The Killing Joke

The Man Who Laughs (1928)
directed by Paul Leni
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

How many movies begin as cruelly as this one? With a haggard prisoner doomed to death in an iron maiden by rat-like, mole-like King James, the face of the prisoner's son cut into a smile, and his escape tormented by frozen corpses hanging wind-blown from their ropes? If Val Lewton's films reflect the dark uneasiness and footprint of the American years in World War II, this early run at Universal's crown of horror is the prophecy upon which countrymen Leni and Conrad Veidt's one-time hinterland saw its mighty future of profane and terrible deeds. The greatest marriage in movies wed the polish of the studio system to the insanity of the German Expressionists; this is one of several blushing brides. If the title cards' urgent recurrence hints at the wolf of sound behind each frame (more like the novel it draws from), no furry specter is quite like the wolf named Zimbo; you can pencil in my first TCM Spotlight for "Howling Success: Canines Beeline to Tinseltown." Starring Robert Osborne's pet pup Lucy.