Reviews

I had the opportunity the see this Clara Bow movie on the big screen instead of my television set and WOW...what a difference. It was almost chilling to feel her energetic youthfulness come right at you. There probably isn't anything else that I can add that hasn't been positively said about this movie. Clara Bow definitely personifies Elinor Glyn's definition of IT! A 9 out of 10 for sure...

Similar to another comment on this movie, I, too, had high expectations for this Louise Brooks' film. In fact, the description of the distributor contained the word: "Gripping!" Not so, from my point of view... The movie starts off well but loses it's "grip" half way through the film. I thought that the ending when Lulu (Brook's character) is to be murdered by Jack the Ripper(?), would recover the film's plot. Again, not so. (Why is Lulu's murderer said to be Jack the Ripper - neither the era or villain is portrayed properly. This is a real stretch of one's imagination.)

I will retain this movie in my collection but it will be a long time before I take it down and view it again.

I don't really know what I was expecting...but from what I have read in articles and the comments on this site, I expected to be gripping the ends of the armchair...it just didn't happen. Rating: 6.5/10

I saw this film on the big screen. From the beginning, one may get the impression that this could be one of the "been there...seen this" plots. Not true. The storyline is full of twists and turns throughout. Even the title has a twist at the end of the movie. While watching the plot unfold, I thought that it referred to the penalty the doctor and his family had to pay for the operation performed on Blizzard as a boy (Lon Chaney's character), making him handicaped...not so! Another twist is the female detective's turning from her investigation to admiration of Blizzard; the twist in the operation procedure performed on Blizzard to restore his legs; and then, the final twist at the end of the movie. Not what you would have expected...however, the final "penalty" is paid.

To sum it up...great actor and great story. Worth a repeat viewing. Rating: 9/10

This was our first Conrad Veidt experience. The Man Who Laughs is a spellbinding piece of visual art. Veidt's acting is sensational. I knew the plot of the story and wondered how he would portray feelings of sadness and regret with a permanent smile carved on his face. After viewing the tape, we were amazed how the emotions exuded from the TV screen. This is our second Mary Philbin experience and both of us prefer her acting in this movie to her role in The Phantom of the Opera.

We have viewed silents on the TV screen as well as the big screen. We discovered that there is more of the "larger than life" emotions projected and felt by the audience through the larger screenings that is somewhat missed on the 27" TV screen. Not so with this performance. My wife and I were both moved to watch it from the beginning...one more time.