Director: Paul Leni
Year Released: 1928
Rating: 2.0
A young boy - of noble blood - has his face carved open by gypsies, ends up working for the circus and falls in love with a blind girl - who sees 'the inner him' (which most girls with good vision are unable to do) - but once his heritage becomes discovered he gets kidnapped and forced to marry royalty. It's too drawn-out and toxically melodramatic for my taste, with Conrad Veidt as the one-dimensional Title Laugher, hamming it up: it probably worked better on the page (it's based on a Victor Hugo story) where his sinister appearance was left to the imagination - on screen it just looks like he has horse-teeth and needs a little sun (people laugh at him in this picture, but in reality it would only earn little more than a double-take - I see weirder looking folk in NYC on a regular basis). As far as surgeons go, the Gypsies aren't too bad: it's a scar-free grin. The DC folk saw this back in the day and formed the Joker - no one dare chuckle at Heath Ledger's version of the creature.
