1001 movies before I die: The Last Laugh (Review)

If you saw my post about thee book "1001 movies you must see before you die". You'll know that I am atempting to watch all 1001 movies. This is my review of The Last Laugh (movie #19)

The Last Laugh

This movie is great but why exactly? Because of the performance of the main character. Emil Jannings plays the Hotel Doorman, a downtrodden man who has just lost his long lasting job which he is not taking very well. Out of all the silent movies up until now this is by far the best preformance yet.

In the beginning you're looking at a man with a happy life, but as he loses his job for a position in the restroom everything in his mind goes down hill and throughout the movie you believe that. When it comes to silent films the body and the face has to do all the work to really show what kind of emotions a person is feeling.

His performance is not the only thing good about this movie though. The story is also well executed. Had the performance not been as good the movie would still have been good though.

This movie is also quite famous for not using an titlecards throughout the movie. During this era the only way of conveying what someone was saying was through text on screen. The director F.W. Murnau wanted to experiment having none of that and it works. You could have had dialouge in this movie but I think it would have detracted the quality of it.

Score: 9/10