He who laughs last, laughs longest

October 31, 2014 9:42 PM

Victor Hugo, famous for Les Miserables and Notre-Dame de Paris, wrote L'Homme Qui Rit, or The Man Who Laughs in 1869 on the isle of Guernsey. The story was adapted for film in 1928, directed by Paul Leni and starring Conrad Veidt. You can watch the film whole or in parts.

You might recognize Veidt's famous grin in another medium. While Gwynplaine was disfigured by 'comprachios', Veidt's disturbing smile was made by a painful prosthetic appliance.

The Man Who Laughs was recently adapted into a graphic novel: Adapting Victor Hugo For The 21st Century

You can read much more about Veidt, here, including An Interview with Bret Wood, producer of The Man Who Laughs DVD for Kino On Video

posted by the man of twists and turns (3 comments total)

I had only seen the 2012 version, which I'd describe as "Les Mis minus the singing and combined with Edward Scissorhands." I'll have to put this earlier version into my queue to watch. Thanks!
posted by Catblack at 11:40 PM on October 31, 2014

EDIT: oops I see now the originally intended music is audible if you watch it in parts. I'll watch this.
posted by surplus at 7:19 AM on November 1, 2014

I've long wanted to read the Hugo novel, but as I recall there hasn't been a full English translation since the 1880s -- and his biographer Graham Robb said it was a bad translation anyway.

While I don't imagine Hugo would have taken well to being abridged, he was a very talented artist, so a graphic novel adaptation isn't necessarily out of spirit with the author.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 7:54 AM on November 1, 2014