The Man Who Laughs
When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
From the archive
I've been researching newly public domain films from 1929 and earlier, so I'm uploading the best possible copies that I can find. While The Man Who Laughs plays more like an action-adventure film than horror, the creepy visuals and expressionist style make it feel chilling at times. It is frequently thought of as the final great silent German expressionist film, even if it was technically an American production.
Why this is free to watch
The Man Who Laughs (1928) is hosted by the Internet Archive as a public-domain or openly licensed work, which means its copyright has expired, lapsed, or was released by the rights holder. The uploader declared an explicit licence, linked in the source panel. Nitrate streams the file directly from the Archive and hosts no video itself.
- Director
- Paul Leni
- Starring
- Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Cesare Gravina, Brandon Hurst, Olga Baclanova, Sam De Grasse, Stuart Holmes, Josephine Crowell
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