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This is a movie I saw over 40 years ago when I attended a college film festival. I had never seen Emil Jannings before, and his performance blew me away. Yes, it is a silent film, Jannings is said to have been a proponent of German (pre-War 2) "expressionism." Some may call it "ham what am," but, given the context, the style of acting along with the emotionally wringing story lines raise strong viewer reactions. I was carried along with the story and found it affecting, thinking that Jannings was doing a superb job. Much later, I saw Jannings in THE LAST COMMAND, one of the films that won him the first Oscar for Male Actor, and appreciated him even more. He was one of those gifted actors, either silent or talking, who filled the screen with his presence. Here he was in a story about a doorman at a hotel who is the cock of his walk, enjoying his little kingdom, only to fall on desperately hard times. In the end, a kind of ultimate reversal in fortune takes place, and we in the audience share the character's "last laugh." I can't help but be moved now as I was, oh, so long ago.Read full review
THE LAST LAUGH (restored deluxe 2-DVD set from Kino International): If you enjoy silent films, this is for you. If you aren't yet an enthusiast of silent films, this film is a great place to begin. F.W. Murnau was a visionary director, and all of the staff who were involved in the production of THE LAST LAUGH were remarkable. Emil Jannings, as the hotel doorman, is superb in his his characterization of a man who is is suddenly and shamefully demoted, losing the uniform that gave him such pride, and also the respect of his family and neighbors. His ability to break your heart and make you laugh are truly astonishing. There is a new musical score and this restoration transports you to 1923, as if you were viewing THE LAST LAUGH in a theater. The second DVD is also quite worthwhile & illuminating. Any restored film by the director F.W. Murnau and also any film restored with the actor Emil Jannings (prior to his 1933 acting in Nazis propaganda films began) are well worth watching. As stated on Kino's website: "One of the crowning achievements of the German expressionist movement, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s THE LAST LAUGH (Der letzte Mann) stars Emil Jannings stars as an aging doorman whose happiness crumbles when he is relieved of the duties and uniform which had for years been the foundation of his happiness and pride. Through Jannings’s colossal performance, THE LAST LAUGH becomes more than the plight of a single doorman, but a mournful dramatization of the frustration and anguish of the universal working class. Featuring a new musical score by the Berklee College of Music, as well as the original score by Giuseppe Becca, this is the definitive edition of the landmark classic, mastered from a 2K restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung." Please do not allow Emil Jannings's collaboration with the Nazis during the Nazi domination to reject the actor he was before 1933. After WW II, his punishment was the censure he received, effectively ending his career. I am not excusing who he was; but do not allow his later behavior discount the spectacular ability he displayed as an actor prior to 1933.Read full review
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