The 1920s Silent Film That Largely Inspired the Joker collider.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from collider.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Movie villains smile so compulsively because it creates a creepy
disconnect between their mouth and their eyes. Imagine, however, a good man,
condemned to smile widely for an entire lifetime. Such a creature would be
bullied as a child and shunned as an adult. The Man Who Laughs
(1928), one of the final treasures of German silent Expressionism, is about
such a man. His name is Gwynplaine. His father was a nobleman. Orphaned as a
child, he is captured by outlaws who use a knife to carve his face into a
hideous grin. Disfigured, alone, he rescues a baby girl, and together they are