 am in the morning.....n they look reli creepy...

  • Woow,, 82 years ago..

    Im so glad torture devices like the iron maiden are illegal now..

  • how accurate is this to the book....I'm a HUGE Hugo fan I've read one or two of his political letters and I've read Les Misérables, Notre dame de Paris and 93.

    But I couldn't really start "The Man who laughs" :(

    I read the first 'book' in it and that's about it....and I regreat leaving it this film looks good.

  • @Peadarisback The movie is pretty much accurate except for the ending. It stays sort of faithful, but it leaves off the sad element.

    ***Spoilers Ahead***

    In the book, Gwynplaine and Dea are reunited on the ship at the end, but Dea suddenly dies and Gwynplaine drowns himself. In the movie, it just shows them reuniting on the ship at the end and they live happily ever after.

  • Ugh, dude, Victor Hugo thought up everything. I love that dead man.

  • It's funny. The inspiration for the Joker was of a man who had a "Glasgow Smile", while the cartoons, comics, and Tim Burton film gave him a "Permanent Smile". And finally, in what may be the Joker's LAST live action appearance, The Joker is NOW given a "Glasgow Smile".... WEIRD!!!

  • hmmmm so this is the inspiration for the joker not bad not bad at all

  • Conrad Viedt was such a handsome man. You should see him in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, too. Of course, his character is much darker in that movie but still... Great actor!

  • Homo the wolf.

  • *whistles* Here, boy, here, Homo!

  • It's cool to watch this and listen to metal

  • true love! its a beautiful story!

  • Something with silent films really scares me! Maybe it's because it has those two scary elements, the music, and the visual, but none of the talking to relax you at all, it's just a bunch of tension building up! I have never seen any silent 'horror' films before this one, only parts of some, I've never tried to because to tell you the truth they are usually too scary, all the silence yet fright, creeeepy. Scary movies back then are so much better than now, they actually have INTERESTING stories!

  • this isn't really a scary movie...it's more a 'tragic romance' (I think)

  • You are right, it is more of a 'tragic romance', as a lot of Victor Hugo's wonderful, and generally most known novels were (or at least had one element of it).

    However, this story does have a sense of 'horror' in it. How frightening it would be if you were Gwynplaine and felt you were never to be accepted, only to be laughed at, and how frightening it wold be to witness that (a good silent film called He Who Get's Slapped has a somewhat similar story....so does Laugh, Clown Laugh).

  • hmm I supose your right there....that is a 'horror' element to it.

  • on another note about this film

    is the 'iron lady' that's mentioned a translation mistake or something? Cause does it not mean "Iron maiden" which would mean the brutal torture advice that was created in 1793

    "to the iron lady" and then a man is put inside a statue....is this to reperseant torture or did I get it wrong?

  • No, I think that's about it. The 'iron lady' most likely is referring to The Iron Maiden.

  • ah ok thanks.

  • No problem!

    :-)

  • BUT! I have seen a true silent horror film, and MAN they can get creepy....

  • what silent horrors did ya see that wer scary??

  • Ex: Cat and the Canary, that was pretty creepy (specially when it's real dark at night, and everyone in the practical neghborhood is asleep except for YOU...)!

  • Never thought I would say this but.....silent movies rock!

  • This movie is perfect. I want it in dvd!!! but It doesn't sell in Spain :(

  • i don't get how people think this movie is scary, it's not. but it's one of the best silent films ever!

  • this is scarier than most of todays movies

  • Thanks for this, i've been wondering about this movie

  • cry??? i only saw a few seconds im scared out of my mind

  • 4real!

  • The little plane flying around the Universal globe was kind of cute. "brrrrum brrrumm brum brum brrrrum" lol

    Ooh, Conrad Veidt. Now I have to watch!

  • i love this movie ^^

  • the actual disfigured character was an inpiration for the batmans joker villian character

  • No, it was yours.

    (wtf?...)

  • I love this movie, I saw this one nite, at an outdoor screenig by the waterfont. one summer. It made me cry , which are the best kind of movies. Thank you , thank you

  • Beware of Homo the Wolf!

  • Sort of puts a weird twist on "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?", don't it? *lol*

    Oh, don't be a homophobe. ;P

  • @KidCairbre

    very mature

    

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  • Ohhhhh..... the Man who Laughs..... it's my favourite book not only by Gugo but in general. The saddest story...(( especially these parts about Gwynplaine and Dea. And I remember I loved Ursus very much too. Hehe... aka "misanthrophic" Ursus...))

  • The "king" looks like my neighbor's mother in law. The wind chill sounds like childrean screaming.

  • It is the first silent movie I 've ever seen and I desire more and more.... :)

  • well not realy. but he told that it was the inspiration of the joker in the cinemassacre's Bat-a-thon.

  • AVGN reviewed this one :O!

  • not only joker. also GITS stand alone complex

  • not so happy they didn't film making the boy, in the book the comprachicos deform the infants by having a party getting drunk in candlelight and they all cheer the surgeon as he cuts the boy up, they also make babies into deformed dwarves by forcing them into baby sized jars/pots to restrict there growth and apparently the comprachicos were real in history. i know, i know, y would i want 2 c that, but i've shocked myself with imagination how film would b and looks like just beauty+the beast

  • THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. ages ago read a book called the black dhalia. in which the antagonist committed acts based on victor hugos the man who laughed, forget correct title, tried all over to get the hugo book, then heard old film was made spent equally long trying to find it and here it is.again thank you

  • Although it's true to some extent of many great authors, anything written by Hugo is hard to translate into film (and at the same time keep its value).

    I recommend continuing to look for the book. And suggest buying it from Paper Tiger books (of which I am not in any way affiliated). I like the translation of the book they sell, and it's one of my favorite works of art. Ever.

  • I love you for posting this movie.

    Thank you so much. <3

  • i love old silent horror movies they just are too great great can cover wat they are

  • Thanks for this amazing upload, I've wanted to view this movie, as most comic book fans know it was the influence for The Joker.

  • u know the joker was based on the man who laughs

  • yeah bob krane got the idea for joker after seeing conrad veigt in make up..

  • I have a theory why this isn't better known. Theres timing; luck (it didnt have Lon Chaney); & Universal lacked the cred of the other studios. So we remember Jannings, Garbo vehicles, etc. Finally, sometimes a picture may be TOO GOOD for its own time. TMWL so overshoots that perhaps even in 1928 it was hard for people to get their minds around it. So its like, right, thats deep; well have to get back to u about this—decades pass & no one does.

  • "But all his jests were cruel and his smiles were false"

    Wow that is creepy, no wonder they got the Joker from this

  • this is so deliciously creepy..

  • as to the Black Dahila, he cut her face in a smile.

  • Lol, everyone here came here for the inspiration for the Joker. So did I.

  • so it was this that inspired the Joker..

  • Awesome huh?

  • yeah took the time to watch the entire film.

  • yea. bob kane and bill finger got the idea from that movie. god bless bob kane

  • shoot, they knew how to make things disturbing back in the day. Thanx for the movie, i been wanting to see it ever since i found out about the Joker tie in. :)

  • sick dark and demented,All the makings of a good movie.I dont mind if the joker was inspired from this movie a good idea is a good idea.they should really remake this movie along with the 1920 movie that inspired our beloved darkknight.I dont know what director would make it work though.

  • Please no more remakes. Remember The Women? & Psycho? Note to all great directors: no matter how good you are, please leave the old classics alone.