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One of the most significant silent films, The Last Laugh (1924) remains less talked about than director F. W. Murnau's justifiably heralded masterworks, Nosferatu(1922) and Sunrise (1927). One hopes this new DVD helps establish The Last Laugh's reputation as one of cinema's most formally successful expressionist dramas. Within its first few minutes, Murnau sets up a complex geometric structure, with motion occurring amid planes as a door revolves. The man behind the door is the Porter (Emil Jannings), an elderly man devoted to his work and, even more so, to his uniform. A demotion to semi-retirement as a men's room attendant crushes him. Murnau's gambit of foregoing inter-titles and telling the story strictly through images (indeed a rarity among silent films) is remarkably effective. Sympathizing with the Porter requires taking the film's premise in psychological, rather than literal, terms. One has to recognize that his uniform's loss raises all kinds of anxieties -- about downward mobility, aging, and virility -- that would seem far out of proportion to the event's actual significance. It succeeds completely at envisioning a cityscape from the perspective of a man in the throes of severe depression. Murnau's camera work is often unabashedly subjective, using funhouse-mirror effects to capture the threatening atmosphere that the Porter perceives. Yet it is also able to maintain its distance. More often than not, Murnau keeps his camera away from the characters: The scene in which the Porter reads his letter of dismissal, for instance, is held in long shot for an agonizing amount of time. If not for the mild chill of distance, the film would probably be unbearably melodramatic. But even as the film demands sympathetic indulgence from viewers, Murnau's visual brilliance makes the effort worthwhile. -- Steve Erickson

All Movie Guide

F.W. Murnau's German silent classic The Last Laugh (Der Letze Mann) stars Emil Jannings as the doorman of a posh Berlin hotel. Fiercely proud of his job, Jannings comports himself like a general in his resplendent costume, and is treated like royalty by his friends and neighbors. The hotel's insensitive new manager, noting that Jannings seems winded after carrying several heavy pieces of luggage for a patron, decides that the old man is no longer up to his job. The manager demotes Jannings to men's washroom attendant, and the effect is disastrous on the man's prestige and self-esteem. Logically, the film should end on a note of tragedy, but Murnau (either because he was ordered to by the producers or because he just felt like it) adds a near-surrealistic coda, wherein Jannings, having suddenly inherited a fortune, returns to the hotel in triumph. The Last Laugh was a bold experiment for its time: a film told entirely visually, with no subtitles save for the semi-satirical explanation of the climax. In a sense, Karl Freund's camera is as much a "character" as anyone else, commenting upon Jannings' rise and fall via then-revolutionary camera angles, jarring movements and grotesque lens distortions. Many historians credit The Last Laugh as the vanguard of the "German invasion" of Hollywood during the mid- to late-1920s. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 738329063320
• Source: KINO VIDEO
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Subtitled
• Time: 1:30:00
• Sales Rank: 38,877

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Murnau

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