Last Laugh

I love Kino. I really do. But they really need somebody to make executive decisions for them, because this two disc set is yet another glorious muddle.

What I mean is this: the image is stunning, cleaner and more vivid than the previous release, Giuseppe Becce's 1924 score is gorgeously recorded and matches perfectly, and the making of documentary is especially informative (in German with the subtitles of your choice). BUT the opening titles and Epilogue cards from the English print are used while everything else is in German (with subtitles that hold on the bottom of the screen for literally a fraction of a second, one needs to pause the player to read the damned thing). Why has Kino not learned from Criterion and just given us the original German print with optional English subtitles? Why must we go through this everytime with them? The beautiful release of Nosferatu last year was also flawed; that two disc set contains TWO copies of the film, the original German and then one with video generated English titles, both with optional subtitles (???).

So I really like this set for the image and sound and documentary, but Kino really need to stop building a horse by committee and get someone to make a solid decision to just release these great silent films as they exist on film and not try to make everyone happy. I think anyone looking to purchase films by Murnau knows that they're getting themselves into. So far, this release is a little more organized than the Nosferatu release, so hopefully by the time they get round to Faust they'll have got it right.

A word on the film. Der Letze Mann really was a ground-breaker, due to its shocking use of camera movement and lack of intertitles. But the end is really utterly grotesque, a deliberate contrivance that lead actor Jannings convinced Murnau to film and producer Eric Pohmer (sic?) made him tack on. The disgusting wealth and gluttony that ends the film is not only hypocritical in light of the fact that it was the very same disgusting wealth and gluttony that ruined the Old Porter's life to begin with, but it is revolting and creepy as well. Money is useful, but it does not buy happiness. There is no resolution with the Daughter, despite that their great love for each other has been established at the beginning of the film. Even the filmmaking in the "improbable" Epilogue is perfunctory; Murnau flourishes in the main body of the film, absolutely flourishes, so it is worth getting this set to revel in the first hour and fifteen minutes. I always turn it off where Murnau intended it to end, with the final fate of the Last Man.

F.W. Murnau didn't have a typical storyline - he could do pure Gothic horror as in Nosferatu, social commentary as in Phantom, fantasy with a religious theme as in Faust, and the redemption of love as in Sunrise. What ties Murnau's work together is its imagery. He excelled at it as few directors ever did. "The Last Laugh" is a tale about an older man who is proud of his position as doorman at a prominent German hotel. One night he has had to carry some heavy luggage as part of his duties and he takes a break. As luck would have it, his supervisor sees him taking this short rest and assumes the worst. The next day the old man is reassigned to the job of washroom attendant. He does his best to hide his change of position from his friends, but they find out anyway. To make matters worse, they assume he's always been lying about his job and that he has thus always been a washroom attendant. At this point you might wonder - why exactly is this film named The Last Laugh? There is a somewhat tacked on ending that is the foundation of the film's title. I won't spoil it for you.

This is a two disc edition because there are two versions of the film included. The extras include a 40 minute documentary on the making of The Last Laugh that was included with the last edition of the film that was in The F.W. Murnau Collection (Nosferatu/The Last Laugh/Faust/Tabu/Tartuffe). I thought that the video was perfectly clear on that version, so I'm curious to see what further remastering has done for the visual clarity of the film. The documentary is well-done and quite detailed. This somewhat surprised me since if Kino has a flaw in its DVD productions it is this - it sometimes misses the point entirely of multimedia presentation and of the extra space DVD affords you for extra features. I personally want commentary and featurettes to go with these films, not the text notes that Kino often includes that leave me - at age 50 - squinting at the TV screen.

When F.W. Murmau landed Emil Jannings to play the lead role in this movie, Jannings was perhaps THE most sought after actor in all of Weimar Germany.

It was the 1920s and the era in which Jannings would also play the Devil himself in Faust (also directed by Murnau) and for his part Murnau would also direct the justly famous Nosferatu as well as Sunrise which would share honors at the first ever Academy Awards ceremonies.

By 1931 Murnau would be dead in a tragic car accident and by the 1930s Jannings would ironically sell his soul to the Devil by acting in Third Reich propaganda movies. By the end of World War II Jannings would be out of film until his death.

In other words, when doing this movie both these extremely talented men were at the very top of their creative peak.

And it shows.

Ostensibly the boring story of a hotel doorman who loses his job because he's too old, Jannings brings every minute he's on screen to life with his vivid characterizations. The movie has very few title cards and frankly doesn't need them owing to the way in which Jannings so consistently and expertly keeps the audience visually on board with what's going on.

In deference to the few who don't know why this movie is entitled The Last Laugh I will simply say that this movie is worth watching to the end.

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