() is a 1921 Austrian film silent film directed by Julius Herzka. It stars Anna Kallina, Nora Gregor and Lucienne Delacroix. It is the first feature film adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1869 novel The Man Who Laughs.
Plot In the late 17th century in France, the young son of a widowed lord is kidnapped by gypsies, who carve a permanent grin on the child's face. When the disfigured youth (Franz Hobling) grows up, he falls in love with a blind girl named Dea (Lucienne Delacroix), and joins a touring company as a performer. Calling himself Gwynplaine, he develops an act in which he reveals his hideous face to the crowds for money. A sexually perverse, seductive socialite named Josiane becomes attracted to him and seeks to possess him. He later learns he is heir to a fortune, but chooses instead to remain with his adopted family.
Cast Cast according to Down from the Attic: Rare Thrillers of the Silent Era through the 1950s (2016). Anna Kallina as Queen Anne Nora Gregor as Duchess Josianne Jimmy Court as Lord David Dirry-Moir Armin Seydelmann as Lord Boilingborke Franz Höbling as Gwynplaine Lucienne Delacroix as Dea
Production Das grinsende Gesicht was a production of the small Austrian film company Olympic-Film. It is the second movie adaption, but the first feature film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel The Man Who Laughs (1869). The director was Julius Herzka, who directed operas and plays and only a few films.
Release and reception Das grinsende Gesicht had a trade preview screening in Vienna on October 22, 1920, and a general release on March 18, 1921 before going in distribution in Austria and Germany. It had limited international distribution, being screened in Havana in October 1921 when it was imported by the Antillian Film Co.
From retrospective reviews, the authors of Down from the Attic: Rare Thrillers of the Silent Era through the 1950s (2016) describe the film as "an earnest and faithful - though somewhat uninspired" adaptation.
See also Cinema of Austria List of Austrian films of the 1920s
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