Directed by: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller
Another classic silent film from the director of Nosferatu, I watched this one with my friend who went to film school (and so he knows way more about these kinds of movies than anybody ever really needs to know) and learned that this movie’s really important for a lot of technical reasons. So… that’s neat, I guess.
An old doorman at a hotel gets demoted to bathroom attendant because, well, he’s just too damn old do his duty as doorman anymore. It turns out that the uniform associated with the job is about the only thing that keeps this man’s dignity intact, as he lives in a slum and everyone looks up to him because of it. It’s so important to him that not only does he become totally devastated after losing it, but he actually breaks into the place later that night and steals his uniform back so he can go back home without anybody knowing.
Unfortunately, the next day at work, his wife comes to visit him and finds out his lie. This, for some reason, makes EVERYBODY in the slum shun him, including his family. The movie ends with the old man slumped over in the public bathroom, his soul finally dead. Well, that’s how it should’ve ended, according to a card we see that explains that the studio wanted a happier ending, so here’s that. This last ending is one of the greatest things I’ve seen in a movie, because it’s just structured so beautifully as a big ol’ “fuck you” to whoever didn’t like the guy’s original ending. The old man inherits millions from some random rich guy who dies in his arms in the bathroom, so there’s just this long sequence of him and the night watchman, his only friend, eat all this extravagant food and smoke nice cigars and stuff. They have “the last laugh,” as it were. I’m not sure why the English version of this movie is named after this extra ending instead of being called “The Last Man,” since that’s the translation from German, but there it is.
Unlike other German silent films from this era that I’ve seen, The Last Laugh doesn’t really stick out as all that visually interesting. It turns out that this is because it revolutionized all sorts of modern conventions, and we’re just used to seeing all this stuff now. For instance, it apparently is the first movie to have a dream sequence. What really sticks with me about this movie is how oppressingly dark it is. The idea that this poor guy’s FAMILY would shun him just because he got demoted- not even fired, just demoted!- is pretty damn ridiculous. I’m sure it was supposed to be some metaphorical statement about something or other, but I don’t cotton to that kind of movie interpretation.
I’m not sure if many modern viewers would find The Last Laugh that interesting of a film. It’s completely silent, with there only being three instances of cards with exposition on them, not even dialogue, so that’ll probably lose a lot of people right off the bat. Also, it’s an incredibly depressing movie, and I hope most people don’t like seeing sad old men suffer for an hour and a half. I’d go for Nosferatu or Metropolis before this one, personally.
